I like breakfast and have always felt that it is a meal which can adapt well for entertaining at any time of the day.

So in case you have nothing planned for Easter, here is something you can put together almost from what you will have in the fridge or store cupboard and then invite friends round for an all-day Easter breakfast.

One of the most welcome signs in any cafe window is: ‘Breakfast served all day’. In Pittsburgh’s Strip District, not too far from the Andy Warhol Museum, is Cafe Deluca, on Penn Avenue. It has been there since the mid-1940s and is little changed, according to the photographs. A long bar, with chrome and red leatherette stools on one side and the short order cooks on the other, is the focal point.

Small, uncomfortable booths line the opposite wall, and this is where a mixed bag of people comes for breakfast, particularly on Sunday mornings. Cops from the precinct going off duty coincide with those coming on duty; joggers disturb the warm, greasy fug when they open the door wide and enter in their bright gear. But they too succumb like the rest of us, as we munch hot cakes, home fries and country sausage and wade through the papers.

A large-scale, all-day breakfast needs more than just comfort food and morning food. I suggest plenty of fruit, perhaps a bowl of mixed strawberries and loquats, and one of dried fruit, cooked in tea and enlivened with a few lightly toasted nuts. Thick, plain yoghurt will accompany those better than cream.

Breakfast is a meal that can adapt well for entertaining at any time of day

Grilled chicken livers, crisp pancetta or bacon, all have a place on the breakfast menu. Sausages are much easier to deal with when you slip them out of their skins, flatten into patties and bake in the oven. Under a grill or in a frying pan, they need too much watching and often cook unevenly. Even simpler is to buy loose sausage meat. Sausage cakes go very well with the pancetta-wrapped tomatoes below. I have also included my hash recipe, based on the classic corned beef hash. I use salmon here, but you can adapt it to any fish, or, of course, re-adapt it to the original corned beef version.

Some sweet and savoury baked goods will be very welcome and I have included a very easy and adaptable muffin recipe. Pancetta can replace the chorizo, as can chopped anchovies or stoned olives, if you prefer a vegetarian version. A carrot cake, bought from the local baker or home-made, while sweet, is not overpoweringly rich, its moist texture seeing it last as long as your all-day breakfast.

There will be different views on what should be drunk with breakfast food. It is as well to cater for them all, with the usual hot drinks, a jug of fresh orange juice, a jug of Bloody Mary, one of vegetable juice and some chilled bottles of bubbly. And since Easter means chocolate, a couple of decadent Easter-themed cocktails for dessert will be suitable.

Mix white rum with crème de cacao blanc for a White Easter Bonnet; the Easter Beret is made with Modica chocolate liqueur Xocolic, or similar, and golden rum.

Chorizo, courgette and ġbejniet muffins

(Makes about 12)

3 courgettes
2 or 3 ġbejniet moxxi (sundried)
350g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
75g diced chorizo
3 eggs, beaten with 225ml buttermilk
5 tbsps melted butter, or sunflower oil

Grate the courgettes and the hard ġbejniet. Sift the dry ingredients together and then stir in the pancetta, courgettes and cheese. Add the liquid ingredients, and stir together quickly. Spoon into greased muffin-tins or paper cases and bake in a preheated oven at 200˚C/400˚F, gas mark 6, for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot or warm. These also freeze and reheat well.

Cook’s note: If buttermilk is unavailable, thin down some plain yoghurt with a little water.

Carrot cake

(Serves 10)

4 eggs, separated
300g soft brown sugar
Grated zest of 2 lemons and juice of 1 lemon
300g ground almonds
300g finely grated carrot
¼tsp each: Gozo salt, ground cloves, ground cinnamon and ground cardamom
2 tsps baking powder
75g cornflour
4 tbsps kirsch or other eau de vie
2 tbsps sieved apricot jam

To decorate:
Water icing or sweetened cream cheese
Marzipan carrots

Beat the egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice and zest until you have a pale, foamy mixture. Fold in the almonds, carrots, dry ingredients and finally the kirsch.

Whisk the egg whites to firm peaks and gently fold into the cake mixture. Spoon into a prepared 20 to 25cm/10-12-inch tin, 5cm/2 inches high. Bake for about an hour in a preheated oven at 180˚C, gas mark 4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool somewhat before removing from the tin and cooling completely.

Brush all over with sieved apricot jam, thinned with a little water or kirsch, if necessary. Make a thin glaze with icing sugar and lemon juice or a thick frosting with cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla essence and spread over the cake while still warm. Decorate with small marzipan carrots.

Salmon hash

(Serves 6 to 8)

1kg Gozo potatoes
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
25g butter
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
750g fresh salmon fillet, skinned
1 tablespoon chopped chives or fennel
2 to 3 tbsps soured cream or crème fraîche
100g smoked salmon pieces

Scrub and parboil the potatoes in their skin for eight to 10 minutes. They should still be firm but not hard. Meanwhile, gently fry the onion in the butter and oil until soft. When cool enough to handle, peel and coarsely grate or finely dice the potatoes. Add to the frying pan with the onion. Dice the salmon and stir this in with the potatoes.

Partially cover for four to five minutes to let the salmon cook and then remove the lid, stir in the herbs and cream, and before serving, scatter shreds of smoked salmon on top.

The same recipe can be adapted to smoked haddock and kippers. And if you prefer, you can use shredded ham or smoked trout.

Pancetta and baked tomatoes

(Serves 4 to 6)

12 firm, ripe tomatoes
12 slices pancetta, blanched in boiling water for 30 seconds
Freshly ground black pepper

Make a nick in the skin of each tomato to stop it splitting, and encircle with a slice of pancetta. Place, join side down, on a baking sheet, and bake in a hot oven at 200˚C, gas mark 6, for 10-12 minutes. For miniatures, wrap cherry tomatoes in half slices and bake for eight to 10 minutes.

Breakfast vegetable juice

(Serves 4 to 6)

8 large carrots
2 large red peppers
1 bunch rocket, 2 celery stalks and 1 large fennel bulb
1 or 2 Granny Smith apples
Small piece of fresh ginger

Scrub and trim the vegetables as appropriate and feed into the juicer gradually.

Rather than chill with ice cubes, which dilute the juice, I prefer to keep the vegetables in the refrigerator overnight.