Food writer Elizabeth David would have turned 100 this year. As a collection of her recipes is published, her former editor, Jill Norman, tells Keeley Bolger how her late friend continues to influence British tastes. Here's a recipe from Elizabeth David On Vegetables.

Serves four to five

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

250g plain flour

175g butter A pinch of salt

For the filling:

1kg asparagus

1tsp sugar

450ml bechamel sauce made with milk or cream

60g grated cheese

Method:

Knead the flour, salt and butter together, adding a little water to make a paste. Prepare this one hour before cooking, if possible.

Prepare asparagus carefully, peeling off the dry outer skin of the stalks. Put them tied in a bunch and heads uppermost into boiling salted water, to which you add also a teaspoon of sugar. Cook for ten minutes (a little longer if they are very large ones). Drain and cut each asparagus into three or four pieces, discarding the hard part at the ends.

Roll out your pastry, line a flat buttered pie tin (23-25cm) with it, cover the inside and the edges with kitchen paper and put the usual beans into the paper to keep the pastry flat. Bake it in a hot oven (200°C/gas 6) for 20 minutes.

Heat up the bechamel gently while the pastry is baking. Now add the grated cheese to the prepared bechamel and, off the heat, the asparagus.

Take the paper and the beans off the pastry, fill with the asparagus mixture, put it into the oven to brown, and serve hot.