A Very Good Menu for a Nice Summer-y Lunch

What I cooked for my godfather's birthday

It’s been a while now, since I’ve done one of those posts where I tell you what I’ve been cooking. So I thought I might share a menu I put together recently to celebrate my godfather’s birthday: I hosted a little lunch at home for him, just with a few close friends, and while technically it was a birthday sort of a celebration, it also occurs to me that it was a good sort of a menu for any occasion, most especially on a summer’s day. Incidentally, now I think about it, it occurs to me also that much of the menu would work well as a picnic, should you want to eat lunch (or supper), outside and sitting on the grass. Love a good picnic: more on picnics here! Also, if you’re into picnics too, then this book is the official picnic bible. I digress.

So, what did we eat? I did my usual, which is no starters, and big dishes of food for everyone to share. My godfather doesn’t like to eat meat, so I made a nice big savoury tart as the centrepiece for the meal. I love a good savoury tart at a moment like this; they always look impressive. I made a Fennel and Parmesan Tart: here is the recipe (one I created for the Sunday Times a while back). I used shop bought shortcrust pastry (I like this one - it’s really buttery and good), which I blind-baked in a quiche tin; then for the filling a mix of thinly sliced fennel and onion (2 bulbs of each), mixed with a dash of cream, a drizzle of oil, and lots of grated parmesan. That’s it. You don’t have to cook the fennel or the onion or anything; you just toss it raw into the pastry, and as it bakes it softens just enough to be yummy while still retaining a firm, crisp texture; and the cheese just melts and turns all deliciously golden. I like a good grinding of black pepper in there too. It’s so simple to make, but so very more-ish: one of my favourite recipes.

To go with a tart, I also tossed together a crisp green salad with a mustard-y dressing (I used my go-to recipe from A Table for Friends, but I’ve also shared pretty much everything I know about green salads more generally here). And also a nice tomato salad: basically a mix of baby tomatoes (the baby ones somehow are always sweeter than the large ones) in different shapes, sizes and colours. Just sliced in half and tossed together with a good glug of olive oil, a grinding of black pepper, a sprinkling of salt flakes, and at the very last minute before serving (because otherwise in WILL wilt) a few torn, fresh basil leaves. One tomato trick I picked up from a food stylist a few years back: always slice your tomatoes from top to tail, rather than across the body, it creates that pretty pattern in their centre that somehow just makes the tomato sing. It’s one of those silly little things that has made a surprisingly big difference to my life.