There is
the crunchiness of the bread while there is the crispiness of the
greens. There is their juicy sweetness that melds with tang of the
lemon and the the pungency of the garlic which floats on the mellow
pepperiness of the olive oil.
Use a nice olive oil for your dressing,
as it really does add to the flavour. I'll share a little secret with
you – I have my everyday olive oil and then I have slightly more
expensive extra virgin olive oil which I will only ever use unheated
and where the flavour of the oil becomes a component of the dish.
Then there is the creaminess and the piquant of the pecorino against
the sweet tanginess of the roasted vine tomatoes that just bring the
tread of tastes back as they perfectly compliment the clean verdi of
your broccoli, sugar snaps and asparagus. Here again you have the
colours of the Italian flag - Add a grinding of salt and pepper and
what you have is the glory of the Italian flag flying!
The quantities that I have given are
enough for two people or four four as a quick little taster.
Ingredients
2 thickish slices of a thin loaf of
day-old ciabatta
6 baby tomatoes on the vine
6 tender stems of broccoli
6 Sugar snap peas
6 thin green asparagus (you can use french green beans if asparagus are not in season or - heaven forbid!- you have an aversion to them)
2 tbs good quality olive oil
half a lemon
half a clove of garlic
salt and pepper to taste.
To make
Pop the two slices of ciabatta into the
oven on a tray and pop the vine tomatoes on the same tray and drizzle
over with a very little olive oil. If you tend to do a million things
at once, set the timer so that the bread doesn't burn. At 180
degrees, assuming the oven is hot already and the tray is in the
middle of the oven, time for 7 mins. Turn the slices of bread and
then set the timer for a further 5 mins.
In the meantime put a saucepan on the
stove with a bit of water and a dash of salt. Bring to the boil while
you prep your tender stems and your asparagus. By nipping off the
bottom ends of the greens and the little stalks of the sugar peas.
Pop the asparagus and broccoli into the boiling water and then after
you have turned the bread add the peas. The objective is that the
greens are just tender but still crisp.
While the greens are being blanched,
remove the bread from the oven and rub each side with the half clove
of garlic and squash the tomatoes over the bread. Move the squashed
tomatoes to the side and then rip or cut the bread into 2 cm strips.
Drain the greens and add one tablespoon
of olive oil, add salt and pepper and squeeze over the lemon juice.
Toss. Add the bread and the squashed tomatoes and then toss again an
dish up immediately.
A little trick for serving
Use tongs to pull out the greens from
the bowl and arrange on a plate. Then take a spoon and scoop out the
bread and the tomatoes and arrange them on top. It's ok if you get a
bit of the bread in between the greens but try to make sure that it
is evenly distributed between portions. Then spoon over the dressing
at the bottom of the bowl – there shouldn't be too much and then
add the last bit of olive oil.
Shave the pecorino over the top and
serve.
Wine suggestions
I would definitely go with a white wine
for this, one that has quite intense green flavours, in fact (I'd
tend to go grass instead of guavas). You could have a Pinot Grigio
since it is an easy going and fairly innocuous wine a lot of the time
– you'll probably get a little bit of a fruity, maybe lemon tone
from this which will compliment the meal. Alternatively a Chenin
Blanc would go well – not one that is wooded – as there seemed to
be a little trend towards treating the grape in recent times. I think
that a little bit of crisp green apple on the palate would be quite
nice – especially if you have used a pungent garlic. Also the
acidity of this will be mitigated by the cheese but at the same time
stand up to the strong flavour of the pecorino.
