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The Art of Friday Night Dinner: Recipes for the best night of the week

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I learned early on the magic of a Friday night in. As a child it was when I was allowed to stay up and have dinner with my parents after my younger brother and sister were asleep. While they were cajoled into bed, I would hide in the downstairs loo so as not to raise suspicion that something fun might be about to happen. When the coast was clear, out came the crisps and on went Top of the Pops. If there’s a heaven, I think it might be a saggy red sofa in a 1990s living room, with endless salt-and-vinegar Kettle Chips. I’ve been chasing that high ever since, and spent more nights out longing to be in than I am proud of.

Start with the one thing you really fancy and build out from there. Begin with a craving for tumblers of syrupy vermouth and olives and let it lead you to paella, followed by olive oil ice cream (either make your own or buy a tub of vanilla and top with a little good oil and flaky salt). If people offer to bring something – let them! Having spent years gathering friends around her kitchen table, Eleanor has perfected the art of Friday night dinner. It usually starts with a sip of something cold and ends with friends tipsily heading home, full and happy. But most importantly, there's always something good to eat.Sharp rhubarb, say, to match the new freshness of spring, tomatoes heavy with August sun, mushrooms that taste as earthy as the air smells in late autumn. Vodka pasta is having a moment right now, partly thanks to the new collaboration between Heinz and Absolut. If you’ve never cooked with it, it won’t make the sauce taste of vodka, it will just intensify the other flavours and make the sauce a little creamy. You could use a fancier olive if you prefer; I like the cheaper jarred kind you’d find in a martini for this. This Friday night I’m making a distinctly summery pasta. I had a craving for seafood and sweet tomato and the briny tang of jarred olives. Seafood pasta of any kind feels like summer holiday food to me. The Art of Friday Night Dinner is a love letter to Friday nights of all kinds and a cookbook for people who love to eat. It's food for hosts who would rather spend time talking than cooking, for people who show their love by feeding, and for nights when only a steaming bowl of pasta cradled in front of the TV will do. It's the kind of cooking that can turn a week around in the half-hour it takes to make Friday night dinner.

So in the face of what has been a pretty cold, damp few weeks, I’m abandoning my usual rules. The difference between a summer dinner and a rainy spring supper, I’ve decided, is degrees and a positive mindset.Laughter that has you prostrate on the living room floor ... Tamsin Greig in Friday Night Dinner. Photograph: Mark Johnson/Channel 4 Writer Robert Popper has promised the series will be more intense, and with Jonny and Adam both having new girlfriends, expect some even more awkward encounters between the brothers and their parents. Tracy Ann Oberman and Rosalind Knight both reprise their roles as Aunty Val and Horrible Grandma, however one familiar face that won't be returning is Jim's dog Wilson, who passed away in the tea-jerking season 5 finale.

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