In this Issue

About Sophia Lindop

Farm girl by birth, city girl by marriage… The only constant in my life has always been good, wholesome food, wine and company! Although I chose a variety of career paths in my life, I studied food and wine for six years before embarking on a detour that finally led me back to the kitchen, where I feel so at home! This newsletter is an invitation for you to come into my kitchen, with all its fragrances, warmth and laughter! Please come inside…
 

Website:
www.sophialindop.com
 

Blog:
http://capetable.typepad.com

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Contact me at contact@sophialindop.com

Dancing Queen...

...2008 was (how would you say...?) a character-building year, and now that my character has had enough building to last me the next couple of years, I am ready to make 2009 mine!  Paddy and I welcomed a group from the US into our home on the evening of 1st January, and Camille, Lee and I danced to ABBA's Dancing Queen while the rest sat smiling at us - it was the perfect, most positive start to the year!  And here I am, 30 days later, and so much has already happened!  But, back to recipes and food and eating...

Watermelon and Feta Salad

The watermelons are sweet and ripe on this side of the equator, and it would be a sin not to cash in on the opportunity.  Here's the quickest, easiest salad recipe ever. 

Ingredients
Fresh watermelon, pipped (or buy the one without pips)
Feta cheese
Fresh cherries (also in season)
Cracked black pepper
Dill

Method
1.  Use an ice-cream scoop to make watermelon balls.
2.  Top with chunks of feta cheese, cracked pepper and dill.
3.  Finish off with fresh cherries.

This is a refreshing salad to enjoy with a braai (barbeque), and you don't get easier than this!
 

Pasta Fresca with slow-roasted Italian Tomatoes

There's nothing like fresh pasta (pasta fresca).  It takes about 7 minutes to cook, and the texture and flavour is just amazing.  I recorded a recipe on my blog a while ago, so you have no excuse not to try it.  My favourite thing to do is to toss fresh pasta with burnt butter (yes, burnt!) and sage.  Here's how I do this - heat about 125g of salted butter for 2 or 3 portions of pasta.  As soon as the butter has melted, lower the heat to about half of what it was on and allow to simmer away until it separates and goes brown.  When it starts to go brown, add a handful of chopped fresh sage and allow the mixture to fuse and the butter to turn brown.  Take it off the heat and toss into the hot, cooked fresh pasta.  The flavour is amazing. 

A week or so ago I found the most wholesome looking Italian tomatoes, and seeing that mine that I grew from seeds that I smuggled in from Italy weren't ripe yet, I bought a bag.  Here's what I did:

Ingredients
Fresh Italian tomatoes, cut in half lengthways
Grapeseed oil
Maldon salt
Balsamic vinegar

Method
1.  Preheat the oven to 150°C.
2.  Sprinkle grapeseed oil onto the bottom of an oven dish.
3.  Place the tomatoes, cut side down onto the dish.
4.  Sprinkle with Maldon sea salt and balsamic vinegar.
5.  Roast these for about two hours at this low temperature.

These make amazing accompaniments to breakfasts, to salads, to pasta dishes, to pizzas...the list goes on.  They worked particularly well with my pasta fresca creation, topped with freshly grated Pecorino!

So, there you have it!  Two quick and very easy recipes to try out! 

I hope you watched my 8 minutes on Lunch Box on SABC 3 earlier this week...  For those living in Cape Town, catch me on Soli Philiander's show on Cape Talk this Thursday between 14h00 and 15h00.   

Until next time, enjoy the last few hours of January before we enter the month of love...

www.sophialindop.com