Saturday, December 13, 2008

Christmas salad - for Sue Gray


Last Sunday I was having a Christmas lunch at Sue's house. She asked me to bring insalata caprese. Hmm! I was happy to bring a salad but not one that I was going to slice and arrange and travel with. I know the end result of that: all the arranging slides all over the place and a mess ensues. In my view the best food to transport is in a bowl!

So I thought of an alternate insalata caprese that I sometimes do, essentially made with cherry tomatoes (not sliced normal ones) and cherry bocconcini (not the normal sized ones sliced). And as it was Christmas I added a couple of other red and green ingredients. When it came to dressing, I was just going to slosh on some olive oil when I remembered my piri piri oil. So I drizzled a bit of that over. If you don't have piri piri oil to hand just use straight olive oil or add a smidgin of sambal oelek or chopped fresh chili to the oil. But whatever you do, don't drown it either with oil or add vinegar as the great thing about this salad is the fresh, crisp taste.

Ingredients

20 cherry bocconcini
1 punnet cherry tomatoes
Basil
2 Lebanese cucumbers
1 red pepper
Piri piri oil

Mode

Drain the bocconcini and slice in half before adding to serving bowl
Slice the cherry tomatoes and add to bowl
Slice Lebanese cucumbers in half lengh-wise and them chop into chunks before adding to bowl
Seed and roughly chop red pepper and add to bowl
Detach basil leaves from stalks and tear up roughly while adding to vegetable and cheese mixture
Drizzle a small amount of piri piri oil over top
Toss and serve for a colourful Christmassy salad.

Enjoy!

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