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Cab Franc and cavolo

Meera Sodha's cavolo nero

‘But black kale, or cavolo nero, is a different beast. The leaves look like the frosted plumes of an exotic bird and melt down into a silky, unctuous, bittersweet pool. It works really well tempered with a nutty, chewy grain such as spelt and just a whisper of white wine, chilli and fennel. After all these years, I am still a dawdler on kale, but for cavolo nero, I’d run several country miles.’

So writes the lyrical Meera Sodha, born and brought up in Lincolnshire, north England, the daughter of Indian parents who’d fled for their lives from Uganda...