since our latino party in january i’ve become a bit obsessed with quesadillas. initially we had them to use up a pumpkin and cheese mix which was leftover from a batch of empanadas. having found out how easy they are to make (i’ve always defaulted to the roll-your-own approach with soft tortillas) i pulled out an allegra mcevedy recipe i bookmarked last year for spicy black bean quesadillas.

as well as being easy to assemble these have the advantage of only taking 5 minutes to pull together the filling, which mostly uses store cupboard ingredients. since then i’ve made a batch of spicy bean quesadillas each week, using different beans depending on what i have in.

for me, what really makes this dish is the pile of avocado salad which is place on top of the quesadillas when serving. this adds a dose of healthiness and freshness which is perfect for ushering in the spring weather which is finally arriving.

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jerusalem artichokes are in season and i’m loving them. skye gyngell’s recipe for roasted jerusalem artichokes with goat’s cheese and agresto is a good place to start if you fancy trying them. and, despite the dreadful photo, so is this risotto.

i followed a dennis cotter recipe which had an unusual approach to making the risotto – instead of using vegetable stock i cooked half the jerusalem artichokes with some onion and garlic before adding vegetable stock and simmering until the ‘chokes were soft. this was then blitzed together and sieved to create a thin artichoke broth which is used when you make the risotto, in place of stock and creates a wonderful intensity of flavour (i'm interested to try this method with other root vegetables, perhaps parsnips). the rest of the ‘chokes are roasted and added at the end. in the picture above, which i took the first time i made this, i kept the roasted artichokes quite large which didn’t work well- the second time the cubes were c1cm which was much better. it’s up to you if you peel them – my first batch were very knobbly so i didn’t bother.

when i was looking up recipes i found several which suggest serving the risotto with scallops – i didn’t do this the first time i made this recipe but did the second, when i was cooking this dish for friends. the flavours work wonderfully together and i thoroughly recommend it. ‘tis easy enough too -  i melted some butter and when it had started to brown i added the scallops and fried them for a minute or two on each side.

st killian cheese. with celery and crackers. i wish i'd picked up some grapes as well.