I had some lasagne sheets sitting in the fridge. But I didn’t fancy the traditional, meaty lasagne, wanted something different. I looked up a few ideas on food.network. co.uk, and came up with a green lasagne, not quite a veggie one, as pancetta is involved. I fried it first, then threw a good few chopped tomatoes, seasoned it well and then put the asparagus on top and covered the pan, just to cook it very,very lightly. Not that it needed it, I decided later.  I made the bechamel usual way and a little layer of whizzed basil and sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts, as suggested in one of the posts.  It didn’t contribute massively to the flavour overall, but must have been tried.

It was more filling than I expected, we have half of it for lunch tomorrow, but quite pleasant overall. Nothing beats lasagne bolognese though.

And it’s difficult to make it  look pretty on the plate!

We’re enjoying a heat wave for the last few days, lovely. I spent a few delightful hours this afternoon sipping Sangria and frying me very front and reading.

Dinner must have been eaten in the garden. Just simple chilli garlic marinated shrimps( soy sauce, sesame oil, chilli garlic paste and brown sugar in random quantities) with loadsa coriander, served on pea rice. Yum.

Made this evening as an experiment, to see if I can change my mind  about not liking cooked salmon. For years I’ve been of the opinion that salmon is best as sashimi or sushi, no need to spoil it by cooking.  But the fillet Ocado brought me was not fresh enough to wrap in nori, so I griddled it, well seasoned plus a splash of sesame oil. My teriyaki sauce worked nicely with the usual recipe. The extras on the plate involved rice, cooked with a dash of turmeric, some French beans and a simple cucumber and apple salsa, for the crunch.

I quite liked it, Florian said the teriyaki was lovely, but the smell of fried fish bothered him. Yet he ate it all. I will share my leftovers with Stefan the cat, whose owner Becky is mentally disturbed( not Stefan’s fault). 🙂

Just heard it’s been the warmest day of the year so far.  It’s been lovely, very warm and a slight breeze and we simply could not have lunch inside, when Ewuta came.  Initially I wanted to make the scallops for her with mashed minted peas and parma ham, but Ocado delivered small scallops last night, so I made a nice mushroom risotto to sit the scallops on. Nice it was, made with the remaining Gavi and good mushrom stock, finished with parmesan. Scallops, though small, were fresh and delicious, fried on butter. The whole dish had a nice splash of truffle oil and fresh thyme as well as a few slices of parma. Went down a treat with some Catena chardonnay.

Simples. And so tasty. And filling. The pork sausages came from Colin, the butcher. I first fried them quickly, then chucked some chopped shallots and poured a bit of red wine onto it, some water, bay leaf and left under cover for a few minutes. When the sausages were cooked through, I removed them and finished off the gravy with some flour mixed with water and lots of seasoning. The mash was today flavoured with mustard and some runner beans served as daily veg allowance. Thoroughly enjoyed.

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.