Summer on you : with the hottest season of the year, trips out of town and days in the open air. Here are some suggestions to amaze friends and relatives even on the grass
For my experience as a cook, the perfect combination of cooking and summer can be translated into one word: picnìc . I love to have lunch with my family or friends surrounded by lush nature stimulates my curiosity and tickles my inspiration to create new dishes.
Enough with the usual dry and dry sandwiches, unseasoned salads, cold sticky pastas, even a simple picnic with some care and a touch of good taste can turn into a gourmet experience.
First of all, for a self-respecting picnìc you need an adequate location ; a good idea can be to immerse yourself in an olive grove or in an orchard with a high aromatic charge, always having shaded areas available.
Let’s move on to setting up our “table”: I recommend a light-colored cotton tablecloth, a few pillows and maybe a couple of lanterns to hang on the trees around. The latter option is particularly suitable for a very popular evening picnic in my Romagna.
Remember, moreover, out of respect for nature to avoid or minimize the use of plastic, for example with glass bottles and containers which in addition to better preserving the dishes are also a better sight for the eyes.
Now let’s focus on the core of our picnìc, the most important and tasty part: the food.
Respect seasonality. So, healthy and quality food, but above all in harmony with the summer.
This is the menu I designed for the So Wine So Food friends’ picnic basket.
– salted meat carpaccio with radishes and rocket with anchovies
– cold crispy venus rice, raw red prawns, zucchini with scapece and syrup of red peppers
-salted crepe with a mix of vegetables: aubergines, peppers, courgettes, green beans and a béchamel flavored with garlic
– cream of chard and leek with croutons, bran peppers and vanilla oil
– smoked salmon carpaccio, bread lemon, horseradish mayonnaise
– yogurt and mint cream with apricot and vanilla sauce with diced marinated apricots
