| Have you ever cooked a dish you feel rather smug about only to later realise you'd actually just tweaked a classic? I have, many times. This exact thing happened to our contributing cook Elizabeth Hewson once when she spent a year living in Italy. The dish she 'invented' turned out to be this week's recipe, a delicious chicken saltimbocca, or chicken wrapped in prosciutto and served with fried sage. Wherever the inspiration comes from, this easy dish is a winner, full-flavoured and simple to produce. She serves it with a healthy dish of greens spiked with chilli and garlic that's good enough to eat on its own. We go from Elizabeth's Italian kitchen to Emiko Davies' Japanese one, with two classic dishes that are central to the Japanese diet. Davies adores Japanese food and her book Gohan is full of inspired and achievable dishes including these two favourites: corn soup and pork tonkatsu. Try them to see how easy they are. And if you are after something sweet, we have three David Herbert sweets to tempt you back into the kitchen. Also this week we welcome our new wine writer Nick Ryan, who replaces the incomparable James Halliday, who last week retired from his weekly column after a mighty 40 years. Welcome, Nick. | 