/ 09 July 2024

How To Entertain This Month With Alexandra Dudley

Alexandra Dudley is a food columnist, cookbook author and host of the Come For Supper podcast. In this instalment of her monthly column, she shares a summery dinner party menu that makes the most of citrus – plus, a simple yet delicious peach pudding.

By Alexandra Dudley /

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July always has me craving a Mediterranean summer and this month’s dinner party menu is an ode to those long holiday lunches that seem to blissfully roll on. Minimal time is required in the kitchen, meaning there’s more time to enjoy a spritz with your guests. A one-tray fish is baked with all the best flavours of Italy (tomatoes, olives, capers and lots of herbs). The joy of this is that everything is tossed together in one tray and in 25 minutes, dinner is ready. If you like, you can prep the fish earlier in the day and throw it into the oven as guests arrive. Then, it’s smashed crispy potatoes on the side under a zippy salsa verde. These are very good at room temperature too if you’d like to prep ahead. To finish, juicy brown sugar roast peaches (which are at their best right now) are served with some good vanilla ice-cream.

I love a spritz, especially when it’s really hot. This rosé spritz from Mirabeau and Fever-Tree has been my go-to recently. Delicious French rosé is blended with raspberry and orange blossom soda. It’s zesty and incredibly refreshing.

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Crispy Smashed Potatoes With Salsa Verde

Serves

Total Time

1 Hour

Ingredients

700g of potatoes

Olive oil

2 tsp of dried oregano

Salt

For the salsa verde:

Large bunch of parsley

Bunch of mint

1 tbsp of capers, rinsed & drained

½ clove of garlic, finely grated

Juice of ½ lemon

Salt

Olive oil

Method

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Boil the potatoes until soft, drain and allow to steam dry for five minutes.

Step 2

Place the potatoes in a large oven proof tray, drizzle generously with olive oil, add the oregano and a good pinch of salt. Toss everything together using your hands, then using the base of a glass gently crush each potato to slightly break the skin. Take care not to over-crush them as ideally you want to keep them whole.

Step 3

Sprinkle some more flakey sea salt over each of the potatoes. Cook for 30 minutes or until crispy and golden.

Step 4

For the salsa verde, finely chop the herbs and capers and mix in a bowl with the garlic, lemon juice and enough olive oil until you reach a spoonable consistency.

Mediterranean Baked Fish

Serves

Total Time

30 Minutes

Ingredients

600g of white fish (such as cod, hake, halibut)

1 red onion, very finely sliced

300g of cherry tomatoes

40g of green olives, weighed destoned

40g of kalamata olives weighed destoned

40g of capers, rinsed & drained

2 tbsp of fresh thyme leaves

Handful fresh oregano leaves (or 1 tsp of dried oregano)

Method

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 220°C Fan.

Step 2

Slice half the cherry tomatoes in half and puncture the others with a sharp knife. (This helps them not to split too much in the oven)

Step 3

Place the fish into a large ovenproof deep roasting dish drizzle generously with olive oil then add the onions, tomatoes, olives, capers, oregano, and Thyme toss everything together with your hands making sure a substantial amount of the olives, tomatoes etc. is on top of the fish.

Step 4

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the fish has cooked through and the tomatoes are jammy.