Autumn Lunch for 6

• Ragoût of wild mushrooms with oven-cooked polenta
• Cheeses with bitter salad
• Stewed apples with cinnamon crème fraîche

This recipe for wild mushroom ragoût is adapted from a recipe in From Anna’s Kitchen by Anna Thomas. I was sent it one year among many other books under review and was surprised to find myself utterly seduced by it. Any description undersells it: in America it would be described as a gourmet vegetarian cookbook. But it has none of the worthiness or pretentiousness which that might seem to suggest. It is fresh and alive and speaks directly and intimately to the reader. I could take so many recipes from it here, since I so often cook, if not exactly from it, then inspired by it (which is more telling).