The first time I attended Paris Rosina’s supper club, Come To My House I’ll Make You Fat, I couldn’t believe my luck. Here I was, in a toasty west London flat, being fed like a Roman king: delicately spiced rice pudding pierogi laden with sticky, squished fig; greasy leek-stuffed filo parcels doused in chilli butter; sculptural quince jelly adorned with spirals of whipped Beenleigh blue cheese. The dinner party guests – a mixture of writers and creatives (and a doctor!), none of whom knew each other – kept the conversation flowing, as did the natural wine. Indeed, there’s a reason that Rosina – formerly of The Dusty Knuckle – has become a bit of an IYKYK figure among food lovers. With her pleasure-first approach to dining, Rosina’s style is fun and decadent, which is exactly what dinner parties should be all about.

Who else, then, to hit up for cosy autumn recipes? “I don’t really do little recipes,” admits Rosina, somewhat apologetically. “They’re all quite laborious!” It’s true: she seems to prefer taking her time in the kitchen, allowing the space to fill with the rich aroma of pastry and garlic and the clattering of various vintage ’70s-style cookware. Still, she has plenty of go-to recipes that she swears by – and can absolutely be made at home. “Gleefully living off of tomatoes for the past few months, I now enter autumn [believing] it’s my time to truly shine in the kitchen with rib-sticking suppers,” she says. To that end, here are Paris Rosina’s ultimate autumn recipes, from a hearty potato and halloumi pie to a generous helping of lamb sausage and beans.

Lamb sausage and beans

350g merguez sausages
400g black beans soaked overnight
Aromatics for the beans: bay leaves, garlic, carrot, glug of olive oil, fennel trim, thyme or parsley stalks, a few pieces of onion
600g of sofrito, consisting of finely diced carrot, fennel, celery, onion, chard stalks and coriander stalks (keep chard and coriander leaves for later)
5 chopped garlic cloves
100ml olive oil
50g tomato purée
1 tsp cayenne
½ tsp turmeric
2 tsp smoked paprika
A few splashes of red wine or sherry vinegar
Sea salt
Fresh black pepper
Fresh lemon juice to finish

1. Cook your soaked beans in cold water (about 10cm above the beans) with all of the aromatics.
2. Gently simmer until tender with no bite or chalkiness.
3. Add in a large pinch of salt and a splash of vinegar. Taste the cooking liquid for seasoning; this will be seasoning the beans as they cook.
4. Once cool enough, discard the aromatics that aren’t edible and blend up the remaining soft veg with a few beans and a large ladleful of liquor. Add back into the beans.
5. In another pan (this can be started at the same time or even made the day before) heat 100ml of olive oil and add in the sofrito mix. Season with salt and pepper and cook down until soft, aromatic and jammy.
6. Once cooked well and considerably reduced in mass, add your garlic and tomato purée, and cook these both out until the garlic is soft and the tomato is burgundy. You may need to add a little oil during cooking if it feels like it’s absorbed all it can.
7. Gently fry off your sausages (whole or chopped – your call) and add them to the stew.
8. Add coriander leaves for freshness and some lemon juice. Serve with bread and butter or a jacket potato, alongside some greens… I freeze the rest in portions!

Cyprus potato and halloumi pie (with white pepper shortcrust)

For the filling
600g peeled and sliced Cyprus potatoes (around 25mm thick – any waxy potatoes will do!)
200g thinly sliced spring onion
200g sliced fennel
200g grated halloumi
1 egg
2 sliced garlic cloves
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

For the pastry
300g plain flour
150g cold cubed salted butter
5g of ground white pepper
Pinch of salt
1 egg for egg wash
Ice water

1. Peel and slice your Cyprus potatoes and soak in cold water. Then, place in a pan of cold salted water and bring to the boil until partially cooked (they will continue cooking when the pie bakes). Allow to cool and set aside.
2. Gently heat a frying pan and add in your sliced fennel and spring onion, and season with salt and pepper. Once softened slightly, add your garlic and cook a little more. Aim for a soft fragrance, and not too much browning. Afterwards, place them in a bowl and set aside to cool.
3. Once the onion and fennel mix is cool, add your egg and grated halloumi. Season once more with salt and pepper before mixing. Fold in your par-cooked potatoes. This can sit in the fridge until you’re ready to make the pie.
4. For the pastry, add all the ingredients into a bowl and stir the mixture together until you get a fine crumble mix.
5. Add in a few drops of water at a time and mix with a knife until the mixture comes together. Then, fold the mix out onto a surface to truly squidge together before wrapping in cling film. Leave in the fridge for at least an hour to rest.
6. Once the pastry has rested, take it out and place on a well-floured surface to roll out a base and a lid (for there is no such thing as a pie without an arse). Use your favoured oven-proof receptacle to gauge the size. Shortcrust can be patched a little so don’t worry if you’ve gone a little abstract with the shape.
7. Butter your dish, lay the pastry on the bottom and fill to the brim with the potato mix. Attach the lid with a little bit of beaten egg. Crimp to whatever your capacity feels like in the moment. I had long acrylics on and opted for a fork instead. Egg wash again, place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees and bake until golden brown.
8. I serve it with a fried egg and some pickles. It’s nice hot or at room temperature!

Crab and mortadella fish pie

500g raw mussels, cleaned and debearded
700g fish mix (I use skinless boneless cod, salmon and large deveined prawns)
1 medium-sized dressed crab
150g mortadella, cut into 0.5cm cubes
500ml full fat milk
1.5kg peeled Maris Piper potatoes
75ml double cream
70g butter (plus extra for the mash)
70g plain flour
10 sprigs of tarragon
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp of freshly ground white peppercorns
A pinch of fennel seeds
A few shaves of nutmeg
Lemon juice
Worcestershire sauce
A few whole black peppercorns
Two strips of lemon zest
White wine or water (to cook the mussels)

1. To clean your mussels, run them under cold running water for a few minutes and scrub anything that looks particularly filthy. Do not use the ones with damaged shells, ones that will not close and ones that do not close after a few taps. Once clean, store in a dry open container with a damp cloth covering them.
2. When ready, tip the mussels into a hot pan with a lid with a small glass of wine or water. Return the lid and let them steam until they all open.
3. Strain through a sieve and keep the liquor. You can pass this again through muslin, or pour the liquor into a glass and allow any silt to sink to the bottom. Keep to one side (or in the fridge) for the béchamel.
4. Once you can touch the mussels with bare hands, start to remove the flesh from the shells immediately and get them in the fridge and chilled for later. Save a beautiful shell or two for décor (not necessary).
5. For the béchamel, mix your milk with the tarragon stalks, nutmeg, bay leaf, lemon peel and a few black peppercorns, and heat until warm (do not boil).
6. Pass through a sieve and add 100ml of the mussel liquor.
7. Heat the butter and, once foaming, add your flour and cook it for a couple of minutes while slowly whisking in the warm milk. Let the sauce thicken and add salt as needed, as well as the finely chopped tarragon. Add a squeeze of lemon and a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce.
8. Allow to cool, and then fold in your mussels, diced mortadella, cubed fish pieces and prawns.
   Lay in the bottom of your most favoured receptacle.
9. For the mash, place your cut up potatoes in heavily salted cold water and bring to the boil (adding aromatics like thyme, bay and garlic is optional).
10. Cook until soft in the middle and drain. Let the steam escape and mash the potatoes until smooth, adding in double cream, more butter and lashings of cracked white pepper.
11. Dollop onto your fish pie and plough the mash with a fork. Decorate accordingly with shells.
12. Bake at 190 degrees until the top is golden brown and the centre of the pie is over 65 degrees – this should take around 40 to 50 minutes. Allow it to stand for five minutes before digging in (and to retain some sort of dignity). I serve mine with a balayage of brassica swept from my messy fridge – cauliflower leaves and stems, tender stem broccoli, purple cauliflower and cabbage – cooked in a large pan of salted water, drained, heavily peppered and drizzled in lemon juice and olive oil.

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