Favourite family meals from Olympic diver Tom Daley

We all have a dish that brings back memories, and one to pass on to the next generation. Here, the Olympic diver shares two favourites from his new book

Great Britain’s youngest European gold medallist made his Olympic debut in Beijing in 2008 at the age of 14. He then won Olympic bronze at both London 2012 and Rio 2016. Tom, 22, lives in London and Los Angeles with his partner, American film director Dustin Lance Black.

The recipe I grew up with – chicken, mozzarella & pesto !ilo parcels

I love cooking: whenever my mum cooked, I wanted to get involved. These filo parcels (below) were one of the first things I ever learnt to cook. Then, because I was travelling away from home from such a young age, she taught me how to make chicken & broccoli pasta bake. Many recipes bring back memories of family meals. I have two brothers, William and Ben, now 20 and 17 – whoever ate fastest got seconds. I was seven when I started diving and my parents were so supportive, taking me to training sessions and competitions. Whether I was having a good day or a bad day, they’d know what to say to make me feel like I was having the time of my life.

Until I was 16 or 17, I ate whatever was put in front of me. Then I realised that I had to adjust my diet. Sugar has to be in moderation. If you are a swimmer, you eat a lot of carbs; as a diver you tend not to eat as many, but it di ers from athlete to athlete.

The recipe I’d like to pass on – meatball-stu"ed squash with spinach sauce

I cook this dish (opposite) regularly. When I was at a diving camp in Australia in 2015, I made it for the

Chicken, mozzarella & pesto filo parcels

SERVES 2 PREP 20 mins COOK 25 mins EASY

1 tbsp olive oil

8 large basil leaves, inely chopped 1 tsp pine nuts

225g skinless, boneless chicken breasts or thighs, chopped 3 sun-dried tomatoes, inely chopped 125g mozzarella, chopped 4 rectangular sheets (about 170g) ilo pastry

20g butter, melted green vegetables or salad, to serve

1 Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and put a baking tray in to heat.

2 Grind the oil, basil and pine nuts in a pestle and mortar into a rough pesto. If you don’t have a pestle and mortar, chop the basil and nuts very finely and mix with the oil. Season. whole team. The main time I cook is on Sunday – my only non-training day. It’s a day of recovery, but I’m not one for sitting about. After brunch, Lance and I will go somewhere like Borough Market, have a co ee, then come home and cook. I do most of the cooking, but Lance is king of the barbecue. We’ve been living together for about three years. After he won the Oscar for Milk, which championed gay rights, he put his career on hold to campaign for marriage equality. He started with California; now gay marriage is legal in all 50 US states. It’s something he put a lot of e ort into, but I don’t think he ever thought he’d get married. Now we’re setting things up for our wedding. We’d like kids, and hopefully one day I’ll teach them how to cook. @tomdaley1994 3 Put the chicken, tomatoes and mozzarella in a bowl and stir in the pesto. Season well.

4 Pile up the filo pastry on a board, then cut in half to make two squares (each with four pastry layers). Set one pile aside and with the other pile, twist each sheet around slightly to make a star outline.

5 Spoon half the mixture on to one of the piles of pastry. Brush a little melted butter around the base, then gather up the outsides and scrunch them together. Brush half the remaining butter over the top. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make another filo parcel.

6 Transfer the parcels to the preheated baking tray and bake in the oven for about 25 mins until golden. Serve with green vegetables or salad.

GOODTOKNOW calcium

PER SERVING 676 kcals • fat 32g • saturates 15g • carbs 49g • sugars 3g • ibre 3g • protein 46g • salt 1.7g

Meatball-stu ed squash with spinach sauce

SERVES 2 PREP 20 mins COOK 1 hr EASY

2 small squash, such as acorn (each about 300g), halved and deseeded

1 shallot

2 tbsp freshly chopped herbs such as parsley, chives, sage and basil

20g whole almonds, chopped

20g stoned black olives

40g Parmesan cheese, grated

250g lean beef mince

For the spinach sauce

1 tsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, sliced

200g chopped tomatoes (from a can) 200ml hot vegetable stock

100g spinach

1 Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds.

Put the squash halves in a roasting tin, spoon 1 tbsp water into each half and cook them in the oven for about 30 mins.

2 Put the shallot, herbs, almonds, olives and half the Parmesan cheese in a small food processor and whizz until finely chopped. Tip everything into a bowl, add the mince and season. Mix thoroughly, then divide into 12 rough portions.

3 Shape the mixture into six balls and divide between each squash half. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Turn the oven down to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and bake for 20-30 mins until the mince is cooked through.

4 Meanwhile, make the sauce. Heat the oil in a small pan, add the garlic and cook it for 1 min until it’s just starting to turn golden. Add the tomatoes and stock and season well. Simmer for 15 mins, then stir in the spinach and allow it to wilt. Spoon the sauce over the squash and serve.

GOODTOKNOW low cal • calcium • folate • ibre • vit c • iron •

3 of 5-a-day

PER SERVING 491 kcals • fat 20g • saturates 7g • carbs 29g • sugars 17g • ibre 9g • protein 43g • salt 1.3g Tom’sdailyplan (£16.99, HQ), 80 quick healthy recipes plus daily workouts, is out now.