Paula Mcintyre

There has been a particular abundance of apples this year. Many days I’ve arrived home to a very welcome bag of fruit hanging on the front door. I have a solitary apple tree in the garden and it didn’t let me down this year either. There’s something particularly lovely about picking an apple, dusting it down and crunching in to its delicious sweetness.

Monday is the start of the annual Sausage Week encouraging us to embrace this savoury delight. Sausage comes from the old French word saussiche and from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted. Sausages are the product of efficient butchery — once the prime cuts were used, the trimmings were salted and preserved in a skin made from animal intestines.

There’s something truly magnificent about a big bushel of early autumn carrots, caked in muck and crowned with a burst of green fronds. In recent times, I’ve cut out peeling carrots if I’m roasting them — just give them a good scrub, cut in half, drizzle with oil and stick them in the oven. The natural sugars in the vegetables naturally caramelise, giving them a delicious toasty flavour. While this makes a lovely side dish, in the recipe here I’ve whizzed them into a soup. You roast the carrots with onions and garlic and then add stock, simmer and blend.

As a cook this is the best time of year. Summer fruits and vegetables have given way to robust roots, dark leafy greens, pumpkins, great potatoes and autumn fruits. It’s an ideal part of the year to embrace hearty, comforting dishes and one that ticks all the boxes is a ragu served with pasta and meatballs.

When the weather turns chilly, we tend towards the beige in our food — bubbling, cheesy concoctions, hotpots topped with golden potatoes and creamy soups.

Mac and cheese used to be quite a boring affair — pasta bound in a thick cheese sauce and baked. Nowadays it’s been pimped beyond recognition with all manner of vegetables, duck confit, braised meats and even fish being added. Frankly, it’s a trend I can really buy into. In the recipe here I’ve added slow cooked beef short rib to the mix.

A few years ago I made a pact with a couple of friends that we wouldn’t buy each other presents at Christmas but instead would buy spontaneously if we saw something throughout the year that we thought the other would like. You take away the last minute scramble to purchase and replace it with a no stress, thoughtful gift. I like to apply the same logic with cooking. Don’t be a slave to the stove at this time of year just because you feel you have to. We’re constantly being taunted by advertisers to have a full range of party food available at all times. To be honest I really can’t be bothered with the faff of it all. Plonk a big pot of warming, unctuous stew in the middle of the table, with some potatoes and a room temperature salad and you add deliciousness without the stress.

There are many superstitions and traditions associated with New Year, from having a tall, dark man to “first foot” through the door after midnight and to eating certain foods. One that sticks in my mind is that whatever you’re doing at midnight is something that you’ll be doing throughout the year.

January can be a very grey and dismal month. We come into it after all the sparkly lights, festivities and bonhomie of December and, quite frankly, the last thing we need is to deprive ourselves of good things that make us happy. It could hardly be good for a person to lurch into austerity after such extravagance. Having said that I know I overindulged in cheese and the port to go with it. What I don’t want to do is eat dismally bleak food.

Do you think the penny has maybe dropped with advertisers that the grey, sullen month of January is not the time to be pushing a clean living and austere agenda? Normally we’re bombarded with Dry January/ Veganuary campaigns but this year they’ve definitely downplayed them. Which is a blessing, because now is not the time for depriving ourselves. After the festivities most of us have an inclination for cutting back but we should focus on the positive — eating good wholesome, healthy food — rather than cutting out absolutely everything that would add a little joy to our lives.