Baked feta

We ate quite a bit of baked feta when on holiday in Crete a few years ago. For some reason we only just thought of making it. It's really easy and simple and delicious.

1 block feta, drained

1 small tomato (ideally yellow), sliced thinly

1/2 a red pepper, sliced thinly

a few olives, destoned and sliced

black pepper

dried oregano 

olive oil

Heat oven to 220C or get the fire going. Put block of feta on a piece of foil big enough to wrap it. Arrange slices of tomato and pepper on top; and olives. Sprinkle with black pepper and oregano. Drizzle with olive oil. Wrap up and bake at 220C for about 20 min. Also good (better?) cooked on fire embers. Eat with crusty good bread.

Spring pizza

Ramps were the one I hadn't tried in the Northeast Spring trinity (the other two in the trinity being fiddleheads and morels). They are essentially wild leeks, and while they grow in other places too people seems to be particularly nuts about them around here. I'd given up hope of eating ramps this year: Spring is basically over, and I thought my last chance had come and gone in Philly. But then they were selling them in the canteen at work (about the last place I would have expected!): they weren't in the best nick but good enough and I couldn't resist, so I bought a bunch.

But then, what to do with them? I settled on pizza as a good way of extending a small quantity of a fancy ingredient. I decided they would go well with hazelnuts, but otherwise wanted to keep that one simple. But figured we would need more than one pizza, so made enough dough and a second pizza with a riot of colourful (mostly green) Spring tastes on it. I wanted to explore a few more things regarding pizza: hoping for a good, quickish dough recipe, using 00 flour (bought by accident a while ago when looking for pasta flour, but probably perfect for pizza?), pre-heating our cast-iron pan / sliding prepped pizza onto hot pan, and freezing dough for future use. Decided to try out Jamie Oliver's recipe, as it contained both 00, semolina and olive oil, all of which seemed right in pizza, and also it proves in one hour (not unreasonable).

For the dough:
(makes enough for 4 smallish or 3 bigger pizzas)
3 1/2 cups strong white bread flour / 00 flour
(or 2 1/2 cups strong white bread flour / 00 flour plus 1 cup finely ground semolina flour (pasta flour))
1/2 tbsp fine sea / desert salt
1 3/4 tbsp dried yeast
1/2 tbsp raw sugar
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water

Toppings for ramp pizza:
~4 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp dandelion-ramp miso
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch (5) ramps, cleaned, trimmed, separated into bulbs and leaves and chopped
~8 hazelnuts, toasted and chopped (add after baking)

Toppings for green pizza:
1/2 cup frozen broad beans (without jackets), defrosted
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1-2 tbsp mint leaves
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp lemon juice
salt+pepper
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 small bulb fresh spring garlic, trimmed and chopped (including green parts)
bunch of spring greens: nasturtium leaves, radish leaves, rocket leaves, roughly chopped (~1 cup when chopped)
5 black olives, de-pitted and chopped
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 piece of dry tofu, thinly sliced
flowers from 2 chive flowerheads (add after baking)

Mix the flours (I used the mixture of 00 and semolina) and salt with a fork, then dump on a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a large measuring jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes. Add some of the liquid mix to the well, then bring in the flour, continuing to add the liquid and bring in the flour gradually until you have used all the liquid and the dough starts to come together. Knead for about 10 min, until the dough is smooth and springy. Put the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave somewhere warm for about 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Meanwhile, prepare the toppings. For the ramp pizza, mix together the tomato puree, vinegar, 1 tsp olive oil, salt+pepper and miso, then thin with a little water until a good spreading consistency. Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, then add the white parts of the ramps and fry for a few minutes until starting to soften. Add green parts, season and fry for a minute or two more until wilted. For the green pizza, put the broad beans, peas, mint, 1 tsp olive oil, salt+pepper and lemon juice in a blender cup and blend until they become a smooth, green puree. Cook the garlic and spring greens together as for the ramps, adding the garlic first and then the greens.

Punch down the dough. Divide the dough into 3-4 balls (one per pizza). You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required (I used two balls for this and put two more in the freezer*). For immediate use, roll a dough ball out to a rough circle about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer to a piece of baking paper scattered with semolina on top of a large wooden board. Put a pizza stone, cast iron pizza pan or baking sheet in the oven and heat to 450F. Arrange the toppings on the dough circle: smear the puree or sauce across the surface, taking it right up close to the edges, then sprinkle with the remaining ingredients (except stuff to be added after baking). Open the oven and carefully slide the paper and pizza onto the heated stone or pan. Bake for ~20 min, until the pizza is lightly browned and puffy around the edges. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a minute or two, then sprinkle with the final toppings (hazelnuts on ramp pizza, chive flowers on green pizza) before eating.


Both came out pretty good. The sliding onto pizza pan worked out pretty good, and the dough puffed up nicely (although there is definitely a sweet spot with thickness - it is possible to go too thin and end up with something super crispy that doesn't really puff up and browns instantly at the edges). I liked both topping combinations: ramps and hazelnuts definitely go well together, and the radish/nasturtium/rocket mix was very tasty with the green puree, sunflower seeds and pretty purple chive flowers.

*To use dough from the freezer, take frozen dough balls out to defrost ~2 hours before you want to use them (I had no problems with them sticking to the clingfilm or anything like that). When they are soft, you can roll them out as for the fresh dough and proceed from there. 

Chickpea flour pancake-pizza

Another very weird 24 hours: was woodturning late last night, finishing off my first bowl (!). When I left to bike home around 0045, I got to the JFK bridge and again, endless sirens: all shapes and sizes of cop cars whizzing along Mem Drive towards Watertown, and a cop boat in the river too. I eventually got across the road only to nearly get run down by another two cop cars coming over the bridge on the wrong side of the road, then cycled the rest of the way home dreading what I was going to see on the news when I got there.

Woke up this morning, bleary-eyed but ready to head to work, checked the news, and found the city was on lockdown: everyone in the city ordered to 'Shelter at Home' while the police conduct a manhunt (for a bombing / shooting suspect) in Watertown. All day we've been in a kind of limbo, reading news constantly while a warm, sunny Spring day passed by outside. I snacked fitfully and nervously all day, then by evening felt like I needed something real to eat...

I'd been meaning to try this recipe idea for a while. It's basically socca, simplified and restyled as a pizza.

For the base:
1/2 cup chickpea flour
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt+pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

For the onions:
2 tbsp olive oil
3 medium-large onions, peeled and finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp vinegary red wine
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp mixed dried herbs (basil, sage, rosemary, oregano)
salt+pepper
1 tsp honey

Other toppings:
8 salty, dry, black olives, de-stoned and chopped
2-3 tbsp chopped basil
2 pieces of dry 5-spice tofu, shredded
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds

Heat the oven to 450F and put a large, flat, cast iron pan in it to heat as well.

Whisk the base ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Heat the olive oil for the onions in a medium frying pan with a lid, then add the onions and garlic. Cover and cook until well softened. Uncover, add the red wine, vinegar, dried herbs, salt and pepper and cook for a bit longer, until the liquid has mostly evaporated. Add the honey (or sugar) and cook for a minute or so longer, then set aside.

Take the cast iron pan out of the oven (careful, it will be very hot and heavy) and spread the chickpea mixture across it quickly and evenly. Put back in the oven for 5-10 min. Then take out again (the chickpea mixture should be cooked to make a crust), and spread the onion mixture across it. Sprinkle the other topping ingredients across the top: shredded dry tofu, chopped basil and olives, and sesame seeds. Put in the oven for another 5-10 min, until the tofu and seeds are lightly browned.


This was interesting: I liked the chickpea base but it came out quite thin, more like a pancake. Perhaps double the quantity another time? And / or try increasing the relative quantity of chickpea flour in the mix?

Carrot, orange, sumac and olive rolls

I hadn't made any bread in a while, not sure why, it's been Winter and a good time for hanging out in the kitchen and baking. Anyway, I saw this recipe (with additional fancying-up here), and thought it was time to make bread. I decided to go for the rolls with olive and sumac.

175g carrot
150ml warm water
100ml orange juice, at room temperature
7g sachet fast-action yeast (used 2 tsp)
25ml olive oil, plus more for kneading
450g strong white flour
50g wholemeal or spelt flour
2 tsp salt
250g dry pitted black olives, roughly chopped (if making rolls)
2 tsp sumac (if making rolls)
50g black or white sesame seeds, plus extra to finish

Peel and grate your carrots and put them in a mixing bowl. Add the warm water and orange juice.

Stir in the yeast, leave 5 min til dissolved, then add the oil, flours, salt and seeds (also sumac and olives if making rolls) and mix well to a firm-ish dough. You can add slightly more flour or water according to your preference, but use the amounts here as a starting point. Leave the dough covered for 10 minutes.

Gently knead the dough for 10 sec or so, then leave in the bowl, covered, for about an hour / until risen by half.

To make a loaf: Take a large loaf tin and line the base and sides with nonstick baking paper. Dust a surface with flour, then pat the dough into an oblong. Roll the dough tightly like a scroll, squeeze the ends together as you pick it up and lower it, seam-side down, into the tin. Cover and leave for about an hour. Heat oven to 200C//400F. Lightly wet the top of the dough, then sprinkle it thickly with sesame seeds. Cut a deep slash down the middle and bake for about 50 minutes. Remove the loaf from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Or, to make rolls: divide into a dozen 100g pieces for large rolls (or 75g for 16 medium-sized ones), shape into balls with a little flour and leave to rise on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Leave to rise for about an hour, or until risen by at least half. Heat oven to 180C/350F. Before baking, brush the top of each roll with water and sprinkle on sesame seeds. Using a pair of scissors, or a small serrated knife, snip or slash the top of each roll. Bake for about 25 minutes for soft rolls, or up to 35 minutes for crustier ones. They freeze well and can be reheated direct from frozen in a hot oven.


I liked these, but they didn't rise very well (time for new yeast?), and I found the olive taste overpowering - perhaps next time stick to the version without olives?

Herby-couscous-crusted Portobello mushrooms

I hardly ever cook with couscous, despite its obvious advantages (so quick and easy!), as S is not a fan, texturally (one of the few things he doesn't like, so I can't complain). He was into this idea though, so we gave it a whirl.

~6 portobello mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed
1 cup couscous
boiling water
olive oil
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
~10 capers, chopped
~10 black olives, chopped
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp za'atar
juice of 1/2 lime
red wine vinegar
salt+pepper

Heat the oven to 450F. Put the couscous in a bowl and cover with boiling water (up to about 5 mm above the level of the couscous in the bowl). Cover the bowl with a lid or plate and leave to steam.

Meanwhile, heat ~1 tsp olive oil in a pan and then fry the sunflower and pumpkin seeds with a little salt. When lightly browned, transfer seeds to a bowl. Add another tsp of olive oil to the pan and when hot add the onion and garlic. Cover and cook, stirring often, until softened. Add the remaining ingredients (except the mushrooms), including the couscous (check it is soft and fluffy first), and taste for seasoning, adding vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

Lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil. Place the mushrooms on it, gill side up. Using a teaspoon, squish as much couscous mixture as you like all over the gill surface of each mushroom (I made them about an inch thick with couscous in the middle, curving down towards the edges - if you leave the stem on build the couscous mixture around it, if not just put it all over). Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the mushrooms are fragrant and have softened to release their juices, and the couscous on top is golden and crisp (the underneath couscous will still be soft, try a thinner layer if you'd rather it was all crispy).


Turns out that as the baking makes the upper layer of couscous crispy this creates some textural variety and defuses S's texture issues. I also enjoyed the combination of crispy outside and surprising, softly steaming, inner couscous with the juicy mushroom. Could have perhaps used even more herbs (double?), I thought, but anyway this was simple, comforting and subtly tasty.

Polenta (cornmeal mush)

I am currently addicted to polenta. It's the simplest, quickest starch, and somehow fulfills all my wintry needs (warm, filling, comforting, bland yet tasty) and goes with anything, while still managing to be ready in minutes. It's basically porridge made with cornmeal.

(makes enough for 2 people)

1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp salt
3 cups boiling water (less for thicker polenta)
1 tbsp butter (or olive oil)

Boil the water in a saucepan. Mix the cornmeal and salt in a small bowl. Add this mixture to the pan gradually, whisking all the time to avoid lumps. Once it is all added, continue to cook with the lid on until the mixture is thick and there are no hard bits in it. For me, with a 'stone ground' cornmeal, this has been taking less than 5 minutes. Add the butter (and / or olive oil), stir and cover until required.

You can also add black pepper, chilli pepper flakes, herbs or whatever else takes your fancy (sweetcorn? halved cherry tomatoes? olives?). If you have extra, you can move it into a greased loaf tin and chill, then cut slices and fry.


Last night we ate polenta with a thick, simple tomato sauce:

(I have been making variations on this sauce since I was about 10: probably one of the first things I learned how to cook by myself = ultimate comfort food)

1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large tin of tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
~8 black olives, de-stoned and chopped
1 tsp red chilli flakes
salt to taste (if needed - olives may be salty enough)

Heat the oil, add the onion and garlic, cover and fry until softened but not browned. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, chilli flakes and olives and cook until sufficiently reduced and thickened. Taste for seasoning.


You could combine the two to make a polenta 'pizza': splodge the polenta on a greased baking tray in a large circle with a 2-inch dyke around the edge. Put the tomato sauce in the middle, sprinkle with chopped basil leaves (if wanted) and bake in a 400F oven for 20-30 min.

Variants: coconut and plantain polenta, coconut and banana polenta with lemongrass tofu

Colourful, robust winter salads

We ended up eating at / from Whole Foods quite a lot while we were out West. It was S's idea. We arrived in Vegas and had one very uninspired meal with awful service, and then he had the idea of looking for local Whole Foods (apparently his buddy who runs learning-to-play-poker courses there stocks up at Whole Foods before getting going on the poker). We found a huge one in Henderson, and that was us sorted for the next few days.

A recurring Whole Foods salad theme was mixed grains and pulses. Which put me in the mood for more on our return. Here are a couple of variants:


Giant couscous, lentils, rice, cranberries and pumpkin seeds

3/4 cup giant / Israeli couscous, cooked in 1 cup water with 1/4 tsp turmeric for colour
1/2 cup brown and/or wild rice, cooked in 1 cup water
3/4 cup brown lentils, cooked in 1 1/2 cups veg stock with a bay leaf
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
~8 salty black olives, chopped
~2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt+pepper
wholegrain mustard
maple syrup

Mix olive oil, vinegar, mustard, maple syrup and seasoning in a medium bowl to make the dressing. Add the cooked, cooled couscous, rice and lentils and toss. Add the cranberries, pumpkin seeds, olives and coriander and mix up again. Taste to check seasoning / that there is enough dressing.


Massive couscous (moghrabieh), chickpeas, beetroot and sesame

3/4 cup moghrabieh, cooked in 1 cup water with 1/2 tsp turmeric for colour
1 cup chickpeas, cooked and defrosted
2-3 medium beetroot, boiled until tender, cooled and diced into ~1 cm dice
~2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp white sesame seeds
1 tsp black sesame seeds
1/2 tsp nigella seeds
juice of 1/2 lime
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt+pepper

Put the pre-cooked and cooled couscous, chickpeas and chopped beetroot in a bowl, add the seeds and coriander and toss. Then add the dressing ingredients: oil, vinegar, lime juice, salt+pepper, quantities to taste (use plenty), toss and eat.

Squash, chanterelle and sage flatbread / pizza

My lab hosted a pumpkin themed happy hour on Friday, and it was out of control. We ran a pumpkin carving competition, delivering pumpkins to each lab / group (17 in total) a week in advance and then fanning a wildfire of competing posters from different groups advertising why you should vote for them (in homage to the upcoming election). Then on Friday we made a feast of pumpkin based food, decorated the department in orange and black, ran the ballots for the competition and awarded the trophies (gold-painted gourds on pedestals). The food making was epic: I hacked up 11 butternut squashes with a crappy knife and I've got a blister to prove it. Everything we made contained something squash: pumpkin bruschetta (baguette slices with a smear of baked squash, plus some combination of goat cheese, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, fresh coriander and seasoning), 'squashamole' (dip made with mashed baked squash, lime juice, chopped red onion, ground cumin, chopped coriander and seasoning) with hexagonal multigrain chips (Paul's special request / invention), roasted butternut squash and tofu chunks with rosemary / sage, wild and brown rice mix with toasted pumpkin seeds and fresh coriander, roasted squash seeds with cajun spice, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin-white chocolate muffins. We bought the baguettes and the pumpkin pies but we made pretty much everything else from scratch.

So, I couldn't imagine eating another squash after all that, what with the blister and the overexposure. But a lazy Sunday rolled around and S popped up wondering what was for lunch, and I remembered an idea I had of using baked squash instead of tomato sauce on pizza... And also that I had a tub of baked squash left over from happy hour in the fridge, plus a batch of bread mix, the last of the chanterelles and some rosemary and sage from Andrea's yard - seemed like an irresistible plan!

2 orange-sized chunks of dough
1-2 cups of baked squash (peel removed)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
1 small onion, finely sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
8 black salty olives, pits removed, torn into quarters
3/4 cup chanterelles, checked for imperfections and torn into large pieces (sliced chestnut mushrooms would be a decent out-of-season substitute)
1 tsp chopped sage leaves
1 tsp chopped rosemary leaves
semolina / corn meal for lining the baking trays
(optional cheese - S is still eating his way through the cheese mountain his mum left behind, so he put some brie and parmesan on his bits)

Heat the oven to 450F. Roll or stretch out the dough as thin as you can - try to get down to ~2 mm thick.  Move the pizza base to a baking tray pre-sprinkled with semolina or coarse corn meal (this quantity is for 2 pizzas).

Mash the baked squash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Smear the bases with the squash mixture, making an uneven covering 2-3 mm thick. Scatter the onion, garlic, olives, chanterelles and herbs over the top, and season / drizzle a wee drop more olive oil over the top.

Put the baking trays in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes / until the crust is crisp and starting to brown around the edges and the toppings are cooked. Remove, let cool for a minute and then eat.


This was a very successful experiment all round. It was a lovely, rich, colourful pizza topping combination that tasted great, and the base came out really crisp. The high speed bread mix worked great as pizza base (which is brilliant news - that stuff is super useful); lining the trays with semolina / cornmeal was much better than using flour; and the squash made a wonderful, very seasonal sauce (less wet than tomato although still moist, perhaps this contributed to the crispness).

Rosemary and olive focaccia

Having for some reason rejected the breadmaker and started hand-making bread a while back, I thought it might be an idea to give the breadmaker another chance.  To ease back into it, went with a recipe involving breadmaker kneading and oven baking.


1 tsp sugar
1 tsp yeast
2 1/4 cup bread flour
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup warm water

~10 little sprigs rosemary
~6 black olives, pitted and halved
coarse salt and ground black pepper

Add the ingredients to the breadmaker in the order listed, then put on the dough setting and off it goes.

When ready, take the dough out of the breadmaker, pat into a circle 2-3cm deep and place on a baking sheet dusted with semolina or cornmeal.

Brush the bread with olive oil and push in pitted black olives and little sprigs of rosemary.  Sprinkle with coarse salt and grind some black pepper over it.

Heat the oven to 400F.  Leave the bread to rise for 15-20 min.  Bake for about 20 min, until golden brown.


Looks beautiful; the olive / rosemary / coarse salt mix on top is a winner; the bread is a bit dense and dryish though - the breadmaker has a way to go to convince me.

Stuffed squash

These little round squashes were so cute I had to buy some...  I didn't really know what they were, but turns out they are a kind of spherical courgette.  They were so pretty I couldn't bring myself to cut them up and decided to bake them whole and stuff them instead.  I wanted to fill them with fresh, summery tastes - peas, mint - so decided to try preparing the filling separately so the peas etc didn't get overcooked during the oven baking process.

2 little round squashes ('8-ball' squash)
1 cup brown rice (I used brown sushi rice as that's what we had)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp mint, chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tbsp sunflower seeds, toasted
1 1/2 tbsp black olives, pitted and chopped
~30g frozen edamame (a good handful), defrosted
~30g frozen peas (a good handful), defrosted
salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
olive oil

Put the rice in a small pan with 2 cups of water and boil for ~25 min until tender.

Cut little lids in the squashes  like you were making pumpkin lanterns.  Remove flesh from inside, leaving about 1cm thickness.  Put the lids back on, put the squashes on a baking tray and put in the oven at 400F for 20min.

Meanwhile, chop the innards.  Heat ~ 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and then add the onion and garlic.  Fry until softened (4-5 min).  Then add the courgette innards and fry over a moderate-high heat.  A lot of liquid will come out of the courgette, so keep frying pretty high until it is all evaporated and the stuff is golden and tasty.  Season to taste.

When the rice is ready, mix the rice and onion and courgette mixture in a large bowl.  Make sure it is cool enough not to discolour the herbs, but still warm.  Add the olives, defrosted peas and edamame, toasted sunflower seeds and herbs and mix well together.  Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

When the little squashes are tender to the point of a knife, remove them from the oven.  Take off the lid again, pour out any excess liquid, and fill them up with the rice mixture, so it's bulging out of the top.  Balance the lids back on top so they look cute, and eat before they get cold.




They worked out pretty good - fresh and tasty.  Lots of the inside mix is left - perhaps we can stuff some peppers with it in the same way tomorrow, or it'll work just as a sort-of risotto.

The best bread I ever made: black olive and sesame bread

I came across this recipe on the Guardian website.  It looked not too taxing and sounded yummy.  Had an evening on my own since S is away right now, so decided to give it a try...

330g jar pitted kalamata olives in brine (used a ~300g tin of black, pitted olives in brine from Trader Joes)
1 tsp fast-action yeast
1 tsp dark brown sugar (used regular sugar)
50g sesame seeds, plus an extra tablespoon to finish
350g strong white flour, plus more for shaping
1 tbsp dried oregano (instead of oregano, thyme and sumac, I used za'atar)
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp sumac, optional but good
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon

Drain the olives, then measure the liquid and top up with warm water to make 250ml (had the right amount of liquid). Cut the olives in half lengthways. Put the strained olives and the liquid into a bowl, then stir in the yeast, sugar and 50g of sesame seeds. Add the flour, mix to a soft, sticky dough, cover and leave for 10 minutes.

Give the dough a short, 10-second knead in the bowl. Cover and leave for 10 minutes more. Repeat this quick knead twice more at 10-minute intervals, then leave the dough, covered, for 90 minutes.
Meanwhile, line the base of a tray with nonstick baking paper, tip za'atar (or finely ground herbs) on to a large dinner plate and mix with a tablespoon of sesame seeds and lemon zest. On another plate, have ready a wet square of kitchen towel.

Pat the dough into a rectangle on a clean worktop dusted with a little flour, then roll it up tightly into a snug scroll, making sure all the olives are tucked in. Next, tightly roll the ends of the loaf, so they pinch in and the loaf has a shape a bit like a lemon. Roll the loaf on the wet towel, then roll it in the herb and spice mix. Place on the tray seam-side down, cover and leave to rise for 90 minutes. Slash the top and bake at 220C (200C fan-assisted)/425F/gas mark 7 for about 40 minutes.

Bad photo doesn't do amazing bread justice

Super tasty - am having a za'atar moment right now, so happy to use that.  And the nuttiness of sesame plus salty olive taste is wonderful, yet an unusual enough combination to make for a loaf I definitely wouldn't be able to buy.  And I loved the idea of using the brine from the olives - reducing waste and adding taste and colour to the crumb.

Just ate some with a little salad of TJ's cherry tomatoes (they're excellent right now), and freshly-picked mixed baby leaves: rocket and lettuce from the balcony, mustard greens and chives from the community garden (am in my first real week of salad harvest - eating it almost every day!), dressed with olive oil+balsamic vinegar and toasted sunflower seeds... yummm