I love my jumper collection, but — yippee! — summer’s here. Throughout the spring and summer, the abundance of raw ingredients available to the cook becomes generous beyond belief and we must grab at the short seasonal ins and outs.

Raids on purple sprouting broccoli give way to elderflower picking. Bass, mackerel and bream flash around over fat, grumpy lobsters, hunting their targets into warmer, shallower waters. Erotic asparagus charge up through the soil, then bow out at the arrival of regal artichokes.

Then comes the blood-letting of red fruits, as juices stain fingers and chins. Fat-bottomed tomatoes threaten to snap their branches in humid hothouses, as the samphire becomes woody on the shores and the last adorable broad bean has been popped from its furry pod.

Meat benefits from the rich grasses of late spring and summer, with excellent beef to lay over the pulsing white embers of the barbecue.

This is not a time for the slow, sturdy dishes of autumn and winter, so the following recipes are intended to feed you through this clement season. They are about simple ideas to freshen your spirit and engage you in joyful cooking.

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