My two good friends Alice Maxwell-Lyte and Becca Lloyd came over for dinner last night. When they go here we cracked open the wine, opened a bag of crisps and I whipped up some paprika houmous, we then settled in for a natter.
Soon enough the time was 8.30 and I hadn't even thought about making dinner and I needed to bake some Lamingtons for the meeting I had at work today (blog post for that on it's way). So it turned out to be all hands on deck and we started "The Kitchen Dance". You see, cooking from a broom cupboard is tough on a normal day but with three in the room it requires dexterity, grace and and a good dose of twinkle toes.
Since we didn't start until late and it's always best to limit time spent in such and enclosed space, it was important that what we made was quick and easy dinner and we opted for a warm vibrant salad laden with flavour, texture and colour.
Roasted Vegetable and Mozzarella Salad with a Wild Garlic Pesto Dressing:
A selection of any vegetables you have handing around will do for this but we used the following:
1 Red Pepper - large chunks
1 Yellow Pepper - large chunks
1 Courgette - large chunks
1/2 Small Aubergine - large chunks
1/2 tsp each of Dried Thyme and Oregano
1/2 jar of Roasted Artichokes
5/6 Sun-dried Tomatoes - roughly chopped
100g Sugar Snap Peas - Roughly chopped into 2 or 3 pieces.
A good sized handful of Parsley and Chives
2 balls Mozzarella
1. Roast the peppers, courgette and aubergine in a fairly hot oven (about Gas Mark 5 or 190 degrees C).
2. Meanwhile mix the Rest of the ingredients except the Mozzarella in a bowl. If you're a whole from eating then it might be worth dousing in a smattering of lemon juice.
3. Lay out on a platter and place the mozzarella on top.
For the Pesto:
The amounts for this are fairly approximate because I used the 'throw it all in' approach.
20 - 30g Wild Garlic (including the flowers)
30g Hazelnuts
20g Parmesan
130ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Garlic Clove - this is optional, it has a deeper pungency than the wild stuff though so beware.
A few sprigs (about 5-10g) Flat Leaf Parsley
30ml Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper
1. Put all the ingredients into blender and whizz up until it's starting to smooth (bit not too much, you want a little texture in there. Check the seasoning etc, once you're happy with the taste, you're done.
Once you've mastered the pesto it's time to dress the salad, just drizzle the pesto over and serve up with ciabatta laden with butter, parley and garlic straight from the oven.
I do however had one bit of crucial advice... don't eat this garlic fest the night before a date!
This recipe is another great example that homemade food from scratch really doesn't need to be technically difficult or time consuming. For that reason I'm sending it it to the Made With Love Mondays, a great collection of homemade delights.
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| AML and B-Lo in my tiny kitchen |
Since we didn't start until late and it's always best to limit time spent in such and enclosed space, it was important that what we made was quick and easy dinner and we opted for a warm vibrant salad laden with flavour, texture and colour.
Roasted Vegetable and Mozzarella Salad with a Wild Garlic Pesto Dressing:
A selection of any vegetables you have handing around will do for this but we used the following:
1 Red Pepper - large chunks
1 Yellow Pepper - large chunks
1 Courgette - large chunks
1/2 Small Aubergine - large chunks
1/2 tsp each of Dried Thyme and Oregano
1/2 jar of Roasted Artichokes
5/6 Sun-dried Tomatoes - roughly chopped
100g Sugar Snap Peas - Roughly chopped into 2 or 3 pieces.
A good sized handful of Parsley and Chives
2 balls Mozzarella
1. Roast the peppers, courgette and aubergine in a fairly hot oven (about Gas Mark 5 or 190 degrees C).
2. Meanwhile mix the Rest of the ingredients except the Mozzarella in a bowl. If you're a whole from eating then it might be worth dousing in a smattering of lemon juice.
3. Lay out on a platter and place the mozzarella on top.
For the Pesto:
The amounts for this are fairly approximate because I used the 'throw it all in' approach.
20 - 30g Wild Garlic (including the flowers)
30g Hazelnuts
20g Parmesan
130ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Garlic Clove - this is optional, it has a deeper pungency than the wild stuff though so beware.
A few sprigs (about 5-10g) Flat Leaf Parsley
30ml Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper
1. Put all the ingredients into blender and whizz up until it's starting to smooth (bit not too much, you want a little texture in there. Check the seasoning etc, once you're happy with the taste, you're done.
Once you've mastered the pesto it's time to dress the salad, just drizzle the pesto over and serve up with ciabatta laden with butter, parley and garlic straight from the oven. I do however had one bit of crucial advice... don't eat this garlic fest the night before a date!
This recipe is another great example that homemade food from scratch really doesn't need to be technically difficult or time consuming. For that reason I'm sending it it to the Made With Love Mondays, a great collection of homemade delights.
I love the roasted vegetables and what a unique mix of ingredients for the pesto! I've never seen hazelnuts used before, but why not? It all sounds very tasty...
ReplyDeleteThe Hazelnuts ended up being a really tasty addition, If I'm honest they were a happy accident because I didn't have pinenuts in... that said most good things in the kitchen are the result of the unplanned!
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