A trio of Italian starters

To Tuscany Villas have challenged bloggers to come up with a Tuscan-inspired recipe, using typical flavours and influences from Italy. Regular readers of my blog will know that I love a recipe challenge and Facebook memories have just reminded me this week that it is a year since I was at the Dorchester receiving my award for British Turkey 2015 best blogger recipe.

Although I’ve never visited Tuscany yet, I’ve enjoyed plenty of tasty Tuscan food at Italian restaurants. Some of its food and drink are irresistible. Just imagine a delicious Tuscan bean soup, followed by wild boar sausages and then gelato. Of course, served with a bottle of Chianti. Yummy.

However I only got invited to participate in this challenge yesterday, just one day before the closing date, with not a lot of time to come up with my recipe or to source my ingredients. So I’ve passed on pasta, beans, Chianti, olives and ice cream. Instead I’ve opted for a trio of Italian starters using tomatoes, peppers, olive oil, mozzarella, basil and ciabatta.

My first dish is an Italian Tomato and Bread Salad. Although I have blogged my Chinese variant on this previously, I hadn’t shared my Italian version. This recipe is my competition entry, but keep reading for two more recipes to compliment the theme.

Tomato and Bread Salad

Ingredients (serves 4 – 6)

600g mixed tomatoes
200g ciabatta bread, preferably stale
6 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
5g fresh basil

Method

Cut the ciabatta into pieces and put aside to dry out. If necessary, toast slightly in the oven.
Chop the tomatoes into pieces and put in a large serving bowl.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the bread and mix together.
Stir in the olive oil. Add extra if necessary.
Shred the basil and stir in.
Serve and enjoy.

Secondly, I decided to do a twist on the stuffed olives you see in every supermarket deli. Instead I have made my own stuffed peppers. I grilled the peppers to bring out the best flavour, but alternatively you could make this using raw mini peppers.

Cheese Stuffed Mini Peppers

Ingredients (serves 3 – 4)

250g mini sweet peppers
150g cream cheese

Method

Cut the ends off the peppers and remove the seeds.
Place on grill pan rack and cook under a pre-heated moderate grill for about 5 minutes until starting to soften.
Turn and grill on other side, again for about 5 minutes until starting to soften.
Allow to cool.
Using a teaspoon, fill peppers with cream cheese.
Serve and enjoy.

And lastly, although I had half an unused ciabatta loaf left, I thought one bread dish would be sufficient, but if you’re keen to know how to make bruschetta, you may see my recipe here. However you can never have too many tomatoes in Italian cooking, so I made a Tomato and Mozzarella Salad.

Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

Ingredients (serves 2 – 3)

125g mozzarella
100g tomatoes
fresh basil leaves to garnish

Method

Cut the mozzarella into slices.
Slice the tomato.
Arrange mozzarella and tomato on a plate in an alternating pattern.
Garnish with basil leaves.
Serve and enjoy.

It was just too Autumnal to eat al fresco today, but I am imagining enjoying these dishes along with a glass of Chianti outside one of the gorgeous villas in Tuscany, a region I would love to visit.

I’d love to hear your favourite Italian recipes.

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Disclosure: This is my entry for the To Tuscany Blogger Recipe Competition and I want to win a week in one of your Tuscany villas! Participants will have a one in ten chance of winning. Other entrants will receive a hamper of Chianti goodies.

Yummy scrummy summer salad bowls

I have received two salad bowls from Steve’s Leaves free to review, along with a voucher against a future purchase for a free bag of Steve’s Leaves. These salad bowls look just the ticket for hot summer weather, when I certainly don’t want the oven on.

The first one I tried was the Perfect Ploughman’s Salad. Once I peeled off the film lid, I found it was presented to keep everything tip-top ready for serving. So the rustic crackers were in a small packet to ensure they retained their crispy crunchiness whilst the mini gherkins and pickled onions were in a separate pot and the pickle dressing in another small packet. I opened everything up and combined it on a plate. I’m not a gherkin fan but everything else was delicious. According to the ingredients, the leaves in this salad are green batavia, crimson chard, red frilly mustard and mizuna.

The next day I tried the Terrific Thai Salad. Again inner packaging was used, so the coconut and dried mango pieces were in a small pot with some coriander on the top ready for sprinkling and the chilli dressing in another packet. Very tasty. I loved both salads but the Thai Salad was my favourite, as I preferred the combination of pea shoots, spinach and red chard in this one.

These would be ideal to take to work for my lunch. Much healthier than a sandwich. They currently both retail at Waitrose for £2.39 for a 130g or 135g bowl. Great value in my opinion and I love how all the leaves are tiny baby ones, as of course those taste the best.

All of the salad leaves in the Steve’s Leaves range are grown outside in natural sunlight and only washed in spring water. Nature-friendly farming is at the heart of the Steve’s Leaves ethos, and 10 per cent of the land on Steve’s Leaves farms is dedicated to boosting nature and biodiversity. Steve’s Leaves is the only salad brand certified by Conservation Grade, which in practice means 10% of their land is dedicated to creating habitats for wildlife and boosting biodiversity.

I’d love to hear what is your favourite salad. Or take a look at Steve’s Leaves website for some tasty recipe suggestions.

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Disclosure.  This post is a review of products I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.

Time in my kitchen making summer noodle salads

Britmums have challenged bloggers to tell their kitchen story. And as one of the first 100 to sign upto the challenge, I received a free packet of Fairy Platinum.

I love my kitchen. It is nice and spacious. There are lots of windows so it is bright and sunny at this time of year. Apart from when we’re eating I mostly have it to myself. The boys occasionally join in to bake some cakes, but I usually cook alone. We did buy a tv for the kitchen, but it tends to only get switched on when I’m ironing. I did hope the tv would lure my husband in, so that we could spend more time in the evenings in the kitchen, since I’m conscious that I have terrible posture sitting in an armchair using my laptop in the lounge. I’m sure it would be better for me to sit in the kitchen at the dining table, but I prefer to be sociable in the lounge. I guess the answer would be to squeeze a small settee in somewhere in the kitchen for tv viewing, but although there is empty space, there isn’t an obvious location.

My kitchen

So since Fairy is going to be helping me with the washing up, I’ve decided to tell a cooking story. With the lovely weather we’ve been having recently, I try to avoid heating the kitchen up with the oven too much. So I chose to make 2 noodle salads, also using up some left over raita and sweet and sour sauce. I hate wastage and these were in the fridge, left over from takeaways.

Chicken Noodle Salad

Ingredients (serves 2 adults and 2 children)

220g Noodles
100g Cooked Chicken Strips
150g Carrots
100g Sweet and Sour Sauce
Salt and pepper

Method

Chop the carrots into thin batons.
Bring two saucepans of water to the boil.
Add the noodles to one pan and cook for 3 minutes until soft.
Drain and run under cold water.
Add the carrots to the other pan.
Cook for 3 minutes until al dente.
Drain and run under cold water.
Stir the sauce over the cold noodles in a large dish.
Add the chicken and carrots.
Season with salt and pepper.
Serve and enjoy.

Chicken noodle salad

Egg Noodle Salad

Ingredients (serves 2 adults and 2 children)

220g Noodles
4 Hard boiled eggs
75g Green beans
100g Raita
75g Frozen Sweetcorn
Salt and pepper

Method

Allow the sweetcorn to defrost.
Shell the eggs and cut into quarters.
Top and tail the green beans.
Bring two saucepans of water to the boil.
Add the noodles to one pan and cook for 3 minutes until soft.
Drain and run under cold water.
Add the beans to the other pan.
Cook for 2 minutes until al dente.
Drain and run under cold water.
Stir the raita over the cold noodles in a large dish.
Add the eggs, beans and sweetcorn.
Season with salt and pepper.
Serve and enjoy.

Egg noodle salad

And afterwards the utensils went in the dishwasher along with the Fairy Platinum. I was impressed with the Fairy Platinum. It certainly did a better job than my usual dishwasher powder.

Disclosure. This post mentions a product I was sent for free. All opinions are my own.

This post is an entry for the “My Kitchen Story” Linky Challenge, sponsored by Fairy Platinum