It used to be my least favourite cheese. Every time Moka comes from Paris, she always brings along a little packet full of goods from her local cheese shop, normally one of them is a small goat’s cheese. Never been keen on it. Last Sunday, while visiting Roman Villa in Chedworth, I came across a local cheese maker, a goat’s cheese maker, to be specific. I never pass by these people without interest. The woman asked me, “Do you like goat’s cheese?” “No, I don’t”, I said. “Why won’t you try some of mine then?” she said. “Ok”, I replied. And it was actually surprisingly nice, not too strong, coated in mixed pepper. The woman said the younger the cheese is, the milder the flavour.

This evening I used what was left of it and stuffed some chicken breasts with it, alongside fresh thyme, wrapped the breasts in bacon and roasted them off on a bed of tomatoes and shallots. Served with a nice little idea from GF, roasted potatoes coated in a mixture of flour, grated parmesan and nutmeg. And a pleasant green salad.

Every time I make pizza I use a different recipe for the base. That’s in search for a perfect one. The search continues, as this evening I used Jamie Oliver’s recipe, taking into account some comments of the readers.

For the dough I used 500 g of strong bread flour, sieved with 0,5 tbsp of sugar and a good pinch of salt, 2 tbsp of olive oil and then mixed with 325 ml of  warm water with 7g of dry yeast dissolved. I worked my dough for a few minutes, then , as suggested by one of the readers, I chopped and mixed in some red chilli. I then left it wrapped in the blanket and left it for an hour, while I’ve done my ironing.

Once doubled in size, I’ve spread some tomato ketchup on top on a rolled out base, topped with lovely Oxford Blue cheese( I am going back for more tomorrow, it was so good!), fresh shallot, olives, tomatoes and oregano from the garden. Having baked it, I further topped it with parma ham, rocket, fresh basil and shaved parmesan.

We’ve managed to have pigged most of it, accompanied by some Chilean Cab-Sav.

Very, very good.

The original idea was broad beans on a toasted bread, but broad beans are not yet in season, so I’ll wait, in the meantime though widely accessible garden peas  quickly cooked, then  a touch of garden mint, blitzed, but  not into a paste, I like it a bit chunky, well seasoned and placed on a pan fried French bread. Finished with shaved parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. Filling, yummy, will be done again.