Kalamata Organic Olives unpitted, with bay 295g jar

Yes we came into an important conclusion: Fava is one of our favourite dishes.

Some of us Maltbies like it as a main dish, some as a side or a meze, but we all agree that we love it, as it brings in mind grandmothers/ holidays/ old greek cafes (kafeneia) back home.

So, following The Greek Larder's residency, we managed to get Thodori reveal his signature fava recipe and here we tried it in our kitchen with a Greek salad topping.

It was super easy and it was the perfect lunch break for busy people like us.

Just before their summer residency at Maltby St. Market, things are getting hectic in Hungry Donkey's kitchen.

However, Tziovi the Chef, shared with us his simple but essential recipe for the best dish of the season: Greek 'village' salad.

It's much more than a trip to the supermarket when it comes to Greek food.  There are a number of small rituals involved, including the olive oil from your uncle's grove, the fresh cheese your mother brought last week while removing the one she brought a week ago, which she would then turn into little fritters and bring around on her next visit while castigating your wastefulness.  It’s harvesting wild asparagus for such a brief period of time that it barely lasts a full lunar cycle. There will always be someone coming after you who shouldn't go empty handed, so you should never take everything you find.

It's your clumsy attempt at making your own marinated anchovies in a jar topped with olive oil, long forgotten. Self sufficiency will have to wait, your wife said after trying them, as you felt your ears turn red as if they were crimson sails prepared for battle.  And finally a trip to the supermarket for some potatoes and eggs, or a beloved weekly trip to the “laiki”, the farmers market, which to my unorthodox Albanian mind, has come to replace the Sunday mass in both affection and devotion for many modern Greeks.  Or if you live in London, you could go to Spa Terminus market and let the Maltby&Greek team enact the various parts like true pros.

This recipe (with a few tweaks) comes from the book On Agriculture by Cato and I have been making it for many years now. The core and the ideas, though, are also inherently ancient Greek – relishes are mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, in Symposiums in Ancient Athens, and poems such The banquet of Philoxenus, a sensuous poem celebrating the culinary pleasures!

Cato, on the other hand, was an early Roman soldier and politician whose farming handbook/ manual from around 200BCE provides the basis for a lot of our sources for Roman agricultural practices and eating habits. He catalogued this recipe as an appetiser, something to wake your tastebuds up, and tantalise you, keep you entertained and hungry for the big dinner, for the main course which will arrive later…

The olive tree was sacred for the ancient Greeks and the Athenian banquets or symposiums included many relishes and breads as starters that include olives in brine or marinated.

Pappardelle with Sweet Red Pepper & Spicy Tomato Paste and Barrel-Aged Feta.  A rich pasta dish that blends the sweetness of red peppers with the heat of spicy tomato paste and the tang of 12-month barrel-aged feta.