Two-of-everything ratatouille recipe

My first experience of ratatouille was not a happy one. While I was living in Paris, I treated myself to lunch at a little cheap and cheerful café in the Latin Quarter. Served with fresh bread, it was a bowl of acidic, over-salted mush in which the individual vegetables were unidentifiable. Not nice. It completely put me off even the idea of trying it again.

Some years later, when I started growing my own vegetables and had a sudden glut of tomatoes, aubergines and courgettes, I had a go at making it myself, using a few different recipes, until I settled on my version, which has become one of my comfort foods.

Recipe

You will need:

2 onions (I prefer red onions, but whatever you've got)

2 fat cloves of garlic, crushed

2 sweet/bell peppers (I like to go for different colours)

2 courgettes

2 aubergines

2 cans of chopped tomatoes

2 heaped teaspoons vegetable stock (bouillon) powder

A couple of big pinches of dried mixed herbs/herbes de Provence (or a small sprig each of fresh, thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage)

A couple of good glugs of olive oil

salt and ground black pepper to taste.

I  prefer to use one of my Dutch oven pans, heavy, broad-based and deep enough to add all the veg, water to cover (and more if I want it soupier) and not spit broth all over the stove when I lift the lid to give it a stir.

Chop the onions, peppers, aubergines and courgettes into roughly 1"/2.5 cm pieces.

Start cooking the onions and peppers in the olive oil, and add the garlic as they start to colour.

Add the courgettes and aubergines so that they start to cook and soak up the oil.

When the pan looks dry and the vegetables start to catch and colour, add the canned tomatoes. Rinse out the tins with hot water, adding this to the pan so that the vegetables are covered.

Add the herbs and vegetable stock, give it all a good stir, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally if needed to stop it catching on the bottom of the pan.

It may need longer; the vegetables should be soft and melting but still retain their shape.

Serve and enjoy. Fresh baguette or crusty roll, glass of red wine ... or over a baked potato. Or on its own if you are aiming to cut the carbs.

Notes

I find it best to keep the vegetables in proportion, so all medium-sized or all large (hopefully without the aubergines and courgettes being woolly and full of seeds).

Modern aubergine varieties often do not need salting to remove bitter juices, but if you've grown your own and they've been water stressed at all, it can still be a good idea, and do the courgettes at the same time.

It freezes and reheats well, so I wouldn't bother trying to make a small portion with small-sized vegetables, as two cans of tomatoes will be too much, although two big beefsteak tomatoes could work.

I don't know how many this will feed, because I invariably have a second helping, but it usually lasts me at least two days.

If you're feeding a horde you can double the quantities of ingredients.

You can stretch the definition of ratatouille and stretch this further by adding a couple of potatoes cut into 1"/2.5 cm chunks, or stretch it even further by adding more water so that it's more like a soup. Or just go mad and use it as a basis for a big vegetable stew by adding a can of chickpeas or cannellini beans, sweetcorn, chunks of butternut or other squash, increasing and tweaking the seasoning as needed.

Salad Days: Watermelon and Feta Salad

During a trip to St David's while my parents were here, we had lunch at a hotel and I had a Watermelon and Feta salad. It was rather too heavy on raw red onion and rocket for my taste, and over-priced, but I was surprised how well the watermelon went with feta cheese. So here's my version:

Onto my usual base of lettuce (iceberg in this case), cucumber and tomato I've tossed some cubes of feta and watermelon (about a sixth of the melon, but I'll leave quantities up to you.)

It's that simple, and luscious.

Garden Goodies

Despite the ravaging hordes of slugs and snails (not to mention flea beetle and various caterpillars), the garden is producing food.

The few cloves of garlic I planted have made small bulbs and are ready to dig up. I became ridiculously excited over the small squashes appearing on the butternut plants and I've had to remind myself not to get my hopes up. There's a ripe chilli on one of the (bought-in) chilli plants and some tomatoes which are still green and struggling to ripen.
The courgettes are proving irresistible to the marauders, but I've managed to get a couple of small ones. There are still a few broad beans to be had, the runner and French beans have started producing succulent pods, and the peas have started to produce enough ready pods that I can pick a handful for the kitchen, probably thanks to the amount of rain we've had recently. I harvested the few carrots which escaped the gluttonous molluscs. And although one block of the sweet peas seems reluctant to flower, the 'Cupani' plants are doing okay and I've been picking some every few days to enjoy their luscious scent in the kitchen.

The bounty has given rise to my new favourite thing, a sort of pasta-with-whatever vegetables happen to be ready. This started the day I harvested the carrots. They hadn't made much growth, and there were only a handful. I also picked over the peas, beans, sweet peas and found a small yellow courgette.
I podded the broad beans, topped, tailed and sliced the runner and some of the French beans, washed and sliced the carrots and added them all to some pasta which had already had some minutes in boiling water.
In a frying pan with a little olive oil, I cooked some sliced onion and the sliced courgette, then podded the peas and added them to the pasta pan. When the pasta was done, I drained it and the veg, added the onion and courgette to the main pan and stirred in a heaped spoonful of garlic and herb soft cheese until it melted and coated the contents. So easy and delicious.

Of course it would be possible to do this with shop bought veg, and it would be great for using up other bits and pieces; half a pepper and a few mushrooms lying around in the fridge? Bung them in! Pesto instead of soft cheese? Why not?

But the flavour of the carrots was amazing, the beans so juicy, the peas so sweet, and the knowledge that I had prepared the soil and grown these from seed made the whole thing utterly satisfying. I know Monty Don waxes lyrical about this regularly on Gardener's World, but he is absolutely right. There's nothing like goodies from your own garden to make you feel that life is wonderful, even if the weather isn't.

Tarted-Up Pasta alla Puttanesca

When I'm hungry and have little in the fridge, my current, favourite store-cupboard standby is pasta alla puttanesca (from the Italian puttana: whore, tart, slut, and by derivation puttanata: something or someone worthless, rubbish.)  Salty, hot and piquant, I find it satisfying and good at any time of year.

There are all sorts of stories about how this originated with, ahem, 'ladies of the night', such as the implication that they've been spending too much time with their feet up to go out to buy fresh food, or even more scandalously, that it cooks in the time it takes to serve a client! (It's very quick to make - basically the time it takes the water for pasta to come to the boil and then cook the pasta!)  However, there seems little real evidence for these sources. Wikipedia cites a story about it being whipped up by a restaurant out of store cupboard ingredients which seems far more likely..

As you might expect from the title, it's not a refined dish, although I have seen some recipes where the instructions are to chop everything finely, and use fresh tomatoes. Like all classics, there are variations and why not? I like mine a little rough and chunky. I think the classic way might be to serve it with spaghetti, but in the spirit of things, I tend to use whatever I have in the cupboard, and prefer penne or conchiglie, so that the sauce sits in the pasta to make luscious mouthfuls.

Mine is further 'tarted-up' because I use slightly caramelised onion in the base, and then dump a can of tuna into the sauce towards the end of the cooking time.  If I happen to have half a sweet pepper in the fridge needing to be used up, I chop that and pop it in too. My recipe makes easily enough for two; it freezes (although you might want to take out a freezer portion before putting the tuna in, if you use it, as the tuna can break up into nothing when you reheat it from frozen). Alternatively, it's very good the next day, too. It does mean that your store-cupboard needs to contain garlic, anchovies, capers, olives, chili flakes, canned tomatoes and dried pasta, at least (if not the tuna and an onion).  If yours doesn't, then get some in, and you will always have the makings of something fast and delicious.

Ready? Here we go ...
Whip out two pans, one for sauce, one for pasta, chopping board, favourite knife, wooden spoon, can opener and your ...

Ingredients:
A smallish onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, three or four anchovy fillets, olive oil, a teaspoon or two of capers (drained), a dozen or so pitted black olives, chili flakes, a can of chopped tomatoes, a can of tuna, salt and black pepper, pasta of choice.

Method:
Fill the pan for the pasta with cold water, add some salt and put it on the heat to come to the boil
Measure out some pasta and note how long it needs to cook.

Skin and chop the onion and either use a little oil from the anchovies or a bit of olive oil to start it cooking.
If you have a bit of pepper to use up, now's the time to chop it up!
Peel the garlic and crush or chop
Roughly chop the anchovies and pitted black olives and add these with the pepper (if using) and garlic to the pan.  Sprinkle in a few chilli flakes to taste and give it all a stir.
Open your tuna and leave it to drain.
Drain some capers, chop if they're not already tiny and add them to the pan.
Open the can of chopped tomatoes and pour them into the pan.  Note how pretty the bright pinky-red of the tomatoes looks when studded with black olives and green capers.

Your pasta water is probably now boiling, so pour in the pasta shapes and get it back to the boil.  Note the time and work out when the pasta should be pretty much done.
Give the sauce a stir and lower the heat to a simmer. Go do something else until a couple of minutes before the pasta is due to be done.
After 8-10 minutes, the sauce will have changed to a darker red.  Taste and season with black pepper, but it's very unlikely you'll need any salt due to the anchovies and olives. Now's the time to take out a portion for the freezer if you want to. Otherwise, pop the tuna into the pan and break it up a little to heat through.
Test the pasta  - it's probably done by now. Drain it well, then pop it into the sauce.
Take a bowlful, perhaps shred a little fresh basil over the top if you happen to have some growing on the window ledge. If you want to make more of an occasion, serve with a green side salad and a glass of red wine.

Enjoy (with your feet up!).

Salad Days - Rainbow

What, no meat?  It can't be good for you!

Okay, not really a rainbow, exactly, but I'm playing with food colours again, and why not? It takes so little to create a tempting plateful and for most colours, you're spoilt for choice. There's not much to choose from at the blue-violet end of the spectrum - perhaps in summer some viola flowers and Edzell Blue potatoes, if you can get the colour of the skins to stay on, and you can now get purple carrots too.  I didn't have any of that, so just went for beetroot. It takes so little to create a tempting plateful!

The weather is getting colder, so while raw salads are lovely and fresh, I'm starting to crave something warmer and more substantial. There will be another gap in the sequence while I look for more salad inspiration ....

Salad Days - Salade Niçoise

In recent years, the mention of this salad reminds me of the sequence in Ridley Scott's film 'A Good Year', when Russell Crowe is serving an American couple in a French restaurant. 

"I would like a salad Neeswahzay with ranch dressing on ... I'm still on my diet, so I would like low-cal ranch dressing with no oil and could you sprinkle some bacon bits on top?"

It's probably very naughty of me, but the resulting head-on culture clash (let alone the irony of low cal dressing but with bacon bits!) leaves me giggling every time. I watched the film again recently and it was the inspiration for today's salad (except I forgot that I had anchovies in the cupboard, so didn't add any ... and the last one I had in France used a big, tasty beef tomato instead of cherry toms and some salad leaves instead of a wedge of iceberg lettuce). The cats happily shared the tuna!

Salad Days - Waldorf Salad

So called, because it was first presented at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The original recipe of apple, celery and walnuts on a bed of lettuce seems to have had plenty of variants over the years.  Years ago, I ordered a sandwich with Waldorf salad and what arrived was basically coleslaw with added raisins in a runny mayonnaise.  When I complained about the lack of walnuts, I was told that they could not serve a salad with nuts in, because of the risk of allergies!  I pointed out that surely, someone ordering a Waldorf salad would expect a salad with walnuts and what they served in no way resembled what I expected of a Waldorf salad, so I refused to eat or pay for it. The server just shrugged.  It was a catering firm and this was what their supplier sent them, described as Waldorf salad, what were they supposed to do? I didn't go back to eat there again, but don't expect they acted on my suggestion to sack their supplier, employ a chef and make their own food from scratch.

So, is it still a Waldorf if it doesn't contain celery? A friend took a little diversion to see me on her way back from a week away visiting various family members, and stopped for a light supper of herb and cheese omelet and salad (and with a gift of chocolate profiteroles on a bed of chocolate mousse for pudding. Oh my!).  She doesn't like celery, so I didn't put any in. I like shredded white cabbage in mine too.  But it must have walnuts and apple!

We chatted for hours, drinking, eating and generally catching up with the latest news. It was such a pleasure to cook for her, especially since the alternative might have been for her to try to get something at a motorway services. No problem if you like burgers from a well-known chain, but if you're after real food on a Sunday evening, you're probably out of luck!

For a late night TV snack, I added celery to the left-over salad and munched away, with my cat Greebo sat purring companionably by my side. He was probably hoping for a lick of mayo or something, but there really isn't anything in a Waldorf salad to interest him. Tomorrow's salad, on the other hand ....

Salad Days - Prawn Cocktail

It's November, not the usual time of year for salads and the weather is pretty horrible. For some reason, (probably because I have been eating pumpkin soup all week!) I had a bit of a craving for a prawn cocktail salad, and they are so easy to put together (especially if you're not trying to be artistic with it).  A bed of salad, some prawns, a slick of suitable sauce (like Marie-Rose or, in my case, some light Thousand Island dressing) and you have something light and delicious.
They were so fashionable in the 1970s and '80s that all restaurants seemed to include a prawn cocktail in their starter menu, before they were considered a cliché and dropped out of fashion and off the menus.
I like the contrast of the tender prawns and the sauce on crisp lettuce leaves.  Here's my messy version, which  had a bed of little gem lettuce, cherry tomatoes and avocado and was delicious.  I could have done with some brown crusty bread to eat it with. Must remember that for next time!

Salad Days - Fruit and Nutcase Rice Salad

Today I went to a friend's birthday tea, for which she chose the theme 'Mad Hatter's Tea Party' and encouraged everyone to dress up.  At first, I was a bit doubtful about dressing up, as I couldn't think what to go as.  Then inspiration struck - I love butterflies, why not go as the caterpillar? Okay, I know he probably wasn't at the Mad Hatter's tea party (I can't find my copy of the book to check) but why not, anyway? Without the hookah - I don't smoke - but with a pair of dark turquoise voluminous harem pants, a green satin top, and a couple of green-blue scarves wrapped around my head to hide my bruises, stitches and horrible greasy hair (not allowed to wash it for another few days yet!).

Next question was what to take for the table? Ahha, my salad for today. I'm fairly sure there wasn't salad on the tea table in the book either, but too bad; everyone else was likely to take cakes and my friend and I are supposed to be trying to lose weight. So since this is a bit of a mad tea party, I thought perhaps a rice salad with fruit and nuts.

So, basmati rice, cooked and cooled a bit while I put together the rest of it.  Some pistachios (unsalted) and chopped almonds, and a mix of raisins and sultanas. Some red-purple grapes, a couple of fresh apricots, a  peach and an apple, chopped up. I had a persimmon which was quite hard when I bought it a few days ago, but was melting all over the place, too soft to chop up for salad so I just slurped that up while I looked for something else to add to the salad. Ah, some halved cherry tomatoes! They're sweet and count as fruit. And last but not least, pomegranate seeds and the juice which came out as I was stripping the seeds from the pith.

The party was great, with most others dressed up too. My birthday friend dressed in white, with a white fur hood and her face made up with a pink nose and whiskers as the White Rabbit. Actually, her birthday was the following day, so this was sort of an unbirthday, appropriately. There was a bumble bee and a fairy, the Queen of Hearts, and a dormouse in a leopard print onesie.  We were jam packed around the table under a pop-up gazebo in the small back garden, so no moving around. Thankfully, the rain stopped and it was a sunny afternoon, just lovely!

There was a lot of this salad left over after the party, so that's my Sunday lunch sorted out. Standing while preparing the salad made me realise how much my left knee is now hurting, scarcely able to take my weight properly. It loosened up a little at the party, when I had a little belly dance boogie with one of the other ladies, but seized again driving home.  I now can't bear to stand and prepare food, and don't feel like it as the pain is too intense. I'm only eating so that I can take painkillers, just having a piece of fruit or bowl of cereal. So I'm going to take a break of a few days and continue this series of salads when I feel I want to eat  properly again.  I hope this flare stops soon, as I've got too much to do to be able to lie around resting!

Salad Days - Quick Couscous Salad

One of my favourite quick and simple salads is couscous with lots of bits and bobs in it. Back in my early twenties, I lived and worked in Paris and could not get into couscous and North African food, nor did I much like garlic. The chef at the works canteen did his best to re-educate me and succeeded in persuading me that steak really didn't have to be cooked all the way through, rabbit stew was delicious and garlic was essential. I might not eat meat any more, but I like garlic!
This uses 'instant' couscous - I know it will offend some people. Doing it 'properly' is fine if you are feeding a crowd on a special occasion, but I am not rinsing, steaming, separating grains and so on just for myself. I'm not sure I would know where to find anything other than 'instant' couscous!

I use a half-cup measure to measure out couscous into a bowl and add the same volume of boiling water, or very slightly more - a full cup of water to a scant cup of couscous. Cover the bowl with a plate and leave to stand. While the couscous absorbs the water, dice various salad ingredients, whatever you have to hand, such as tomato, cucumber, apple, celery, sweet pepper and add a few nuts if you like (I like cashews). When the couscous has absorbed the water, stir in a half teaspoon of harissa (or more if you like it really fiery), separating the grains and fluffing it up a bit, then adding the salad ingredients and nuts. As you can see from the pic, this time I added almonds instead of cashews, black grapes instead of apple. I come back to this time after time, because I can just throw it together with whatever I have. It also makes a really good light packed lunch for dance workshop days.

It occurred to me as I was making this salad that my left knee was so painful, I didn't want to stand at the kitchen worktop to chop the ingredients. My head was buzzing and the stitches from the operation three days ago to remove a cyst from my scalp were pulling and burning a little. I had no appetite, even though I needed to eat to take painkillers.  Although I like salads, I'm craving chilli salmon, new potatoes and piles of broccoli.  I think my body is trying to tell me something, so I may take a break from the salads series and pick up sometime when I'm feeling better and inspired to take it up again.

Salad Days - Warm Potato Salad

What a day! The after-effects of my mini-op caught up with me today. The bruising is coming out, my neck is tender and stiff and I had a niggling headache, probably from sleeping with my head in a strange position in an effort not to lie on the sore bits. I had scheduled the day to catch up on my assignments, but couldn't concentrate or find the resources I needed online.

Just to add insult to injury, I had a frustrating time with the delivery of a swing seat, when it turned out I had been sent a different style to the one I ordered. By the time I had checked this out, I had signed for the package and the delivery men were long gone.  I then had a bit of a time convincing the girl on the helpline that just because the swing seat which I bought and one available through their partner company had the same name, they were not necessarily the same product. If I had wanted the squarer, lighter looking seat offered by the partner company, I would not have ordered the curvier, sturdier-looking one they were selling for £60 more than the other one. The pictures on the two websites were different, so the products should be different. The one I was sent was not the one I ordered! Having explained all this, it seemed another could be sent out and the first taken away, providing all the bits were boxed up.  The earliest they could do the delivery was in just under a fortnight, so for the next 12 days I would have a massive box adding to my usual level of clutter.  In hauling the 30-something kilo box around to repack everything and tape the box shut again, I hurt my left knee.  After sitting down for a bit with a cup of tea, I knew that my low level knee osteoarthritis pain had changed into a full-on flare. Damn and blast it, I don't have time for this.  I should be cleaning and decorating, and gardening too except that it's raining!

Feeling well sorry for myself, I staggered out to pick some mint and chives. I cut up some new potatoes, threw them in a pan to boil with a sprig of mint, and chopped up the chives.  Much as I don't like raw onion, a few chopped up chives are okay as I don't find the flavour too strong. And the little green rings look so pretty, like beads.
Once the potatoes were cooked, I drained them, picked out the mint, and mixed them and the chives with a tablespoon of light mayonnaise to make a warm potato salad.  I was in too much pain to stand and make anything else, so I ate it just as it was, taking painkillers and hoping that I would be able to get through that night's class. Which, it turned out, had to be cancelled anyway. I'm not sure if that was a blessing or not. It would have improved my bad mood. Grumbling to myself, I went out and treated myself to a cream cake and ice cream.
Yes, so much for the diet, but I can take only so much provocation before I comfort eat, and the chocolate mint ice cream certainly helped me to chill out a little!

Salad Days - Tuna Pasta Salad

For some reason, I really like canned tuna at the moment.  On the basis that if something smells or tastes very good to you, or that you crave it, then it probably contains some nutrient that your body needs, I decided to go with it and make myself a tuna pasta salad.

To some cooked pasta shells I added a drained can of flaked tuna (well, most of one - the cats demanded their share!), a small can of sweetcorn, some halved cherry tomatoes and basil leaves. I think tomato and basil go very well with tuna. I debated adding some cucumber, but decided this was enough. No need for mayonnaise or other dressings, either.

It was delicious!

Salad Days - Tzatziki

I had a mini-op today to remove a cyst from my scalp.  It's been growing slowly behind my ear since my teens and I'd had enough.  It turned out to be larger than I thought, about the size of a gobstopper or small cherry tomato.  I had it done at my local surgery and the doctor and nurse were wonderful. The worst bit was the local anaesthetic.  Getting it to stop bleeding afterwards was a bit of a challenge. Head wounds bleed a lot anyway, but I tend to bleed quite freely too. Eventually I came away with a fresh dressing and a compression bandage wrapped around my head like a turban. The doctor was working late and called a couple of times to check how I was, and that the wound had stopped bleeding. Bless him, his orders for this evening were to take another painkiller, sit still in front of the TV with a big glass of water, and rest.

The thing that surprised me most is how hungry I was after I came away from the surgery. I went into the Spar, my bandaged head attracting some strange looks, and bought a tuna salad baguette and a danish pastry as a treat and was still peckish, so I needed something salad-like for a TV snack!

How about Tzatziki?  Easy to make and just as well, because in the end, I didn't even have the energy to cut up some carrot, celery and pepper for crudites and just used a few crackers to scoop it up, enjoying the crunchy, creamy texture.
I cut a length of cucumber into small pieces, popped them into a sieve with some salt to drain some of the juice out. A bit of fresh mint, chopped finely, and a crushed clove of garlic, some Greek yoghurt, mix it all together and watch Shirley Valentine on DVD.  Shame about the painkillers, I would have liked a glass of Ouzo ...

Salad Days - How Green Was My Salad?

Green is one of my favourite colours and I fancied a green salad. I went with what I had to hand; lettuce, (white) cabbage, cucumber, green pepper, avocado, celery, green apple, pear, grapes.  I could have thrown on some herbs such as basil and parsley, and would have included watercress or cornsalad (my favourite) if I'd had some. I didn't plan ahead! If I had, I might have looked for some Sage Derby, to add a spot of green cheese! Even so, the range of tastes and textures were interesting and satisfying. I'm debating a salad plate of other colours, but there isn't as much variety as there is from green ingredients. If you feel inspired to play too, I'd love to see your pictures!

Salad Days - Coleslaw

I researched this one a bit, because having decided to make it, I wasn't sure that what I had in mind was really coleslaw. I've had lots of different coleslaws, and there seem to be lots of different recipes, but the basis is generally shredded cabbage and carrot. The origin of the name coleslaw is from the Dutch koolsla or cabbage salad.  The last time I bought a pot of commercially made coleslaw, it was swimming in mayonnaise and had chunks of raw onion in it - ugh, disgusting! Then a friend invited me to dinner and made a baked potato with coleslaw and it was wonderful. I was thinking of my friend and remembered what we'd eaten.  Just what I needed for lunch today!

So, this coleslaw has the usual white cabbage and carrot, but with an apple grated into it and a small amount of light cheddar cheese, bound with a tablespoon of light mayo.  The cheese melts a little on the hot potato and there is a lovely contrast of hot and cold from the potato with salad on top.

I was amazed at how much you get for so  little by way of ingredients - an eighth of the cabbage (sliced), a single carrot, an apple and a small amount of cheese (all coarse-grated) made quite a large bowlful - enough to eat it just as it was for dinner as well.

Salad Days - Chargrilled Aubergine, Courgette and Pepper

My plans for this lunchtime and today's salad were derailed in a most pleasant way when my next door neighbour popped in to say they were having a barbecue for lunch, and would I like to join them?  Oh, but it's meat, but there will be lots of salads. So I decided to slice up some aubergine, pepper and courgette, briefly marinaded in a mix of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, herbs and finely chopped chilli and take that to chargrill on the barbie.  It was too dark by the time I ate yesterday to get a picture of the fennel and orange salad, so I made another.

Sorry about the pic - it doesn't look all that appetising but I assure you the chargrilled veg were smoky and delicious, with an odd piece here and there of very hot chilli.  They needed some feta, but luckily there was a dish of feta and kalamata olives, and some tomato, mozzarella and basil slices.  With some fennel and orange as well, lunch was a delicious feast! Their souvlakia and pork patties did look and smell great, and as no-one else fancied any chargrilled veg, or liked fennel, I had it all to myself.

Salad Days - Fennel and Orange

A week of salads already! I didn't have much time on Friday as I'd been dashing around and, in this warm weather, only needed a light salad.  So, since we were going all Italian on Thursday, I thought I would continue the theme with the classic Tuscan salad of (bulb) fennel and orange.  I love the aniseed flavour of fennel and the addition of orange makes a crisp, juicy, bright, sparkly salad to wake up and refresh the taste buds! In the end, I didn't get time to eat my light salad until it was nearly dark, so this pic is from one I made the following day ...

... when I discovered that I was the only one at the table who liked fennel. So Sunday brunch will feature this salad as well!

Salad Days - Il Tricolore

I have a pot of basil on the kitchen window ledge and some ripe, red tomatoes.  While tomato and basil is a classic salad, I need something a bit more substantial for lunch, so with a strip of mozzarella slices in the middle of the plate and some lettuce and cucumber, we have the colours of the Italian flag, Il Tricolore!

Buon appetito!

Salad Days - Avocado and Surimi

Surimi is fish which has been processed into sticks.  I've recently had a thing for sushi and was enjoying the combination of avocado and surimi in a sushi roll, so I bought some 'seafood sticks' (pollock pretending to be crab!) and flaked some into avocado halves on a bed of lettuce leaves and cucumber slices.

I think I would have preferred it with some thousand island dressing on the fish, but had none. The cats begged for some of the surimi as I was preparing the salad, so it must have smelled good to them. I wish I had remembered to take a photo of them sitting smartly and attentively, waiting hopefully for their treat.

Salad Days - Pineapple, Mango and Melon Fruit Salad

I was going to see a friend today and was looking forward to meeting a new friend too, and having a good natter over lunch on the balcony.  Unfortunately my friend's poorly and has regretfully postponed our get-together, so I get the fruit salad I was going to take for dessert all to myself!

I bought a rather under-ripe pineapple last week, which is now scenting the kitchen, and have a small honeydew melon as well. There are also a couple of small mangoes which were reduced, but were still under ripe when I bought them. While I was making the salad, a few kiwi fruit found their way in there.  They were rock hard when I bought them, but now are starting to look shrivelled without going soft.  They were pale inside, not the vibrant green I was expecting.

Sweet, tart, juicy, refreshing.