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Jul 14, 2014 By William Burgess Woman’s Hour

Food, much like music, is a common and personal thread we all share. Our recurring guest feature I Can Cook, Too spotlights artist-submitted recipes and the stories behind them. This installment features a recipe from Woman’s Hour guitarist William Burgess. The London-based band’s debut album, Conversations, is out this week on Secretly Canadian. Bon appétit!

I’m not the best of cooks, but I do enjoy the process of cooking. And providing I have a glass of red wine and some good music on it can be the perfect way to unwind at the end of a long day. This is particularly prescient if I have been songwriting and basically trying to create something in an abstract, Sisyphean world making it doubly gratifying to prepare something so tangible and reap its (hopefully delicious) rewards almost immediately. As this recipe will show; I’m more on the functional side of the cuisine fence as opposed to the ostentatious side I often wish I was on. And with all the above in mind here is my special little “recipe” that I believe may find its home in the ratatouille family.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 can chopped tomatoes
A few segments of garlic
2 red onions
2 red peppers
2 courgettes [or zucchini for U.S. readers]
1 aubergine [or eggplant for U.S. readers]
1 or 2 chillies depending on how you like it
1 can of sweetcorn
1 small can of anchovy fillets
Worcester sauce
Brown rice

Firstly I would recommend putting on a great record, in fact, I can help you there. Put our record on… Once you’ve settled in with the music you need to open that bottle of wine and pour yourself a generous glass. After that first taste of wine you just need to chop up all the fresh vegetables and pop them in a baking tray with the olive oil and anchovy fillets and bake them in an oven preheated to about 180°C or Gas Mark 4 for about 20 minutes taking out once or twice to give it a little stir. There is a lot of flexibility with the vegetable you use, basically it’s one of those dishes where anything goes. At which time you should be following the rice guidelines to work out when to put that on. A nice large glug of your red wine would be good now. Don’t neglect yourself. After 20 minutes in the oven (by which time the red wine should be relaxing you and our music taking you to the places you want to go) take out the baking tray and add in the tomatoes and sweetcorn and a splash of red wine if you haven’t drunk it all. Give it a good old stir and season it with black pepper. You should find that the anchovies dissolve and do the salting of the dish themselves, but give it a taste and if it needs more, add it. Another 10 minutes in the oven once everything is in and your dinner is ready to be served. Maybe garnish it with a little salad on the side and throw on some toasted pine nuts. Alternatively if you’re feeling a bit more adventurous you could cook a nice bit of fish or a pork chop and stick that on top. Happy listening, drinking, and eating.