With some glass jars and a bit of know-how, you can preserve summer's flavours to enjoy.With some glass jars and a bit of know-how, you can preserve summer's flavours to enjoy.

Rather than begrudge a few hours spent in the kitchen in high summer, see it as an opportunity to build up a ‘savings account’ for occasions in the future when you cannot afford the time to make these delicacies. Thus, boxes in the fridge, packs in the freezer and jars and bottles on shelves will add a personal and individual note to meals to come. They also make delightful presents for other busy people.

My recipes today have their roots in southern Europe and the Mediterranean. A delightful Greek lady, Meni, who spoke at least five languages, often in the same sentence, with whom I used to have long conversations about food as we prodded and stirred her squid stew, gave me the grape jam recipe. This is delicious with ice cream or chilled ricotta, as well as the more usual uses for jam.

The Italian pickle I learned with friends in their kitchen near Modena as we prepared family Sunday lunch one summer. Fresh ingredients from their organic vegetable garden were preserved for winter in this bright, refreshing pickle. The choice of vegetables is less important than their freshness. We also made a batch of grape preserve called saba, more like a ketchup than a jam, rich, dense and concentrated, boiled down from the baskets and baskets of Lambrusco grapes we had harvested.

I was also once fortunate enough to spend time in the kitchen of the matriarch of the Piedmontese winemaking Bava family. One of the busiest women I know, cooking for family Sunday lunches and all the family celebrations, as well as filling her cupboards with preserves, was only part of her many activities.

She even found time to teach me the fig recipe. It is very unusual; you can smell but not taste a hint of the wine vinegar used.

If, during my travels, I have access to a kitchen, I find a morning’s shopping in the market followed by an afternoon’s gentle work in the kitchen, results in delicious edible souvenirs to bring home. When my husband Tom, and I, first came to Gozo, I would dry tomatoes or figs on the roof, pick capers to salt down, or in the spring make jars of lemon curd or marmalade to take to London. Jars of fig jam came home with me from the Languedoc one summer, and on several occasions I made blueberry jam to bring home from the US, before blueberries became such a popular crop in Spain. Late summer for the last few years has seen me in a rustic kitchen in the Loire valley, harvesting greengages and mirabelles and ‘putting up’ shelves of jam for the friends who lent us their house.

In London, this being the peak of the English soft summer fruit season, I make a mixed summer berry jam, using the same fruits that I put in summer pudding and a standard jam recipe with equal weights of fruit and sugar. Using plenty of red or blackcurrants gives a good set, and the jam retains its flavour and colour well, providing an exquisite treat long after the summer is over.

Buying fruit vinegars can be quite expensive, yet they are very easy to make at home. Macerating your chosen berries, crushed, in a bowl of red or white wine vinegar for a week or so, then straining off the vinegar for re-bottling, will give you one version, thin and subtle. For a punchier, thicker style, ideal for brushing on barbecues or mixing with salsas, blend the fruit and vinegar, then rub through a sieve to get rid of the seeds. Bottle or keep in a container in the refrigerator.

Experiment with proportions of fruit to vinegar, depending on whether you want a thick or thinner version, and add herbs or spices and sugar if you like.

Tomato and garlic spread

(Serves 6-8)

8-10 ripe tomatoes
3-4 garlic cloves, preferably new season’s, peeled
About 200ml extra virgin olive oil
Gozo salt
Freshly ground black pepper

This is very easy to make, especially with a food processor or blender.

It is, of course, a mixture to experiment with, balancing flavours and textures as you prefer. Add more garlic if you think I have been too timid.

Put the tomatoes and garlic in the processor and switch on. Pour in the olive oil gradually, as if you were making mayonnaise. Blend for about a minute and scrape into a bowl or container. Add salt and pepper to taste, or leave it to your guests to add at the table.

You will see that the mixture has emulsified almost to a mayonnaise thickness.

Spread on thin slices of Maltese bread, or on toasted baguettes, or day-old ciabatta. Let the mixture soak in a little before serving.

La salsa d’estate da Mama Ida

(Makes about 3kg)

2kg mixed vegetables, for example onions, carrots, fennel, kohlrabi, celery, green beans, pumpkin, courgettes

1kg red peppers
1 tbsp Gozo salt
1 tbsp sugar
200g extra virgin olive oil
1.5l white wine vinegar

Prepare the vegetables, peeling and topping and tailing as appropriate, then finely dice. Cook the hard vegetables for eight minutes with salt, sugar, oil and vinegar, and then add the peppers and any softer vegetables such as courgettes. Cook for a further seven minutes, 15 minutes in all.

When cooked, leave to cool, spoon into jars with liquid and cover with two centimetres olive oil. Seal the jars and label. The pickle will keep for a year, but is also very good after just a few days.

Traditionally, this refreshing pickle is served with bollito misto, garnished with chopped, free-range hard-boiled eggs.

Olive and anchovy paste

(Serves 4 to 6)

200g ripe black olives, stoned
Flat can of anchovies in oil, drained
2 tbsps capers, in brine, rinsed
Freshly ground black pepper
Peeled cloves of garlic, to taste – optional

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and process until you have the texture you prefer.

This keeps well, and is worth making in larger quantities. Without the garlic, the mixture can be refrigerated for a week, or frozen in small batches. Fresh garlic can be added just before serving.

Grape jam

(Makes 1kg)

1kg grapes
500g light muscovado sugar
1 vanilla pod
Juice of half a lemon

Peel the grapes and remove the seeds. Put them in a bowl and cover with the sugar. Leave overnight. The next day, add the vanilla pod and boil for 20 minutes or so. Add the lemon juice, and start testing for a set. Because the grapes must be peeled, it is best to use the largest ones. Muscat grapes are good for this reason.

Pot in small jars for extremely luxurious presents, or serve for Sunday tea with freshly-made scones.

Fig preserve

(Makes about 1kg)

1kg whole, firm, ripe figs
100ml wine vinegar
300g granulated sugar

Put all the ingredients in a heavy saucepan set over the lowest possible heat. Cook, without stirring, for about two hours or until the sugar and vinegar has been absorbed. Pack in jars, cover and label.

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