It's not the most beautiful meal in the world, but it's one of my favourites: garlic soup.

The idea for this meal came from book called Outlaw Cook by John Thorne - both the initial recipe and the approach I tend to take when cooking it. The recipe as given is very simple, based on a Spanish dish eaten by those too poor to eat much else, and nicknamed 'Water of Life' for its heartening, comforting qualities.

One thread running through the book is the idea that cuisine is intensely personal. Outlaw Cook tells John Thorne's own story of learning to want to eat and cook well - from eating packaged foods in bed to the discovery of pasta to building a bread oven in his back yard. And though my journey has been different there are elements that are very familiar to me. When I stood in my own kitchen for the first time age 16 I too had no idea where to begin.

Perhaps the hardest thing to learn so far has been how to improvise, understanding textures, tastes and flavours so that it becomes possible to conceive of a taste, go to the kitchen and create it from raw materials. Outlaw Cook was the first food book I read to revel in that sense of play in the kitchen. And that's what garlic soup is about for me.

There are a few elements that remain constant every time I make it.

Garlic is the base, usually a combination of fresh and smoked, sometimes pickled, generally crushed or very finely chopped. Often there will be beans involved - kidney or butter beans usually, but sometimes others. Almost always I will grill strong cheese on top of stale bread and line the bowl with it, pouring soup on top. Rarely if ever will I add anything to thicken it.

The rest is pure invention every time, and a glorious way to bring fun to cookery.

To make today's incarnation:

Crush together pink and smoked garlic, bird's eye chilli, dried red chilli, sun dried tomatoes, sea salt and fresh thyme, to make a paste.

Sweat the paste in butter with bacon lardons and finely diced shallots.

Add a tin of butter beans, water, tomato purée and vegetable buillion, and simmer till it is tasty, not watery but not too thick or reduced.

In the mean time grill a slice of stale bread spread with tomato purée and topped with mature cheddar.

Serve the soup ladled over the bread and garnished with cherry tomatoes and a few very thin slices of fresh pink garlic.