I love salads, especially during the warmer months when my standard meals are either something barbequed with a salady thing on the side or a salad as a main meal, like the classic nicoise or a watercress, blue cheese and walnut. As long as it’s fresh and tasty and doesn’t require too much washing up…I’m in…

For years now my favourite salad has been wild baby rocket (arugla) leaves dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Sometimes I jazz it up with some dijon mustard in the dressing and a few slivers of parmesan shaved over the top or soak some finely sliced pears in the dressing before tossing through the leaves or even topping it with some toasted almonds. But generally if I’m looking for a side salad to serve with lasagne or risotto…it’s been the first thing I’ve turned to. Or if I feel like a light dinner for one I just add some capers and tinned tuna and it’s all good. Read the rest of this entry »

I wish that I was writing this post about some developments in my love life…but alas…the italian in question is only the type of cuisine….

For me one of the greatest pleasures is cooking for friends and family, but it makes a lovely change when you contact an old friend to invite him for dinner and he counter offers with a day on his boat cruising on sydney harbour….and Australia Day none the less….who could refuse…

So as an advance thankyou and to help us prepare our sea legs for a day on the boat… I turned to Jamie’s Italy for inspiration for a leisurely summery sunday night dinner….and ended up with the following menu for ades and his lovely wife jo, robbie and my dear friend missy helgs.

antipasto:
   caponata with sourdough
   crostini of smashed pea with mint & pecorino
   marinated wild barossa olives
bbq calamari salad with fennel & tomato
peach & macadamia crostata with brown sugar gelato Read the rest of this entry »

Panzanella is one of those classic dishes that I have always avoided. Usually I’m first in line when it comes to trying new things but for some reason the idea of a salad based on tomato and stale bread has never been able to pique my interest.

Even while travelling though Tuscany (the birthplace of Panzella) during the height of summer I was never even once tempted to choose Panzanella from the many fabulous menus that were placed before me. I think my reluctance stems from my innate mistrust of commercial tomatoes. Don’t get me wrong I love tomatoes, freshly picked from the vine. BLT is one of my favourite sandwiches (although the bacon seems to override and deficiencies from less than perfect tomatoes). The problem is that I have tasted tomato nirvana (home grown heirloom tomatoes eaten straight from the bush…warmed by the sun) and after realising just how delicious a tomato can be it’s hard to go back…..so I tend to bypass recipes where tomato is the star ingredient unless I can use canned ones.

The other day I was flipping through my second christmas gift cookbook treasure (thanks Nao!)…Jamie’s Italy, when a gorgeous looking salad caught my eye…. none other than Jamie Oliver’s version of the Tuscan tomato & bread classic…. As I read through the chatty two page recipe and poured over the fabulous pics I could feel a change happening within… I wanted to make panzanella… Read the rest of this entry »

New years eve and I have never had a good relationship. Last year for the first time ever I decided to spend it in Sydney and somehow managed to reach an all-time low (although to be truthful there was one glimmer of hope….I did have my first pie floater from the institution that is Harry’s Cafe de Wheels on my lonely walk home from the city) .

So this year when I realised that I would probably be in Sydney again you could say that I was a little apprehensive. That was until my dear friend Mands came up with a brilliant idea: a really nice dinner at one of Sydney’s many fabulous restaurants. Then, regardless of how the rest of the night panned out, there would be good friends sharing good food and good wine. Perfect. Read the rest of this entry »

I love becoming reaquainted with old friends. The easy familiarity of being able to pick up where you left off can be truly golden and when you are able to feel instantly at ease with your old friend’s new love then so much the better.  Last night I was lucky enough to catch up with a friend from my food science student days. It had been about 5 years since I last saw Cam (where does the time go?) and I was thrilled to learn that he would be home from Paris with his lovely girl Jana over Christmas.

After initially planning on a dinner out at one of our many old Sydney haunts, I decided to ask them to dinner at my place instead. Sometimes the intimacy of your own home is a far better choice for a really good catchup than the noice and interruptions that come with the buzz of dining out.

I like to have a theme in mind when planning a menu and it took all of two seconds to decide the theme of last night’s dinner. Wanting to maximise time with my guests and taking into condsideration that Jana is a vego I opted for a mezze style Lebanese spread chosen from my latest favourite cookbook: Claudia Roden’s Arabesque (a gift from batgirl!) Read the rest of this entry »