Nigel Slater's Middle East

Nigella Lawson shows how easy it is to bring the spirit of Italy into the kitchen and on to the plate - using ingredients available a little closer to home.

The Hairy Bikers cook some of their favourite comfort food. From feasts for friends and family to meals inspired by pub grub, they create the ultimate feel-good dishes.

In September 1845, a devastating new plant disease swept across Ireland, destroying the potato crops on which the majority of the people depended. Aid from the British government was too little and too late. Over the subsequent six years, a million Irish people died of starvation and a more than a million others fled abroad in order to escape the ravages of hunger and disease.