Slowly add the red wine and stock, bring to the boil, lightly season with salt and pepper and simmer for 30 minutes. Heat a little oil in a heavy frying pan, lightly dust the meatballs with flour and fry a few at a time until golden Take out and drain on kitchen towel to remove excess fat. Add the meatballs to the sauce – you may need to transfer everything into a larger pan. Cover the pan and simmer gently for about 30-40 minutes, giving the sauce the occasional skim. Serve the meatballs with Parmesan polenta (follow the instructions for making soft polenta on the packet and stir in Parmesan at the end), mashed potato or spaghetti..

Rowley Leigh at Kensington Place is one of the few chefs serving tamarillos and has done for years. They are tart when eaten raw and leave your mouth feeling as if it’s been chewing a fur rug. They need to be handled with care and introduced to a lot of sugar during cooking. 250g caster sugar 1 cinnamon stick, halved 2 star anise 4 cloves 1 bay leaf 1 glass of port 2 glasses of white wine 6 tamarillos Choose a non-reactive pan (not aluminium) large enough to hold the submerged tamarillos. Place the sugar, cinnamon, star anise, cloves, bay leaf, port and wine in the pan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring so the sugar dissolves Reduce the heat and simmer for about 3 minutes. Meanwhile score the pointed end of the tamarillos with a X, then drop them into the liquid, cover with a lid and simmer for 8-10 minutes Remove from the heat and leave to cool in the syrup Once cool, carefully remove the skin and cut in half. Serve with some of the liquid and cr? fraiche, fromage frais or ice-cream..

Women who eat a diet that is rich in soya products such as tofu may reduce their risk of breast cancer, research suggests today. Low rates of breast cancer in countries such as China and Japan have for many years been thought to be related to the high intake of soybean foods.But research had proved inconclusive until the latest work, by experts from the National University of Singapore, the US National Cancer Institute, and Cancer Research UK.They used data from two studies of women living in Singapore, combined to analyse the effect of diet on their breast tissue.One focused on women’s eating habits, including their intake of soya. The other used mammograms to class women according to the density of their breast tissue.The researchers identified a group of 406 women who took part in both studies. They found that women who ate the most soya were 60 per cent less likely to have “high risk” breast tissue than those who ate the least.Dr Stephen Duffy, from Cancer Research UK’s Mathematics, Statistics and Epidemiology Department in London, said: “There has always been a question mark over a connection between soya and breast cancer. Some studies have suggested a link but others haven’t.”This research shows for the first time how the amount of soya a woman eats may have an effect on breast tissue and may potentially reduce her risk of breast cancer.”Scientists think the active ingredient in soya is isoflavone – a member of a family of plant chemicals called phytoestrogens that mimic that action of the female sex hormone oestrogen.Many cases of breast cancer are largely caused by the way oestrogen acts on breast tissue.