A Strawberry salad to go with this summers BBQs!

Anyone else longing for hot summer nights and the smell of the BBQ? Yes, I know it's almost June but I do live in Sweden where the summer weather is about as predictable as bull on speed, so I haven't had much of a chance to use my tiny little bucket BBQ yet. Once has the weather given me the opportunity and even then it rained after a while. This strawberry salad is a good reminder that despite the weather, it is summer and the nights are a little bit lighter and people are a little bit happier. It's so simple, whip it up in about 1 minute flat, needs no preparation, just serve with a nice piece of meat or add more to it, like grilled asparagus and spring onions. 

The What

(Organic) baby spinach

(Organic) arugula

Romaine salad

Strawberries

Purple basil leaves

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

Salt and pepper

The How

Wash the salad and rinse the strawberries.

Cut the strawberries in half. 

Mix the salad and the strawberries in a large bowl, top with basil leaves, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper. 

Serve with freshly BBQ d meat, chicken or veggies. 

Tagliatelle Naepolitan with Pan Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Feta Cheese

Sometimes, less is more. 

When the current food trends seem just a tad too pretentious, it´s nice to go back to the basics. This classic tomato based sauce is so simple, yet so good, and can be varied indefinitely. Make your own version and change it depending on your mood; spicy, extra garlic, with Parmesan, with pecorino, with basil, with thyme... the combinations are many and all are good. I made mine a bit more basic and added my standard feta cheese and some quick pan roasted cherry tomatoes. 

The What: 

2 cans of crushed tomatoes, I recommend Mutti if you don't want to make it all yourself from scratch, tastes a lot better than many other brands!

2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Piri piri chili, to taste

1 cube of vegetable stock

½ cup of water

feta cheese

fresh basil

cherry tomatoes still on the vine

olive oil

a pinch of sugar, if you want

salt, pepper

The How: 

Carefully roast the cherry tomatoes in olive oil on low heat in a pan, until softened. Put to the side.

Gently fry the garlic and chili in olive oil in a pan, be careful not to burn the garlic. 

Add the crushed tomatoes, vegetable stock and the ½ cup of water and bring to the boil. Add salt and pepper to taste as well as a pinch of sugar if you want. Let simmer until the tagliatelle is ready.

Boil the pasta in salted water until al dente. 

Add the tagliatelle to the Napoletana sauce and make sure the sauce covers all of the pasta. 

Add basil to taste, arrange on a plate, crumble the feta over the pasta and top with the pan roasted cherry tomatoes. 

Serve while hot!