Pizza with garden leaves, chive flowers and proscuitto

Mr Rigg rustled up some homemade pizzas last night to enjoy in the garden for dinner.  This incredible heatwave we’re experiencing in England this weekend has rendered us useless – the heat is just too heavy to do much of anything.

We used our tried and tested Jamie Oliver pizza dough recipe which can be found here.   I made a simple tomato sauce: some sliced garlic cooked gently in olive oil, a sprinkle of dried wild oregano, add a tin of blitzed up cherry tomatoes, and season with salt, pepper and Agave syrup or honey if a little extra sweetness wanted/needed.

After the pizzas were cooked in a hot oven topped with the homemade tomato sauce and grated mozzarella we wandered down to the bottom of the garden in search of some extras.

We garnished our pizzas with some baby salad leaves, a sprinkle of chive flowers and some shreds of proscuitto.  Sliced into wedges on a wooden board to share – no cutlery needed. 

I wish the weekend would never end.

Salami and Fennel Linguine

So last night we made a(nother) Jamie Oliver recipe – Salami and Fennel Linguine (Jamie calls it Spaghetti with Salami, Fennel and Tomatoes).  It was yummy, with the delicate flavours of the fennel coming through a hearty tomato sauce and fatty slithers of salami.  This is my tweaked version of Jamie’s.

Salami and Fennel Spaghetti

Feeds two

spaghetti or linguine for two
a couple of thick slices of salami (I used Milano salami and asked my deli to cut it into thick slices rather than thinly sliced)
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
small bulb of fennel, finely sliced
feathery fennel tops
1 tin of tomatoes (I used tinned cherry tomatoes)
pinch of dried chilli flakes
chunk of stale bread, whizzed into breadcrumbs
sprig of rosemary

Take your slices of salami and cut them into matchsticks. 

In a pan, heat a couple of glugs of olive oil and add the salami, sliced garlic and crushed fennel seeds.  Stir over a low heat until the fat starts to cook out of the salami and it starts to crisp ever so slightly.

Add the sliced fennel and stir – cook for a couple of minutes until soft.  Add the tinned tomatoes and a pinch of dried chilli.  Cook on a low heat for about 25 minutes until the sauce has thickened.  Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, heat a pan of boiling salted water and cook your spaghetti or linguine.

In a small frying pan, heat a glug of olive oil and add the sprig of rosemary.  As the rosemary starts to sizzle and release its aromas into the oil, add the breadcrumbs and fry until golden and crispy.  Remove the rosemary sprig and discard.

Drain the pasta and toss it into your tomato sauce.  You can either stir through the crispy golden breadcrumbs and serve, or sprinkle them over the top of your pasta once plated up.  Top with a few green feathery fennel fronds.

*Taken from and slightly adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef.

My week in food

A quick hello at the end of long day.  N and I have had a lovely week of cooking and eating – we’ve made fairy cakes with butter icing and raspberry jam…pink gooseberry and nettle fool…pasta with homemade fresh tomato sauce and basil dressing…and pea, mint and taleggio risotto. 

I’ve spent hours stood in my vegetable patch munching on so many peas that I couldn’t eat anymore….picked juicy strawberries that have never reached the kitchen…tidied the allotment and watched ladybird larvee turn into ladybirds…and been to a lovely garden party in Walton Lea’s walled garden.