Food and drinks to hold on to that holiday feeling

Paella in a pan with the beach and sea in the background

Summer holiday memories are made of meals – morning trips to the bakery, barbecues on the beach, and sipping some mysterious liqueur on a restaurant terrace after dinner. It somehow never tastes as good at home, does it?

If you can only dream of escaping to sunnier climes, or have already come back, keep that carefree feeling going well into September with these recipes and tips from the professionals. Cook and eat your way around our most popular destinations with a holiday state of mind.

Greece

Breakfasts that rival the hotel

Start your holiday with a luxurious weekend brunch. The Mediterranean is famous for lavish spreads of savoury and sweet dishes.

Greek-Cypriot cook Georgina Hayden recommends strapatsada, a scrambly cousin to shakshuka, with spiced tomato sauce and eggs stirred through, as a great brunch dish.

“It is in fact eaten at all times of day, and is even eaten cold,” says Hayden. “Serve as is with toasted pitta, or as part of a larger spread with olives, cucumber batons, radishes and grilled loukaniko (a spiced Greek sausage).”

And if you can’t make it to a bakery for tahinopita, a Cypriot sesame-based sweet bread, Hayden uses it as inspiration for an easy tahini French toast recipe. Topped with honey, sesame seeds and whatever fruit you fancy, it’s the complete breakfast package.

Have fresh salad with everything

Made with a few simple vegetables, olives and feta, the classic Greek salad often doesn’t taste the same without the warmth of the Greek sun. There are some simple ways to ramp up the flavour, though.

If it’s not peak tomato season, or if the tomatoes you have are a little less than perfect, salting them in advance helps to draw out excess water and season the tomatoes all the way through.

Vaios Salagiannis, head chef at Ampéli, says, “Squeeze all the vegetables together and make the feta crumble, so it combines better. Also, prep the salad two hours before and keep it in the fridge.”

Of course there isn’t just one Greek salad, there are hundreds. With fresh vegetables, simple vinaigrette dressings and plenty of herbs, pair any of these with barbecued meats for a taste of island living.

Italy

Channel your inner nonna

Good living in Italy is all about taking the time to make food with love, and nothing is more loved than pasta.

The recipe couldn’t be simpler, says Giuseppe Cipolla of Vapiano UK. “To make the best homemade pasta, the rule of thumb is one egg to every 100g of flour.”

“You can absolutely roll pasta by hand,” says cookbook author Claire Thomson, in our guide to making perfect pasta. “But this will require a certain amount of effort to roll and fold and stretch the pasta…”

Well, it will keep the children occupied.

“A food processor or mixer to knead the dough, together with a pasta machine to roll and cut the finished dough to size are both useful bits of kit, if pasta making becomes your thing.”

With good pasta banked, the sauce can be quick and simple to give that holiday dinner feeling.

Make time for dessert

Like the best holidays, desserts are better if you take your time.

Roberta D’Elia, head chef for Pasta Evangelists, says that to make a great tiramisu, you need to get to work two days in advance.

“Start by preparing the coffee, preferably with a stove-top coffee maker, and leave it to rest overnight at room temperature in a closed bottle.

“The next day, assemble your tiramisu and leave it in the fridge overnight to allow the biscuits to reach the perfect consistency.”

France

Recreate a patisserie

Bringing a French tart to a summer barbecue will instantly elevate your status.

Fortunately you don’t have to master the perfect laminated puff pastry to make a beautiful dessert.

Even Michel Roux Jr. relies on good quality, all-butter, ready-made puff pastry for his easy French apple tart recipe.

Mary Berry skips pastry altogether by making a cake base topped with fruit in a tart tin for her pear and blueberry galette.

Or lean into the homemade, thrown-together aesthetic with a free-form blackberry tart that doesn’t even need a tin. A sunny afternoon of picking blackberries is the perfect holiday activity with dessert practically built in.

Cook over a fire

Marcus Wareing manages to give classic French dishes a holiday makeover by cooking over an open fire. Even boeuf bourguignon is transformed with barbecued chicken with a smoky red wine and mushroom sauce.

“My top tip for avoiding the classic British burnt chicken on the barbie is to get lots of good caramelisation on the outside and then move it to a cooler spot away from the direct heat to finish cooking through,” says Wareing. Or pop it into the oven to finish cooking.

Grilling peppers and aubergine for a little charring and smoke also makes a ratatouille that has holiday written all over it. Combined with garlicky bean-topped toasts, this summer lunch frankly demands you drink a glass of wine in the afternoon.

Spain

Keep it chill

If we have a late heatwave, embrace the Spanish gazpacho as an alternative to air conditioning.

This cold soup is the taste of Spanish summers and Dani Garcia, head chef at BIBO Shoreditch, is a fan of keeping it simple.

“The most important trick of the recipe is to not add water, since the tomatoes already provide enough. No bread, no water. And yes, no cucumber!”

Nacho del Campo, executive chef at Camino, says choosing the right tomatoes is key. “Use well-matured tomatoes that have never been refrigerated. To get a good balance of sweetness, mix matured tomatoes with cherry tomatoes.”

There are plenty of other varieties of Spanish chilled soup: Zena Kamgaing’s take on ajo blanco with cucumber and almonds is just as cooling.

Drink something different

Spain is famous for its sangria, but the Spanish aren’t locked into a rigid recipe of red wine, citrus and lemonade.

Chef Andrea Ravasio says that different fruits like peach and banana are often added in Spain. In summer months, seasonal fruits like melon and red apples work well, too. He also recommends mixing in triple sec or Cointreau alongside the red wine.

Ángel León, chef at Gran Meliá Sancti Petri, also encourages sangria-based experimentation. Specifically, when it involves Spain’s other great export, sherry: “Try adding some cream sherry, amontillado or fino.”

You can even make a white wine sangria or a non-alcoholic sangria if you’re after something lighter.

Originally published August 2025