Cheesy, herby pieces of toast piled high with flavour

Make the basil oil: pour 6 tbsp of olive oil into a blender jug and add 2 tbsp of warm water. Pull 15 medium-sized basil leaves (about 5g) from their stalks and add them to the oil with a good pinch of sea salt and a grinding or two of black pepper. Process all the ingredients to a deep green dressing.

Get an overhead grill hot. Remove the stalks from 3 or 4 large tomatoes and a handful of smaller ones. Cut the larger ones in half. Leave the small tomatoes whole. Put them all on a grill pan or baking sheet, trickle lightly with some more olive oil, and place them under the grill. Leave until their skins have started to brown here and there and the tomatoes are soft and juicy.

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Bold flavours and satisfying textures combine in this hearty, autumnal, Spanish-style traybake

This hearty dish is rich, warming and perfect for chilly autumn days, or whenever you crave some comfort food. I’m surprised that jerusalem artichokes are so underused in the UK, especially given their versatility and how easy they are to grow. Don’t be nervous about the whole bulb of garlic here, either: just separate the unpeeled cloves and pop them in – I love sucking out the gooey flesh after they’ve baked. I’ve also used torn sourdough instead of the more traditional migas for a more rustic feel. Serve with a glass of amontillado.

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A fun but often unpalatable collection of recipes by authors including Robert Graves, Norman Mailer and Beryl Bainbridge should come with a trigger warning. Anyone for Instant Mince or Dutch Onion Crisps?

In most instances, the words “I can’t cook” are a lie: the person saying them is perfectly able in the kitchen, and just being needy, excessively modest or anxious (maybe their sauce split before you arrived). But sometimes, alas, the phrase is just a simple statement of fact. At the tail end of the 1970s, for instance, the editor of a book called Writers’ Favourite Recipes asked the novelist Beryl Bainbridge what she liked to make for supper after a long day at the typewriter. Bainbridge carefully prefaced what she had to tell him with the phrase (used by her children) “I am a very bad cooker”, but the editor was not – woe! – to be put off. Her recipe for Instant Mince was indeed included in the collection, for all that it was quite obviously a crime not only against mince, but also against potatoes, tinned tomatoes, vinegar, and any human beings who might end up having to eat it (in case you’re wondering, the four ingredients are combined and boiled vigorously until the pan is “almost dry”).

For a while, of course, Beryl’s Instant Mince was pretty much lost to posterity; cook books go out of print, and with them the culinary outrages of the past (“spoon the instant mince on to [buttered, white] bread and cover with HP sauce, also raw onion rings”). But now, like some horrible alien in a movie, it’s back, for another editor has seen fit to gather it into a new collection of author’s recipes titled Sylvia Plath’s Tomato Soup Cake , where it lurks next to several other equally unappetising confections: Robert Graves’s Mock Anchovy Pate, Norman Mailer’s Stuffed Mushrooms, Rebecca West’s Dutch Onion Crisps. As you may tell, this is not a book for the easily-made-queasy, and though I am usually implacably opposed to trigger warnings, I think it should have come with one: This Book Includes Scenes Featuring Large Quantities of Margarine and Fillet of Beef Served With Bananas. Some Readers May Find It Distressing.

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Singapore, which subsists on imported food, is looking to secure its future with new ways of feeding its people.

Turkish-style, pan-cooked flatbread, abundant with leopard spots and inspired by Italian cook Laura Lazzaroni, is suitable for every mood …

At the beginning of Fergus Henderson’ s book Nose to Tail Eating , before the contents and the introduction, is a page titled “Four things I should mention.” The first of these is about the idiosyncratic order of service at Sweetings , a fish and oyster bar in the heart of the City of London. The last one reads: “Do not be afraid of cooking, as your ingredients will know and misbehave. Enjoy your cooking and the food will behave; moreover, you will pass the pleasure on to those who eat it.”

Now, while I like both parts of this last bit of advice, I prefer the first part, which, far from feeling like a warning, is reassuring, especially when you consider that the word “afraid” is interchangeable with terms such as out-of-sorts, tired, grumpy and busy. It is also an amusing way to think about cooking, and my inevitably volatile relationship with a kitchen full of potatoes, lemons, eggs or bottles of cream that behave or misbehave, depending on the day, weather and any other number of variables.

Discover Rachel’s recipes and many more from your favourite cooks in the new Guardian Feast app , with smart features to make everyday cooking easier and more fun. Start your free trial today.

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Our expert panel of chefs reveals how to bake, roast and blitz your way to delicious savoury dishes with a fruity edge

• Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

How do I use summer fruit – apricots that refuse to soften, cherries, figs, etc – in savoury dishes?
Simon, Bristol
In its raw state, stone fruit can so often disappoint – it’s rare to catch, say, a peach or apricot at its perfect moment. For this reason, baker Dee Rettali suggests turning up the heat. “Apricots baked with capers is a good one, and really nice with rice or a chopped salad,” says the co-founder of Fortitude Bakehouse in London. It couldn’t be simpler, either: stone and halve the fruit, then pop them in the oven with a little water and oil, and roast until softened. Once they’re cool enough to handle, chop into small pieces, then “get some good gherkins and capers, chop them finely with sea salt and black pepper, and fold through the fruit”.

Apricots should also find their way into a Moroccan pastilla pie. “Cook them down, then layer with almonds and mint,” Rettali says. “It’s a fantastic dinner party dish.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

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These wild pigs cause billions of damage, but some chefs and meat purveyors are putting this pork on the map – and menus

At Austin, Texas restaurant Dai Due, wild boar often features prominently among the menu choices. Guests can order wild boar summer sausage to go with their brunch entree, and boar boudin fills a Czech-Texan pastry called a klosbasnek . For dinner, wild boar can come with a carrot puree and a savory chili bone broth; for lunch, it tops a luxe Italian sub along with Wagyu beef and nilgai antelope.

Notes at the bottom of the restaurant’s online sample menus assure diners that wild game is sourced in the nearby Hill Country and “almost everything comes from around here”.

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A spicy, herby, Mexican-inspired veggie treat

To make the filling chop 3 spring onions , then cook them in a little oil in a shallow pan until soft. Drain and roughly chop the grilled red peppers from a 350g bottle, then add them to the pan. When the peppers are warm, peel 3 cloves of garlic and crush them to a paste, then stir into the peppers.

Roughly chop a 400g can of tomatoes and stir them into the peppers and leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes, with the occasional stir, until they have softened into a rough sauce. Drain a 400g can of black-eyed or haricot beans and add them to the onions and peppers.

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