Salad & Strawberries for Spring

Borlotti and Prosciutto Salad
I don’t really think todays recipe requires a story. It is fairly straight forward. This is great for warm nights and doesn’t require any thing else on the side. Everything is already there in this salad- bread, vegetable and meat. As always, make sure to use good olive oil, real bread and nice wine vinegar. If the vinegar you have is harsh just add a bit of sugar to make the flavour more interesting. Enjoy!

Ingredients
6 baby onions, whole and unpeeled
1 tin Italian borlotti beans
10 large black olives
150g Italian style bread, crust removed
100g prosciutto, finely sliced
1 handful of rocket leaves
25 ml red wine vinegar
80ml extra virgin olive oil
2 little sprigs of rosemary, very finely chopped
Salt and fresh black pepper

Method
Turn the oven on to 220c.Roast the onions until they are charred and soft. Mine took 45 minutes. Allow them to cool and then peel.
Drain the beans and rinse them in a colander, under a tap. Tip them on to a clean teatowel and allow them to dry. The dressing will adhere better to dry beans, but if you are short on time you skip this part. Just put them in a bowl and proceed.
Whisk together the vinegar, oil, rosemary and seasoning. Set aside to allow the rosemary to permeate.
Now tear the bread into rough little chunks about the same size as the olives.
Put the beans, onions, olives and the bread into a bowl and toss with the dressing. Let sit for 15 minutes to allow the bread to absorb some of the dressing.
When you are ready to eat, add the rocket and prosciutto slices, season and give it a final toss.
Divide between 2 flat plates and eat. Fantastic!

Strawberries with Lemon marscapone cream

We have enjoyed this dessert 2 nights in a row now so, I shall present it here. This is just a variation of strawberries and cream but easier because there is no whipping required.

Ingredients
2 punnets of strawberries, washed and hulled
Sugar to taste
1 lemon
250g marcapone
3 tsp sugar
50ml of thickened cream

Method
Halve your strawberries (or quarter them if they are large). Put them into a bowl with some sugar, toss lightly and cover. Leave them to macerate at room temperature., until the sugar has melted and the juices are released..
In the meantime, remove the zest from the lemon. Use only the yellow part and chop it as finely as you can.
Mix together the marcapone, sugar, cream and zest. Place in the fridge.
When you are ready to eat, spritz the strawberries with a few drops of lemon juice and put into small bowls. Make sure you include the pink juice as well and top with the cream. Heavenly.