Al fresco dishes to serve outside

We have all become rather used to socialising outside. Thanks to the pandemic, for perhaps the first time in our national history, al fresco dining has become the norm well outside of the summer months. We shivered under wraps for the last nine months only to finally be allowed to socialise indoors once more just at the moment when we’re all keen to light up the barbecue and enjoy the warmth outdoors.

Nothing compares to the pleasure of a lunch or dinner en plein air in the summer months. It sharpens the appetite and provides happy opportunities for people or garden watching when the conversation bores. Sometimes you can even get away with taking off your shoes. The appeal lies above all in its novelty. For most of us in Old Blighty there are perhaps just a dozen days or less in a normal year when we manage it, and can pretend for a happy evening we’re a sun-wrinkled, gladder soul from the Mediterranean sitting under a canopy of vines.