This dish of pasta with celery and basil sauce, served here with broad beans, is an amalgam of a fondly remembered dish from childhood via what happens when you start nosing around in the British Library. Highfalutin bibliographic japes aside, it's also easy to cook.

This pasta with creamy asparagus and smoked salmon is one of my favourite summer dishes for when you're hungry but want something a little refreshing. It's certainly filling, but it is also light with the flavours of warm weather; citrus and green things. Better still, it takes very little effort to cook.