I always eat as much asparagus as I can during the short British season, which begins this month, said Xanthe Ross. Asparagus pairs well with the freshness of ricotta, and cutting the spears into rounds produces a satisfying delicacy.

Ingredients:

• 200g ricotta
• zest and juice of 1⁄2 lemon
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 × 250g bunches of asparagus
• 4 slices of bread, toasted
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

• Put the ricotta, zest and juice, 1 tbsp of the oil, a sprinkle of salt and a generous grind of pepper into a bowl. Whisk until smooth and light.
• Snap the woody ends off the asparagus, then cut them into 1cm rounds.
• Fill a bowl with cold water and ice and set aside.
• Bring a large saucepan of well salted water to the boil, then drop in the asparagus pieces and cook for about a minute. You want them to remain crunchy, so be careful not to overcook them. Drain and transfer straight to the ice bath. This will stop the cooking and also help keep the fresh green colour.
• Cut the toast slices in half and lay on a plate. Spoon some of the ricotta onto each piece, then use the back of your spoon to spread it across the toast.
• Drain the asparagus and pat dry. Put into a bowl, drizzle with the remaining oil and season. Mix gently, then top the whipped ricotta with a generous spoonful of the dressed asparagus. Season again, if you like; then serve immediately.

Taken from Stay for Supper by Xanthe Ross, published by Hardie Grant at £25. To buy from The Week Bookshop, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.

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Prince Harry was just 20 when he visited Lesotho during his gap year, said Tessa Dunlop in The Independent. His adolescence had been turbulent and self-destructive, but in the tiny landlocked country he found “meaning” and purpose. Two years later, he and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho founded Sentebale – a charity dedicated to orphans of the Aids epidemic – in memory of their late mothers.

The cause was clearly very close to Harry’s heart, and he raised millions for it; so “no one was surprised” when Sentebale (which translates as “forget me not”, his mother’s favourite flower) remained in the Sussexes’ portfolio after they left the UK. Last week, however, Harry revealed that he had made the “devastating” decision to stand down as its patron, in solidarity with its trustees. Mainly members of his “establishment old guard”, they had resigned following a power struggle with its new chair, Sophie Chandauka, a Zimbabwean lawyer and former trustee.

In the war of words this triggered, few facts are agreed, said Roya Nikkhah in The Sunday Times. The trustees have briefed that Chandauka had wasted vast sums on consultancy fees, in a failed effort to attract US donors. She denies this, and counter-claims that the charity had been damaged by the “toxicity of its lead patron’s brand” – arguing that Harry’s fall out with his family had deterred commercial partners. She says the trustees refused to discuss this, and accuses them of weak management, bullying, “misogyny and misogynoir”.

She also implies that Harry had used the charity to enhance the Sussex brand. She claims that he forced a fundraising polo match to be moved, so that he could bring a Netflix camera crew; and that he’d ordered her to issue a public defence of his wife Meghan, who had turned up at the event unexpectedly, and been criticised for seeming to “manage” Chandauka out of a photocall with Harry. Now, she says the duke is playing the “victim card”, while “unleashing the Sussex machine” against her.

Chandauka aimed her attacks well, said Richard Kay in the Daily Mail. She has turned Harry’s victim status against him, and undermined his claim to be “awake” to injustice. And she has a point about the charity’s funding: these days, it doesn’t look good for a charity serving Africa’s poor to be mainly funded by white men playing polo. Still, you have to feel for Harry. Sentebale was his passion project and, without it, his in-tray will look even emptier, while his wife’s is “overflowing”. Whoever is to blame, this dispute is surely “a crushing blow” for the prince.