Some Italian treats for the summer

On August 22, 2016 by battenburgbelle

So a week in a beautiful Trullo in Puglia is over and I’m drooling over my photos of magnificent delights from the vegetable garden (not complaining, as I’m now sitting in a hotel overlooking the Bay of Naples, assuming Vesuvius isn’t going to chose today to start erupting again and wondering whether pizza for dinner might be a good idea).

I took the Trullo owners at their word and harvested aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes, figs and daily eggs from the chickens in the garden.

From the garden

From the garden

I don’t mind at all cooking on holiday but the produce in Puglia was so delicious it really didn’t need much effort from me, more just a question of putting lovely food on plates and seasoning it a bit.

We bought a generous portion of homemade mozzarella from a little shop in the stunning hilltop town of Altamura and a large bag of tomatoes from a man who wouldn’t sell us less than a kilo. So this kept us in tomato and mozzarella salad on a daily basis – a particular favourite of Missy B’s. Just dressed with salt and pepper and a slosh each of local olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Tomato and mozzarella salad

Tomato and mozzarella salad

But there were many tomatoes in the garden too, so there was bruschetta at any opportunity!

Tomato bruschetta

Tomato bruschetta

It wasn’t all tomato-based. The aubergines from the garden were so lovely that all they needed was a drizzle of olive oil and a bit of seasoning. Perfect! Or at least the second batch was perfect, once I’d mastered the slightly ferocious cooker…

A simple side dish of aubergines

A simple side dish of aubergines

I forced fruit salad on the family every day, making sure to select the ripest figs from the garden – possibly the best I’ve ever tasted. Can’t upload that photo for some reason.

 

I’ll be happy to be back in my own kitchen at the Nunnery in a couple of days, but sad that all my garden can offer is a few herbs…

 

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