Happy Monday!  What signifies summer more than outdoor grilling, fresh basil, garden tomatoes, and great family and friends to join and share?  This past weekend we hosted Mamma’s Zesty birthday celebration.  It was filled with grilled pork tenderloin topped with an apricot and apple chutney, bbq turkey and beef sliders, delicious salads, roasted vegetables, fresh bruschetta and of course a big birthday cake.

The dish I want to share with you today may just be my favorite pasta salad ever.  I was contemplating flavors and browsing a few recipes online when I came across this Jamie Oliver recipe and immediately knew this would be a hit.  I had all the ingredients on hand and I knew it would match the summer theme I was going for.  I did a couple of swaps including adding some creamy feta cheese and omitting the yellow grape tomatoes and olives.

Here is the Zesty adapted version.

Ingredients

• 310g/11oz fusili pasta
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 255g/9oz red cherry tomatoes
• 3-4 Tbsp. Feta cheese
• 2 Tbsp. fresh chives
• 1 handful of fresh basil
• ½ a Cucumber
• 4 Tbsp. white wine vinegar, or to taste
• 7 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Throw in the pasta and cloves of garlic, boil until al dente, drain and run under cold water to cool.
2. Put the garlic to one side to use for the dressing.
3. Put the pasta into a bowl.



4. Chop the tomatoes, chives, basil and cucumber into pieces about half the size of the pasta and add to the bowl.
5. Squash the garlic cloves out of their skins and mush in a pestle and mortar. Add the vinegar, oil and seasoning.



6. Drizzle this over the salad, adding a little more seasoning to taste.



7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: For an even more condensed garlic flavor you can roast a whole head of garlic in the oven at 350 for about an hour.  Just cut the top of the head off, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and wrap with tin foil.

Here are a few snap shots at some of the eats from the weekend.  We served 14 people and had a blast.

Have a super Monday and I will talk to you on Wednesday morning.

Take care

zesty

I am sick of rain!  It rained, what feels like the last 14 days straight, and I am tired of it.  On the weekend it managed just to stay cloudy long enough for our team to build the baby barn for habitat for humanity.  It was quite fun and our barn managed to stand up and look relatively similar to the rest.

The food weekend was quite minimal… we ate out on Friday night as part of our tradition and Saturday was a bit hectic.  On Saturday evening in between raindrops I managed to sneak out a pizza on the barbecue and it was a nice treat.  A simple crust and simple toppings made for a fresh summer pizza without all the grease and without the summer.

This dough recipe comes from Everyday Food by Martha Stewart. I really enjoyed this recipe as it turned out really well. For me pizza is all about the crust! Toppings are good but I am a huge fan when it’s light on the toppings and sauce but heavy on the crust.

If you are interested in a new whole wheat pizza dough, I highly recommend this recipe. It is very simple and produces a great texture. I opted for a thin crust and placed the pizza directly on the grill for a little crunch. YUM!

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 1/2 Cups Warm Water
• 2 Packets (1/4 Ounce Each) Active Dry Yeast
• 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 2 Tsp. Salt
• 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

Pizza Toppings

• Basil Pesto ( Love this! )
• Pine nuts
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Tomatoes
• Arugula

Method

1. Place water in large bowl – sprinkle with yeast.
2. Let stand until foamy (about 5 minutes).
3. Brush another large bowl with Olive Oil.
4. In bowl with yeast, whisk sugar, oil and salt. Stir in flours until a sticky dough forms.
5. Transfer to oiled bowl (brush top of dough with oil).
6. Cover dough with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place until it doubles in size (about an hour).
7. Turn dough onto a well floured surface and knead until smooth.
8. Preheat Barbecue to Medium-High on one side.
9. Prepare in shape of pizza and begin to assemble pizza dough.
10. Spread pesto and then some cheese.
11. Add toppings from above except arugula
12. On the BBQ, place pizza on the side with no heat and close the lid
13. Time varies depending on the thickness of your crust (12-20 minutes).
14. Add arugula at the very end with some more feta cheese.
15. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: I like to use indirect heat for the pizza so that the barbecue acts like an oven and doesn’t burn the pizza before it is cooked.  Indirect heat refers to putting heat on one side of the barbecue and placing the food on the opposite side.

A Fun Filled Sunday

Sunday, June 6th, marked a special day in the zesty household.  Mrs Zesty’s birthday!! It is not a big a deal as it used to be as we get older but we still had a great day.  Breakfast out at one of our favorite restaurants  – Cora’s and a fun afternoon.  We wrapped up the day with some Dairy Queen Ice cream cake and a few laughs.  All in all a fun day despite the heavy rain and thunder storms. Have a fantastic Monday and I will touch base with you on Wednesday with hopefully something exciting.

Take care

zesty