All images in this newsletter were shot by Teo Della Torre, with food styling by Stacey O’Gorman and props styling by Virginia Malavasi.

Ciao my darlings,

I hope this finds you well and happy, with the sun streaming in through your windows.

This is the first of my pre prepared newsletters for my maternity leave and let me tell you, it’s a little strange and quite thrilling to be writing to you sort of from the future. I have no idea if it will still be warm and sunny by the time this email reaches you, but I sincerely hope it is.

I’ve long loved the Italian tradition of enjoying a little something sweet in the morning with an espresso. Whether it’s a soft brioche bun and a granita in Sicily, a pistachio cornetto in Rome, or a slice Ciambella cake in Emilia Romagna, it’s always a treat to start the day in this way.

Growing up, my mum kept a strict breakfast rotation of porridge with stewed raspberries or poached eggs on toast, nutrition and sustenance always being at the forefront of her mind. However, on very rare occasions, when we had leftovers from a birthday tea, she would let us have cake for breakfast. I strongly believe the odd slice cake for breakfast is part and parcel to living a good life.

And so today, I share with you my recipe for breakfast cake, inspired by the Italian Ciambella. I hope you get to eat it with the sun on your face and a bitter black coffee in your hands.

Sending love, Rosie x

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Well well well, how did we get here!

It feels surreal to say, but this will be the last newsletter I will be writing to you in real time for the next three months. I am officially on maternity leave as of the moment I hit send on this email.

When I found out I was pregnant I was thrilled, unequivocally happy, and then one big worry started to seep in - how was I going to handle maternity leave and balancing my career with becoming a mother?

I had always know I wanted to be a mother one day, it was a non negotiable, whereas I had reached my 30th birthday feeling like I had completely failed at achieving the success in my career I’d hoped for. I’d almost accepted that I had failed in my working life, then I changed careers and everything clicked into place, at a rapid speed, which you can read more about here.

I’ve worked really hard for the last three years to establish myself as a food writer and chef. I started this substack two and a half years ago with a mailing list of precisely zero subscribers and have made it my full time job since. I wrote and published a cookbook, something that took the best part of two years, hosted countless supper clubs and cooked thousands of meals. It’s been the most rewarding and fulfilling time of my life. I have felt SO lucky to be able to do what I love and to call it work. I’ve been able to connect with so many people and build a really beautiful community online, mostly here on Substack.

So to consider all that, all the time, work and energy I’ve put into my career the last few years, and how relatively short an amount of time it’s been to really enjoy my work, having spent a decade miserable, in the wrong job, it feels like a lot to lose. The stakes are high.

There have been many thousands of words dedicated to the almost impossible challenge that women face balancing their careers and motherhood, so I won’t go too deep, but what I can share is my experience as a freelancer and how I’ve chosen to tackle it.

There are certainly pros and cons to both sides, whether you are self employed or working for an employer, neither are easy. With self employment the path is far less formulaic, everyone does it slightly differently depending on their business and their circumstances. The main cons are that there is no maternity cover in place, no enhanced maternity pay, and no guarantee you’ll still have a job when you are ready to come back to work. The government maternity pay of £194.32 per week covers just 30% of my monthly living costs, and so it’s completely unrealistic to try and live on that alone.

The pros of self employment are that you can make your own schedule, design a gradual return to work that feels right for you, it’s less black and white than suddenly having to be back in an office 9-5 in a pencil skirt. So you take some of the financial instability, with the schedule flexibility and you make it work.

I know when I was trying to cook up a plan there were very few examples of women in my position who I could look to for inspiration. When your career is uniquely you, it’s far less of a well trodden path, more of a build your own bear experience. The women I did speak to, with similar careers, all seemed to share the same experience, one of taking precisely no maternity leave and just getting back to a version of work, with their babies in tow, because that’s what they felt they had to do. They all said it was incredibly difficult and that looking back, they wish they had had more time to recover and rest in those first few weeks.

I really wanted to try and build a system for myself that meant I could have a period of completely uninterrupted time with my baby, even if that meant spending money to get it and choosing to sacrifice other things this side of the birth to achieve the fourth trimester I hoped for.

Here’s what I landed on…

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There a few foods as perfect to me as chicken stock.

I could sing its many virtues all day, but primarily I find it to be a deeply healing and comforting broth that I crave in almost all circumstances, whatever the weather. Truly, even in this heatwave I have been hankering after a chicken pho at the end of the day. It’s something I always try to have in my freezer, for those moments when a recipe calls for stock or I’m feeling under the weather and need a hit of the good stuff. I feel particularly smug and on top of my shit when I have homemade chicken stock in the freezer, and I am imagining this will be more useful than ever in the weeks following labour and birth.

The fourth trimester refers to the three months after birth and is a crucial time for healing and nourishing the mother’s body while it recovers from labour and adjusts to breastfeeding, if that’s something you choose to do. In Ayurvedic philosophy, the first 42 days are considered a critical and delicate transitional period for the mother, requiring radical rest, warming foods and consistent care. The idea being that postpartum is very cold time and that you should be eating warming foods to aid digestion, recovery and healing. If you’re interested in learning more about the postpartum period through an Ayurvedic lens, I can highly recommend reading The First Forty Days by Heng Ou.

Bone broth in general is particularly good for this time, it’s a nutrient dense, collagen rich food, easily digestible and aids the healing of the uterus and connective tissues after birth. I plan to be drinking a lot of it. I have requested that THC make me bowl after bowl of his chicken rice soup, which requires good chicken stock. He made it for me at the very beginning of this pregnancy, when I was bed bound with some sort of flu, and I think about it often.

So as you can see, chicken stock is high on my agenda at the moment, but whether you are pregnant, preparing for postpartum, or not, I think it’s a brilliant thing to always have in your freezer. You can buy pretty great bone broths in the supermarket these days, and in a bind they are a lifesaver, but they are incredibly expensive compared to one you could make at home, and I always feel homemade is more delicious.

So today I am sharing my chicken stock method and recipe with you, if I’m totally honest, it’s actually my boyfriend’s that I have commandeered. Before I met THC I was of the opinion that I needed a whole chicken carcass to make stock and I would save them in my freezer every time I roasted a chicken. This turns out not to be true and in fact produces a stock that is far less superior, nutrient dense, flavourful and rich than the one I am sharing today.

In the early days of THC and I dating, I would grill him about the day to day running of the restaurant he was cheffing at. I wanted to know what happened on a prep shift, what had to be done before service and everything that was made on a daily basis to keep the kitchen going - bulk prep gets me excited and I’m not ashamed to say it. He explained that chicken stock was made every other day and used constantly in sauces and for braising. Obviously, I asked how this was being done, and the answer was that they would order in a bunch of chicken wings from the butcher and make it from those, using the method below. I thought this must be because wings are cheap, but apparently that wasn’t the case, it was more that they possessed the perfect qualities that he was looking for to make an excellent stock.

Chicken wings are the elite choice for stock because they are high in fat, collagen, connective tissue, bone, skin and meat. Compared to a whole chicken carcass that’s been picked of it’s meat, you get far higher ratios of bone, fat and cartilage - all the things you need for a very good stock. He explained these would be roasted off until golden brown and cooked through, then dumped into a large deep gastro (industrial sized oven trays) along with some veg, hard herbs and covered in water. It would then be put back in the oven with a lid on for a minimum of 6 hours, or even sometimes overnight if the ovens were too busy during the day, to simmer away. He also explained the perceived wisdom from other kitchens he had worked at, that as a general rule of thumb, if the animal has two legs, it only needs two hours, and if it has four legs, you give it four. Either way, this method of buying a cut to specifically make it into stock, was very new to me, and since learning it, I have never looked back.

Today I share it with you and urge you to make some stock for your freezer, even though most of the UK and Europe is baking hot right now, you just don’t know when you are going to need a hit of the good stuff. There was a part of my pregnant brain that even wondered if it might work well as a savoury ice lolly in the heatwave, but I strangely haven’t gotten around to trying it yet…

Sending love and chicken stock, Rosie x

CHICKEN STOCK

You can do this with any quantity of wings by just adjusting the quantity of water to make sure they are covered when they go on the hob. Similarly feel free to switch up the aromatics, you could take it down a more Asian route with ginger, spring onion, lemongrass and curry leaves if you so desired. You could swap out the hard herbs depending on what you have in the house. As ever, make it your own.

10 chicken wings, preferably free range and organic, the better quality the meat, the more delicious the stock

fine sea salt

olive oil

1 carrot

1 brown onion

a head of garlic, top cut off to reveal the cloves

a few stalks of celery

2 bay leaves

a few sprigs each of rosemary and thyme

1. Preheat the oven to 200c.

2. Salt the chicken wings with a little fine sea salt and allow them to come up to room temperature while the oven preheats.

3. Drizzle and massage the wings in a little olive oil, just enough to make their skin glisten.

4. Arrange in a single layer on a tray and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until they are cooked through, golden brown, crispy and delicious.

5. Set one wing aside for yourself, this is your chef’s treat, to be devoured once your stock is bubbling away on the hob.

6. Transfer all the wings to a large stock pot with the rest of the ingredients and cover with cold water.

7. Set on a medium high heat and bring to the boil.

8. Reduce to a simmer and cook for a minimum of two hours and anywhere up to 6.

9. Strain the stock, taste and season with salt and pepper, to your liking.

10. Transfer to large ice cube trays (the ones used to make huge ice cubes for cocktails) and, once cooled, freeze until solid.

11. Once frozen, I like to pop them out of their trays and into a ziplock bag for easy access. You’ve just made your very own chicken stock cubes!

Over the weekend I reached 36 weeks pregnant. Nine whole months of carrying, growing, nourishing and loving a new person from inside of me – my mind still cannot comprehend the magnificence and magic of it all. What do you mean there are TWO beating hearts inside my body??? How can there currently be someone else’s entire reproductive system sitting inside of my womb. We don’t know the gender of our baby, but if there is a girl in there then I am also carrying all the eggs she will ever have, meaning, if she has children, the beginnings of my grandchildren are also residing inside of my body.

WILD.

Before we go any further, I want to acknowledge that everyone experiences pregnancy and birth differently, that no two experiences can be compared and that all feelings around the topic are valid and deserving of respect. I can only speak from my experience.

This week I am going into everything that has helped me, that I’ve found interesting, from books to podcasts, birth prep, yoga, nutrition, massage and the choices I am making for my birth. If you are pregnant, also in the third trimester, planning to be one day soon, or like me, just fascinated with the topic, this week’s newsletter is for you.

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Hello there,

It feels like well over a week ago that I last wrote to you from my bed, and yet, just six short days it has been. It’s almost certainly that so much has happened in those six days that makes them feel like a month. We moved house last week and have spent every day since unpacking, cleaning, organising, hanging, folding and drilling. It has been exhausting and fulfilling in equal measure. I feel tired to my core and also hugely relieved.

I knew moving house while heavily pregnant was going to be difficult, I knew it was going to be exhausting, but what I didn’t account for was the very specific frustration / borderline fury I would feel at my capacity. I am a real do-er of a person, I like to get shit done and I like to do it well. I have always been proactive, busy and hardworking. These qualities really come into their own while moving house, and having moved three times in the last year, I’ve gotten a lot of practice in. The issue with being this pregnant is that I need assistance every step of the way. I need to ask someone to bring the box to me so I can begin unpacking said box, then help me get up off the floor from where I have been sitting so that I can put the things away. I can only really stand for a few hours before I get insane sciatica and then it’s seated tasks only.

All of this is totally reasonable, considering I am carrying around a small child in my womb, but it is nonetheless infuriating to have your progress slowed down by your own body and to have to rely on other people’s help to get even the simplest of tasks done. It has been a lesson in patience and in the virtue of daytime naps. Thanks to all our lovely family we are now very nearly done unpacking, with just some art and mirrors to hang on the walls before I can reward myself with the fun job of washing the baby clothes (!)

So with our kitchen fully unpacked, this week I set about getting to know our new oven, something I always do the same way in every new house I live in.

I bake a banana loaf.

I’ve been baking this very banana loaf for over ten years and I know the recipe like the back of my hand. I have made a pretty great rendition without scales in an emergency (yes, a banana loaf emergency). It’s truly a bake I will come back to year after year, week after week and I can’t wait to teach it to my children.

In the meantime, it’s the perfect first bake in a new oven to really give me an idea of how it runs.

This recipe used to live here on The Late Plate, then when I put it into my cookbook In for Dinner, I took it down from the newsletter. A year later it is coming back to its rightful place. So many of you asked me where it had gone and if it would be coming back - and now it has!

If you don’t already have some sad looking bananas that need using up, I recommend you buy a bunch so you can make this loaf asap.

Sending love, Rosie x

A CARAMELISED BANANA LOAF

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Good morning one and all,

As I write this, I am sitting in bed, in my nightie, looking out at a flat made up of half packed boxes, tote bags full of more tote bags, wrapped mirrors and crate upon crate of condiments. We are finally moving house in a few days, on May 6th in fact, which is also the day this newsletter will publish, so we are probably mid move as you read this.

We found the new house back in mid march and have waited six long weeks to get in, which hasn’t been easy. I’m now 8.5 months pregnant and the urge to nest is somewhat urgent and ever present. I cannot wait to get in, wash all the baby clothes, manically clean every surface and make it a home in record time. We’ve spent the last few days painting the walls, my pelvis is just about in one peace, but I have to say, I wouldn’t recommend moving house at this stage in pregnancy, if any of you are considering it. I’m starting to realise that it’s quite the cliché, moving house just before your first child arrives, I can hardly believe it’s a coincidence that so many people do, but all the same, I would avoid it if you can.

I love and despise moving in equal measure. On the one hand, the chance to start fresh, with a clean slate, cull all the unnecessary clutter in your life and set up home in a new place is exciting, thrilling and akin to a rebirth. On the other, it’s also incredibly stressful, the seemingly small and insignificant things like changing your internet provider, impacted by six thousand other small and insignificant things can drive you fully round the bend and off the cliff. It’s a lot at the best of times. We’ve been incredibly lucky to have all our families rally around us for this one, with my sister slogging away at painting the walls with me, our parents coming to help on the day and stay until we feel settled and unpacked. The big goal here, is to not be living out of boxes for more than a few days, to tie up all the snagging by the end of the week and speed up a process of making it our own, from a month, down to a long weekend. We shall see how that goes.

One thing that I know I will need, the second I wake up in the new house, on the first morning, is my bowl of granola. Since becoming pregnant, I have developed a dependancy on a very specific breakfast bowl, which I have eaten every day for the last nine months (see here and read my reflections on the first trimester here).

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This week I ran out of granola and instead of doing the 10 billion other things I should have been doing, I invested a few hours in making a fresh batch, so that I could continue my uninterrupted breakfast streak through the chaos of moving.

This granola recipe originated in my cookbook In for Dinner - which incidentally came out just over a year ago - happy birthday In for Dinner! It’s funny to think that my book baby was born this time last year and now I am a matter of weeks away from my first human baby being born. Truly astonishing the difference a year can make !

I have never shared this granola recipe anywhere other than my book. I’m so proud it, I truly believe that most granolas are a bit sad, disappointing, too sweet and not something you should really be consuming every day first thing in the morning. I was determined to develop one that would make me want to eat it every day, and reader, I have. The below recipe is my tweaked version to suit all my pregnancy needs, less sugar, more protein and fibre. Your protein requirements increase during pregnancy and try as I might, I just cannot stomach more than 3 eggs a day, so I like to get lots in with nuts, seeds and kefir first thing in the morning.

I hope you enjoy this granola as much as I do !

Sending love to you all, Rosie x

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THE GRANOLA

If you prefer your granola on the sweeter side, you can take the sugar up to 160g and add some dried fruit - make it your own. You can use plant based milk and butter to keep this vegan, but if you eat dairy I would recommend trying that first, I think it really adds to the flavour and texture. I also highly recommend making the full batch, it’s a bit of a time investment, but if you are going to go to the effort of making any granola, the bigger the batch , the longer it will last.

Makes roughly 1kg of granola.

For the oat mix:

350g rolled jumbo oats

70g flax seeds

30g chia seeds

60g dark brown sugar

1 tsp sea salt

250g whole milk, warmed

115g butter, melted

For the seed & nut mix:

350g of mixed nuts and seeds - this changes for me every time I make it depending on what I have in the house, but my favourites are pumpkin seeds, flaked almonds, sesame seeds, walnuts and peanuts.

1 tsp olive oil

a pinch of sea salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175c

2. In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats, flax, chia seeds, sugar and salt. Stir in the warmed milk and melted butter, until well combined. Cover and set aside to soak.

3. Meanwhile, roast your chosen nuts and seeds on a lined baking sheet in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes, until toasted and fragrant, you may need to turn them half way through so they toast evenly. Remove and lower the oven temperature to 160c.

4. Transfer the toasted nuts & seeds to a large bowl and toss with the oil and salt.

6. Transfer the soaked oats mix to a lined baking tray and spread out into an even layer. Bake for 1 hour - 1.5 hours, taking out to mix and turn every 30 minutes or so.

7. When the oat mix is evenly golden brown and dry to the touch, transfer to the bowl of seed & nut mix. Mix until well combined and allow everything to cool completely.

8. Once cool, transfer to an airtight container, this will last for up to 6 weeks, although, in my house it’s rarely around for longer than a week.

P.S. my serving suggestion would be how I have eaten it for the last nine months and goes something like this:

• a generous pour of kefir

• handful of blueberries

• a scoop of ground flaxseed

• 1 tbsp peanut butter

• and a good scoop of The Granola

Ideally paired with a large cup of tea.

I may no longer be a spring chicken but oh BOY do I have a Spring chicken recipe for you. If we’re honest, this an any time of the year chicken recipe, we just happen to be in the midst of Spring and it sounds right, but regardless, a spring chicken recipe it shall be.

Today we’re going to be getting into the world of wet brining chickens.

I am no stranger to a dry brine. I have long been salting my meat before I cook it, if I’m going to roast a chicken I will always endeavour to salt it the night before and give it a whole night in the fridge to tenderise before I roast it to a crispy golden brown. If you’ve ever salted a piece of meat before cooking it, you have dry brined, this is what dry brining means. You could have used a dry spice blend rub on a piece of pork or lamb, simply salted a very good steak half an hour before it hits the pan, or like me, slathered a whole chicken in the stuff.

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In case you are unsure as to why we brine meat at all, and by that I mean salt meat before cooking it, I shall explain. The main reason is that it simply will result in a more tender, juicier, well seasoned piece of meat - it’s more delicious this way and that’s why recipes will often advise you to salt meat well before it hits the pan. There is a science-y explanation to what exactly is happening here to make it more juicy and delicious - I am not a science literate person, so I will simply use the internets explanation for ease and clarity:

“Salting meat before cooking uses osmosis to draw out moisture, which dissolves the salt, creating a brine that is reabsorbed, resulting in deeper seasoning, increased moisture retention, and tenderized muscle fibers.”

So that’s dry brining.

Wet brining is incredibly similar, but as you might imagine, involves more liquid, and also requires more time. I had never wet brined a chicken before, so when my boyfriend suggested we do so for our Easter lunch, I was intrigued. He taught me a very simple formula and we squished two whole chickens into the largest Tupperware box we own (that also fits in our fridge) to salt bath overnight.

The result was one of the best roast chickens I have ever eaten and I have been experimenting with the method ever since. I’m told this is often the method used to prepare rotisserie chicken, and as we know, that chicken is seemingly cooked forever, often kept warm after cooking and never, ever comes out dry - it’s the juiciest chicken around. The answer = wet brining.

Below I have shared with you the method and ratios THC shared with me. I only hope you’ll give it a go at your earliest convenience and report back.

Sending love, Rosie x

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The criteria for the holiday was: sun, a short-ish flight, not 1 million pounds. Turns out the list of possible locations is quite short in mid April. We landed on Portugal, a country I had never visited. THC had travelled around other parts of Portugal but never been to where we were heading, the Algarve. I had only ever heard good things about the Algarve, and I now realise, those things were all about the weather. We found a lovely hotel, it had big beds and a pool – what more could we need? The day before we set off I happened to be watching the new British SNL and saw this sketch about Brits travelling to Spain only to go to the British themed pub and after that, the Irish themed pub. I laughed heartily with the superiority of someone who has never frequented a British themed pub abroad, and never plans to. Turns out karma can be a particularly specific bitch, more on that later.

If you’ve seen my recent posts on Instagram from the holiday, you probably would assume I had a marvellous time, but as we know, social media is a highlights reel and it seems I am guilty of only sharing the good bits sometimes too, so I thought I would share with more honesty here…

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Hello and welcome to the post Easter period where I share with you all the recipes I cooked and loved over the long weekend !

This is actually the first bank holiday weekend that I have observed in my 13 years of being a freelancing adult, with the exception of filming, writing and editing this recipe on Monday, but still ! I had three days off in a row and it was magical.

We spent the weekend doing our favourite things, shopping for the best ingredients and then cooking a big meal for our family and friends. We had 8 people round the table on Sunday, made up of some of my siblings, their partners and our close friends who are honorary family members at this point. THC and I kicked off the afternoon by frying little bites of the spring green lasagne, showering them in parmesan and passing around the room as a snack - highly recommend this if you have any leftover lasagne.

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Then we served two roast chickens, that we wet brined overnight first (I will be sharing this recipe soon because fuck me it was the most delicious roast chicken I have ever eaten), alongside wild garlic potatoes, mountains of green salad, homemade mayo and my cheese & marmite hot cross buns. It was my perfect version of a long Easter Sunday lunch, cosy and warming while still feeling fresh and vibrant.

For pudding I served what I can only describe as a very out of character, pregnancy craving fever dream, of a dessert. I have always had a long time lover affair with the snickers ice cream, and a deep nostalgia for Viennetta, thanks to my Grandma Pat. In pregnancy the snickers habit has become a lot more frequent and my need for sugary sweet things too. As a savoury salty girl to my core, this has been confusing and strange to say the least, but here we are, leaning in.

I can only say, this recipe is for you if you are a fan of either a Snickers ice cream or a Viennetta. It’s a very simple yet impressive pudding for a dinner party, and the best part is, the leftovers will never get wasted, as you can store it back in the freezer like any other ice cream.

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I hope you all had wonderful long weekends and you’re returning to April with abundant energy - we’re going to need it, it’s Aries season after all ! On that note, there won’t be a newsletter from me next week, as it’s my birthday and I’m taking on last warm (we hope) holiday before the baby comes. I’ll be back the following week with all my Portugal recommendations and a guide to where we stayed, what we ate and much more.

Sending love, Rosie x

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Hello there,

I hope you’re all keeping well and hurtling towards the long weekend with a spring in your step!

I’m feeling a little like I’m chasing my tail this week, having spent all weekend, 10-6pm, with THC, on our hypnobirthing course. It was incredible and exhausting in equal measure. If you pregnant or hoping to be soon and at all interested in hypnobirthing, I can’t recommend it enough. We did the in person version of this course, but if you can’t get to an in person one, there is also an online course which is incredibly affordable and a book too, which would be a great place to start. Besides anything else it was a hugely informative and useful weekend and I can genuinely say that I am looking forward to giving birth!

I’m firmly into the third trimester now, and much like a holiday, the last third seems to be going much quicker than the first two. I’m spending much more time in the bath, on my yoga mat and taking naps at midday - it’s a lifestyle I could frankly get very used to, minus the hip pain.

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Onto this week’s recipe! I had the idea in my head for a lasagne that was fresh and light and green, representing the season and all its new life, and so this recipe was born. It took a good few tests to get it right but I am so happy with the final result and can hand on heart say it would be ideal as the main event of your lunch or as an accompaniment to a piece of roast lamb, if that’s where your Easter lunch is heading.

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The most exciting thing about this lasagne, in my opinion, is the lack of béchamel and the bright green sauce that’s there in its place. If any of you came to our Spring Supper club last year, you might remember the pea cavatelli that was on the menu, this sauce is a variation on that one, a combination of sweet peas, fragrant herbs, tart lemon and garlic, emulsified together with peppery olive oil into a silky smooth sauce, that I could frankly drink for breakfast. It’s important to note, there is still cheese in this lasagne, a delightful combination of mozzarella and parmesan, so you needn’t worry there. Besides being particularly delicious, making a lasagne this way is also a triumph for time spent in the kitchen, so much quicker than making a ragu and a béchamel and then assembling and baking. You can get this baby into the oven in well under an hour, I managed it in 20 minutes on Sunday evening, perhaps spurred on by an animalistic hunger and a desire to sit down.

In a very exciting turn of events THC has managed to get Easter Sunday off work - a real triumph when working in a restaurant kitchen ! - so we will be cooking up a feast together, him on the lamb, and me on the lasagne and hot cross buns - if you missed it, I shared a recipe for Cheese & Marmite hot cross buns last week that are some of my finest work, you can get the recipe here.

I hope you all have wonderful weekends and I’ll see you on the other side.

Sending love, Rosie x

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And just like that, it was Spring.

I say just like that as if it wasn’t one of the hardest, darkest, wettest and longest winters in my adult memory. What I mean to say is, congratulations, we made it!!

It was the Spring Equinox on Friday and almost instantly I feel reborn. It also happens to be the beginning of Aries season, and as a very Aries woman, I can’t help but feel this is the very best time of year. Summer is great and everything, but nothing feels quite like the joy of the first mild day, the first time you go outside without a jacket and don’t feel scared, the first bunch of daffodils in your kitchen after months of darkness and grey. I adore Spring, I live for the tulips, for the wild garlic, the maltesars chocolate bunny and of course, for the culinary pleasures that Easter brings.

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I am one of those non religious people that really leans into Easter (sue me), I will take any opportunity to have friends round for a lovely Sunday lunch, I love to bake, who doesn’t love a long weekend? It’s tick tick tickety tick for me. However, one thing I have always struggled to get behind, is the hot cross bun. Strange I know, but hear me out. As a savoury salty girl to my core, a traditional hot cross bun is simply just too sweet. I have really tried to like it, sampling every kind of HCB, from the supermarket kind, to the artisanal East London bakery kind, but I have had to accept they are just not for me. It’s something to do with the combination of dried fruit, spices and a sticky glaze - too much.

I have always wanted the hot cross bun to be savoury, and I don’t mean slapping some rashers of bacon between two toasted sides of a hot cross bun, I mean savoury from the inside out. I have been saying for years I would develop a recipe of my own for this very purpose, that I can bring out year after year at Easter, but I just haven’t gotten around to it…. until now.

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I am incredibly proud to introduce you to my Cheese & Marmite Hot Cross Bun recipe. It has undergone rigorous testing and tasting, resulting in a bun that I am truly thrilled with. It’s got that bouncy, fluffy, buttery texture of a normal HCB, but instead of dried fruit you will find pockets of melted sharp cheddar and instead of a slick of golden syrup on top, you will find a sticky salty marmite glaze. This bun is for cheese and marmite lovers, if you are on the fence about either ingredient or the combination of the two, this bun isn’t for you, but I still encourage you to try it. Miracles can happen. I could make so many buns in the oven jokes at this point, but I shall not. I feel far too sincere about the beauty and deliciousness of this particular bun.

So without further ado, I give you the recipe. I hope it makes its way to some of your Easter tables next week.

Sending love, Rosie x

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It’s supposed to be the most magical and enjoyable part of pregnancy, you’re through the worst of the first trimester symptoms and not quite at the heavy, achey, need to wee every 10 seconds stage of the third trimester. You’re supposed to get your energy back, feel invincible, emanate an otherworldly glow and revel in the excitement of feeling your baby kick and move around in your womb. Mine did not look like this.

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Ciao my darlings, bonus email from me this week!

For anyone who resides in London, or will be here next week on Thursday 19th March, I wanted to share this event with you.

We’re hosting a Vini & Panini (wine & sarnie) party next week in Hackney Wick at the beautiful Aelfred - a mid-century furniture HAVEN, and our good friends at Solid Wall will be playing great tunes all night. It’s going to be the kind of evening I dream about: three delicious sarnies, paired to three delicious wines, set amongst delicious furniture and to the soundtrack of mouth watering music. What more could you want?

Tickets are £35 each, for this you get all three sarnies and three glasses of wine.

Tickets are limited !

book your spot here

It would make my year to see some of you there and get to meet you IRL - it’s a strange feeling to right to tens of thousands of people every week, tell them my deepest darkest secrets and largely never meet them face to face - so I would love the chance to say hello next week. I’ve been recipe testing this week and I can confirm the results are very exciting indeed. I’ll leave you with these pictures.

book your ticket here

get your tickets here

I am running very few in person events this year, as I’ll be on maternity leave from early summer, so this event and our Spring supper club will be the last chances for a while to come to an event and eat my food. I hope to see you there and feed you all the panini.

Ciao for now, Rosie x

Today is Wednesday, Mother’s day in the UK is this Sunday, this is your reminder to send a card, organise a gift, micromanage your siblings and get a plan together.

I don’t know whether this is true, but it feels to me that there is a universal truth that unites all Mother’s in the UK and that is that they go hard for a good cheese scone. My mum can’t get enough of cheese scones, or a cheese twist if they’re going, and my sister, who also happens to be a mother, is just the same. Short of being able to make them both a batch of these cheese scones myself on Sunday, I thought I would share the recipe here with you all, so you can make them for a mother in your life, or perhaps for yourself - highly recommend.

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Now, there is a very good recipe for a Comte, Spring Onion & Sesame scone in my cookbook, In for Dinner, which you can also find here - for me this is the best version of a cheese scone. But if you, like my mum, are a cheese scone purist, this week’s recipe is for you. While developing this recipe, I went straight to the source for some input from my mum and sister:

I took their preferences seriously and what I have developed is a classic, cheese and chive scone that is light, flakey, deep in flavour, golden and crisp on the outside and not in any way dry or dense. I use sour cream as the dairy binder in this recipe which I think adds a particular lightness to the dough and is reminiscent of the sour cream and chive dip you can get in the supermarket - an absolute favourite of my sister Lily’s.

This recipe requires no special equipment or hard to find ingredients, the dough comes together very quickly and it’s a great one to make with kids. I have very strong memories of making scones with my mum and my grandma as a child and I think it may have even been my gateway drug to baking as a whole, so I urge you to make them with any children in your life, it’s pure JOY.

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This recipe is free to access and I hope that you get to make some with or for your mum this mother’s day.

Sending love, Rosie x

CHEESE & CHIVE SCONES

The key to a good scone, much like pastry, is to keep everything very cold and work the ingredients as little as possible. If you overwork the dough you will end up with a tough, dense scone, and no one wants that. My recommendation is to weigh your ingredients out and chill them in the fridge for an hour before you start working - even the dry ingredients! I tend to only bake off the number of scones I can eat in a day and freeze the rest to bake another time. When baking from frozen, add 7 minutes to the cooking time.

Makes 12 scones

400g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 tbsp caster sugar

2½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp black pepper

180g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

200g sour cream

1 egg, plus another beaten to use as egg wash

1 tbsp dijon mustard

a small bunch of chives, thinly sliced

200g mature Cheddar, half cubed and half grated + a little extra for topping

1. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, caster sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sea salt, black pepper and whisk until well combined.

2. Add the cubed butter, toss until all the butter is coated in the flour mixture, then press each cube of butter until it is flattened. You are aiming to squeeze the butter into the flour, rather than rubbing in. Once all the butter has been pressed, the mixture should resemble a scraggly rubble, rather than wet sand consistency.

3. Add the sour cream, egg, and dijon, folding in with a spatula until it starts to resemble a dough.

4. Add the cubed + grated cheddar and mix for the briefest of moments until combined.

5. Turn the dough out on to a floured work surface and pat into a rough rectangle.

6. Roll the dough with a rolling pin into a long rectangle, then fold into thirds like a letter, turn 90 degrees and roll out again. Repeat this step twice more.

7. Wrap the dough tightly in cling film and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes.

8. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4 and line a baking tray with baking paper.

9. Take the dough out of the freezer and turn it out on to a board. With a sharp knife, cut it into 8 equal rectangular pieces. At this stage, you can store any scones you don’t want to bake in a sealed container in the freezer.

10. Brush each scone with a little egg wash and grate some extra cheese over the top.

11. Place on the prepared tray and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp on the base. If baking from frozen, add 7 minutes to the cooking time.

12. Slather in butter and deliver to your mother with a hot cup of tea.

I’ll be honest, the start of 2026 has been a lot harder than I expected. I was imagining that by this time in the year I would be welcoming in the spring, preparing my home for our baby’s arrival and generally slowing things down. On the contrary, I have been fighting black mould, aggressively flat hunting, trying and failing to find a new home as I career towards the third trimester of my pregnancy. It has not been easy, it continues to be tricky and I cannot wait for the day when we are finally moved and settling into a new home. It’s also slightly galling to think back to this time last year, when my friends and I had just been evicted from our warehouse home and were doing a very similar property hunt. This time just hits a little harder with a baby on the way.

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I have so many thoughts to share about the London rental market, the Renters’ Rights Act that is due to come into play in May and the state of the housing in general in London, but I shall save them all until we are out of the eye of the storm. The headline is: avoid Foxton’s at all cost, if you value your sanity and basic rights.

Needless to say, my emotional wellbeing has been hanging on by a thread, and I have been looking for ways to calm and sooth in this turbulent time. Cooking is always a balm when I am anxious, getting out of my head and into my body to make something delicious will never fail to flip the mood on its head. This week’s recipe was actually a suggestion from my boyfriend, THC. He adores prawn toast and frankly I think he just really wanted to eat some. But it got me thinking, how can I make prawn toast at home, without deep frying, in a way that felt elevated and levelled up? Enter the crumpet.

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I’ve always adored crumpets and one of my favourite ways to eat them is to dunk one in a few beaten eggs - French toast style - and shallow fry, to then be slathered in butter, marmite and ideally a slice of sharp cheddar. It occurred to me that an eggy crumpet, topped with a delicately seasoned prawn mix and encrusted with sesame seeds, shallow fried till golden brown, would actually be quite magical. And so I got to testing and here we are a week later, sharing the recipe with my favourite subscribers.

I tend to do all my testing in the daytime and THC is often at work in the restaurant from 8am-1am, so I always make sure there is something for him to try when he gets home. On this occasion there was a tray of 4 prepped prawn toast crumpets for him to devour when he got home from work, which elicited one of the most complimentary texts I have ever received from him - so if that’s not testimony enough, I don’t know what is.

As a result, I can confirm these crumpets last well prepped in the fridge for up to 3 days, but I can’t imagine they would hang around for that long. They make an excellent fresh brunch idea and I urge you to make them at your earliest convenience.

I hope you all stay well and safe during this full moon / eclipse / mercury retrograde season. I’ve been told its not the time to make any big decisions, sign any contracts (wonderful) or rush into anything - so stay safe out there.

Sending love, Rosie x

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I’ve had a few food obsessions in my life, millionaire’s shortbread is one, the Malteser’s bunny is another, crunchy salty veg is a constant, but none have grasped me quite as hard as the quest to find the perfect sausage roll. I have pounded the pavements of London in search of the ideal version, and I have found some pretty special examples, but none have hit the spot completely. So naturally, I set about developing a recipe for the ultimate sausage roll. Like with most food endeavours, this one was personal, so while I truly believe it can’t be bettered, you might not feel the same way.

On first scan of the internet, I quickly found that most sausage roll recipes out there tell you to buy some ready to roll pastry, your favourite sausages and simply assemble the sausage roll. For me, that was simply not enough. I would say it’s a very good option if you are in a hurry, looking for a fun activity with kids, or simply aren’t that obsessed, but for me I need more control. So I set about developing a recipe for rough puff pastry that was achievable at home, doesn’t take a full day to make, but that also delivers big time on flakiness and layers. It bakes to a beautiful golden brown and is extremely satisfying to make. If you’ve ever been afraid of making puff pastry at home, this one is for you.

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Now onto the filling, a little more complicated to perfect. I often take issue with the texture of a sausage roll filling, either too crumbly and dry, or too dense and log like, and so often the seasoning lets it all down. So I deep dived the internet on how to achieve the right texture, experimented with different seasonings, and have ultimately landed in something I believe is very delicious, but that feels right too.

I have gathered all the tips, tricks and hacks, to deliver them in one handy package for you here. It’s been an extremely satisfying and fulfilling project. I really can’t wait for you to try them. If you’re on the lookout for a cooking project for the weekend, or indeed to wait out the snow storm if you are in NYC, look no further.

Sending love, Rosie x

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Hello there,

Please excuse the Monday email, in the whole history of The Late Plate I have only ever sent my newsletters on a Wednesday, but I have made an exception this week for a very special reason: Pancake Day. The one shining beacon of hope in the month of February. I wanted to share this recipe with you today so you can make it tomorrow for your supper, it’s scientifically proven to perk up the gloomiest of days, and we aren’t short of those.

We’re half way through February and it has officially rained every day of 2026 in the UK. I also happen to have a leak in my flat which has made the rain even more depressing and anxiety inducing. The UK winter is truly something to behold, it feels unending and brutal in a way that makes me question why I live here every. single. year. And yet, I do think that the harder the winter, the sweeter the summer. I lived in LA for a year when I was 18 and while I enjoyed the sunshine, I did find the lack of distinct seasons somewhat oppressive. When the Spring does finally pop its head up over the daffodils here in London, it’s something rather special. Every day I spend wrapped in thermals is one day closer to the moment I stroll around the park in a pair of jeans, t shirt and Birkenstocks - leaving the house without a jacket !

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In the meantime, we have pancake day and I believe these scattered moments of joy through the winter are to be celebrated, just like bonfire night and Valentine’s day, it’s the small food based traditions that keeps my morale in check. It will come as no surprise that I prefer savoury pancakes over sweet ones, I’m really just not interested in a sweet pancake, I’m sorry, I know a lot of people feel really passionate about it, but you frankly couldn’t pay me to eat a crepe with lemon and sugar, for me, it’s just not right. I can manage a fluffy American pancake if I really really had to, but in general, I would just rather not have a pancake over eating a sweet one.

Savoury pancakes on the other hand are my JAM. I am simply all in. I have in fact never met a savoury pancake I didn’t like, and the day I met this pancake, Pier’s Shrimp and Scallion Pancakes, was a day I will remember for the rest of my life. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but it isn’t. It’s the cold hard truth.

I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of you will be into these pancakes, even if you’re not a die hard savoury fanatic like me. I hope you get the chance to make a pancake tomorrow and eat it with someone you love. It’s the small moments like these that make life worth living in February.

Sending love, Rosie x

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Ciao amori miei,

Before we get into this week’s recipe I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you for all your kind words and support on last week’s piece. I have been feeling really nervous about sharing my experience of pregnancy here and getting so vulnerable about it all, but it was such a delightful relief for it to be met so warmly. I have always shared the more personal side of my life here, over other places in the internet, because it frankly feels safer and more kind. I’ll always be grateful for this place and to have the opportunity to write to you every Wednesday, it’s truly my favourite part of the week.

I’ve been feeling more and more pregnant this last week, noticing my body slowing down in ways I wasn’t ready for, huffing and puffing my way up the stairs, having to stop for a wee every ten minutes and needing help lifting anything heavier than a Malteaser’s bunny. At the same time my body is growing and swelling, the baby is kicking and making itself known and it’s all feeling more and more real, which is very exciting.

This weekend it’s Valentine’s day, and while I have never been one to go in too hard on celebrating, I do adore cooking for the people I love. When I was dating, I knew I really liked someone if I chose to cook for them, it’s the first thing I go to when I want to show someone I care. My boyfriend is back working in a restaurant kitchen now, getting home most nights after midnight and every night I leave him something to eat, with a note. I can’t go to bed without doing it to be honest, even if it’s just a snack. All this to say, I think it’s a beautiful thing to cook for the person you love, whether that is your lover, your mother, yourself or your flatmate, and I want to share the most delicious little pudding with you this week, in case you are looking for something to make.

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This is actually a pudding my mum used to make for us as kids. There were four of us children, and so she would make a big version of it. A ceramic pudding dish filled with plump abundant berries, topped with thick yoghurt and then at the kitchen table, in front of us, she would pour boiling hot caramel directly onto the yoghurt, creating a hard candied lid on top of the pudding. It was the most thrilling thing to watch as a child - dinner and a show! We would then all take a spoon and smash the caramel, cracking into the creamy yoghurt below. It was truly the best of times and I heartily recommend making it for any children in your life, to witness the sheer delight.

This Valentine’s day I shall be in the kitchen with my boyfriend and my friends, cooking supper for 32 people. I hope you spend it doing something you love.

As always, sending love, Rosie x

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This is less of a recipe and more a list of suggestions that will leas you to a sexy little pudding pot. If you are afraid of making caramel, fear not, it is actually rather simple and a real flex once you have mastered it. Use the best fruit and the best dairy you can afford, it makes all the difference.

Ingredients:

Your chosen fruit: in the UK winter I would recommend citrus, I used blood orange and kumquat, but navel orange and grapefruit would be great choices too. Other great options include poached quince or rhubarb.

If you live somewhere where berries or stone fruit are in season, these are excellent choices too.

Your chosen dairy, I used kefir. You could use yoghurt, whipped cream, mascarpone or a dairy free alternative!

Caster sugar - 50g per serving, so if you are making two little puddings like me, then use 100g of sugar.

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Method:

1. Prepare your fruit, if using citrus, slice away all the skin and pith, then remove the segments of fruit using a serrated knife. For the kumquats I kept the skin on and sliced the whole fruit into thin slices, removing the pips as I went.

2. Layer the fruit into the bottom of your pudding cup.

3. Add enough kefir (or other chosen dairy) to completely cover the fruit.

4. Make your caramel by heating up a small saucepan over a medium high heat. Once the pan is hot, sprinkle in the sugar in an even layer, making sure to bash out any big lumps with a spoon.

5. Watch the pan like a hawk, the edges will begin to caramelise first, you can use a heat proof spatula to encourage the sugar to caramelise at an equal speed, moving it around the pan to the hottest parts.

6. Eventually all the sugar will have caramelised and turned to liquid, keep cooking until the consistency is runny and your caramel has reached your desired darkness. Do not be tempted to taste !! it will be incredibly hot and cause a nasty burn.

7. Once you are happy with the caramel, very carefully and immediately pour into the pudding cup and over the kefir. It will sputter and steam a little, this is fine.

8. Allow it to set for a minute or two.

9. Serve immediately to someone you love.

TW Abortion + pregnancy.

On Wednesday April 2nd last year I jumped on my bike after my weekly therapy session and cycled to the pub for a date with a particularly hot chef I’d met on Hinge the day before. Five months later we had moved in together and were (very happily and intentionally) pregnant. If you had told me that would be the case, even a few months prior, I would have told you to fuck off.

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Ciao ragazzi,

How are we all keeping in this last drizzly dregs of January?

I for one am feeling quite thrilled that we are here, it seems to have passed more quickly than in other years and I can’t help but wonder if my efforts to lean into the slowness have helped along with that. Ignoring the impulse to be over productive, hit the ground running, change multiple habits and reinvent my personality has served me well and I vow to go into the new year with the intention to do less, for the rest of my years.

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There is one other quite significant reason that I might be inclined to do less at the moment, and that is, that I am pregnant. I am with child. I am in fact quite a way into the process of growing a human, five months to be exact. It’s felt very odd and slightly uncomfortable to keep that news from you all for this long, from you, my readers and generous subscribers, to whom I usually bare my soul and tell the most appalling secrets (one for the Little Women fans out there).

I have been itching to share what’s going on, how life has changed, to share how it’s changed my eating and cooking habits (I cracked on that one and have shared here - I drink milk now!) and to generally do what I usually do when big life shit happens - write honestly and vulnerably about it here. However, it’s also been important for me and my boyfriend to keep it to ourselves for this long, to get used to the idea before we open ourselves up to everyone else’s opinions, treasure this time just the two of us and share it in our own time.

Having said that, I do have a lot to share, and as it always has been, my work is an extension of my life. So while The Late Plate will always be a space dedicated to sharing my recipes and food writing, I will continue to share occasional personal pieces of writing about my experience of pregnancy, motherhood and life. I’m so excited for this next chapter, and as some of you will know if you have been here for a while, it’s something I have wanted for a very long time. Next week we’ll be digging into it all, how I went from a single gal on a Hinge date in April, to in love and pregnant by September, the highs and lows of early pregnancy and everything I have learned along the way.

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Now onto this week’s recipe: Pappa al Pomodoro, a Tuscan classic and a real winter favourite of mine. Having just come back from a few days in Rome, I am freshly reminded of just how brilliant tomatoes, basil and garlic are - a union like no other. I hope you make yourself a big pot, get snuggly on the sofa and slurp it in front of your favourite show.

Sending love, Rosie x

This really is a brilliant recipe for the winter months, it’s made up of the most basic pantry staples, using up stale bread and providing the most comforting bowl of soup. It reminds you of the very simple but perfect union that tomato, basil and garlic share. Topped with parmesan it gives the essence of a margarita pizza but in soup form - perfection. It will cure most ills but especially good for when you’re feeling a chill and need warming from the inside out.

a generous glug of good EVO

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 bunch of basil, leaves picked and stalks minced

2 tins of plum tomatoes, the best you can find

A stock cube of your choice, I used chicken

150g stale bread, crusts removed

Salt and pepper to season

Grated parmesan to serve

1. In a large heavy bottomed pan, over a medium heat, add the olive oil. Once warm, add the garlic and basil stalks and sauté for 5 minutes, until soft but before they colour.

2. Add the tinned tomatoes, breaking them up with the back of a spoon, and bring to a simmer. Cook the tomatoes out for 15-20 minutes until they have thickened and the colour has deepened.

3. Add the bread, stock cube and enough water to just cover. Bring to the boil and then lower to a simmer.

4. How long you cook it now will depend on the texture you prefer for the finished soup, I like mine to still be a little loose, not too sludgy and thick, but I’ve had versions in Italy that border on spreadable, so it really is up to you.

5. In the last five minutes of cooking, wilt the basil leaves into the soup.

6. Taste for seasoning and adjust with more salt, pepper or even a pinch of chilli flakes.

7. Serve generous bowls topped with grated parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

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