To make the chickpea base: Roast your peppers in whatever fashion you feel comfortable: a low open flame with frequent turning for 15–20 minutes; under the grill; or in a hot oven. It doesn’t matter which way you achieve an evenly blackened skin, but when you’re there, pop them in a bowl while they’re still hot and cover tightly with cling film (the steam from the hot flesh will loosen the skins, making them easy to peel). Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel, de-seed and roughly chop them. Heat the olive oil in a pan big enough to hold all the ingredients, and gently fry the garlic in it – you want to take it to a very light golden colour, not a toasty nut brown, as that would overpower the other flavours. Stir in the peppers and chickpeas till well-coated, then let it all warm up a bit – this will only take a couple of minutes. Tip it all into a food processor (or use a masher if you have strong wrists) and blitz on pulse until everything is incorporated, but in a slightly textured way – there should be no whole or even half chickpeas, but the odd discernible curve is no bad thing. Give the mixture a generous season with salt and pepper. To assemble Othello’s Chickpea Comfort Pie: Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan/gas mark 4. Grate the courgettes coarsely, spread out on a tray or large plate, and sprinkle with around half a tablespoon of sea salt. Leave to stand for 10 minutes. In a dry pan toast the coriander seeds, shaking the pan until their scent starts to rise (about 2 minutes), then tip into the chickpea base and stir. Squeeze the water out of the courgettes over the sink, then put them in a bowl with the thyme and olives. Split the ricotta between the bowl with the courgettes and the bowl with the chickpeas, and gently fold it into both of the mixes. Add plenty of pepper to the courgettes, along with the lemon zest. Brush the bottom and sides of the tart ring with melted butter, and lay a sheet of filo so that half of it covers

The base, the rest of the sheet draping outside it. Brush quickly with melted butter, and repeat with another three sheets of filo, rotating the tart ring through 120º, and arranging them so that half always covers the base of the ring, and half hangs outside. Spread out the chickpea mix with the back of a spoon to form a layer at the base of the tart. Then use another three sheets of pastry as a divider between layers, arranging them in the same way as you did the sheets at the bottom of the tart, with their surplus draping over the edge and brushing each one with butter. Cover the buttered filo with the courgette mix, then bring all the pastry sheets hanging over the lip of the tart ring up, over and around, gathering them together in a big froufrou in the middle. Brush and drizzle the top lightly and delicately with generous amounts of butter, then put on a tray and bake in the oven for 50 minutes, lifting it out of the tart ring for the last 10 minutes so that the sides turn golden-brown too. Eat warm, to soothe the soul.