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IMPANATA DI PESCE SPADA

This is Sicilian swordfish pie from Alan Davidson’s Mediterranean Seafood. Other firm fish can be used: he suggests halibut, I would add white tuna, porbeagle and monkfish.

Serves 8

PASTRY

400 g (14 oz) plain flour

200 g (7 oz) butter

175 g (6oz) caster sugar

4–5 egg yolks

finely grated peel of 1 lemon

pinch of salt

FILLING

500 g (1 lb) swordfish

salt, pepper

2 medium onions, chopped

olive oil

2 tablespoons tomato paste, diluted with a little water

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

100 g (3½ oz) green olives, stoned, chopped

2 tablespoons capers

4–5 courgettes

1 beaten egg

seasoned flour

Make a short pastry dough with the listed ingredients, using a little iced water only if absolutely necessary. Chill for an hour.

Meanwhile, cut the swordfish into tiny pieces and season them. Brown the onion in a little oil in a sauté pan. Add tomato paste, celery, olives, capers and fish. Cook gently to get rid of wateriness.

Cut the courgettes into 5-cm (2-inch) strips, coat the pieces with egg and flour and fry in hot oil, then drain on kitchen paper.

Rub a pie dish with a butter paper and flour it – choose one that is about 20 cm (8 inches) across and 7 cm (3 inches) deep. If it has hinged sides, so much the better. Divide the pastry into three. Roll out the first bit, making it large enough to lay in the dish and come a little way up the side. Put on half the swordfish mixture and half the courgettes. Put on the second layer of pastry. Repeat with layers of swordfish and courgettes, then top with a third layer of pastry, tucking it down the side of the dish to meet the bottom layer. Brush with the last of the beaten egg and bake in the oven preheated to gas 5, 190°C (3750F), for 50–55 minutes. Check occasionally and turn the heat down slightly, or protect the pastry with paper, if it becomes too brown.

GEORGE LANG’S SWORDFISH STEAK WITH SOFT-SHELLED CRAB

The crispness of soft-shell crab when it is cooked, the biscuity quality and spiced flavour make a good contrast with swordfish. The combination was George Lang’s idea. It appears in his Café des Artistes Cook Book and on the menu of the Café in New York. There you eat warm and lively food, food of an energetic delight that is not pale or mechanical or pretentiously fashionable. Every time I go there, I come out with ideas and a feeling of general satisfaction. Once it was a glorious dessert of fruit, cut into elegant, convenient pieces and arranged like a painting on a big Victorian serving dish: the waiter put it down in the centre of the table, we were each given a fork and we were able to spear the bits we fancied and keep on talking. An ideal dessert, I should say in parenthesis, after a main course of fish. Another time I left the Café happy was after the first experience of eating fresh sturgeon.

Now that swordfish is not difficult to find in Britain, and soft-shell crabs are making an appearance, try this recipe for a special occasion.

Serves 4

4 medium soft-shell crabs

plain flour

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

salt, pepper

4 thick swordfish steaks, about 175 g (6 oz) each

2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

2 lemons, halved with a zigzag cut, like crowns

Switch on the grill. Rinse the crabs and dry them. Flour them lightly, shake off the excess and fry them gently in the butter over a medium heat. Give them 5 minutes a side – they should end up golden brown and crisp-looking. Season them with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, brush the swordfish lightly with the melted unsalted butter and season them. Grill them for 3 minutes, turn and complete the cooking – another 3 minutes. Serve each steak with a crab on top and half a lemon on the side.

SWORDFISH GRATIN ON TOAST

This will make a supper dish for two people, and can be adapted to your taste and what happens to be in the larder. By adding extra liquid to the egg