Watermelon, fetta and proscuitto salad

I've just returned from a lovely trip to England, land of chavs, squirrels, waistcoats, ale, elderberries, red leicester, a thousand kinds of pie and other gorgeous stodge.

Being whisked straight from 20 odd hours of airplane food to a big family christmas lunch, my stomach's been suffering. So I decided, before my arteries turn into cumberland sausage, I need to get into some light fresh food. Conveniently enough I've landed back in Oz at summer's peak. Mangoes, cherries, plums and watermelons abound.



Watermelon's an excellent restorative - according to wartime stories my granddad once cured himself of typhus by eating nothing else for weeks. It might not fix your particular exotic disease but it'll probably do a bit to sort you out after festive overindulgence.



Ok, so the recipe to follow might seem a little weird, but have no fear, it's not just one of my pot luck bucket concoctions, it comes from the very wise pen of Stephanie Alexander. If there's any woman you'd trust in your kitchen it's her. If she told me to mix beetle skins with custard I'd probably do it and love it (but then again, I'm pretty easily led). Seriously, it's delicious.

Half a watermelon, cut into big cubes
200g soft fetta, cubed (goat, danish, bulgarian, good soft greek)
6 slices proscuitto, cut into broad slices
2 tbsp olives, pulled off the pips (I'd go for green olives or manzanillo in this recipe, kalamata's always good otherwise)
Juice of one lemon
Half an onion, sliced as thinly as you can humanly manage
Half a bunch of mint, de-stalked, chopped if you like
Half a bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped (optional, it doesn't really need it, I'm just a parsley fiend)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt, pepper




Get yourself a hefty bowl and add the watermelon, fetta, onion, olives, lemon juice, olive oil, about 1tsp salt and the same of pepper. With clean hands, toss it all lightly so the watermelon doesn't bruise. Taste a bit of melon and add a little more salt if necessary.

Add the mint and proscuitto, mix gently until just combined, then serve and eat immediately. Preferably in a hammock.




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Roasted vegie antipasto platter

In the middle of spring, gorgeous fresh vegetables are at their peak. A big platter of roasted vegies with some soft cheese, dips, and a bready accompaniment makes simple but decadent looking meal.

It's especially handy when you're skint but have a big horde of friends coming round to eat and drink you out of house and home and throw up in your garden. Food in bellies increases alcohol tolerance which equals less cleaning for you!

Head into your local food market or greengrocer and buy a handful each of whatever's cheap and tasty looking. Mushrooms, onions, garlic, leeks, zucchinis, eggplant, tomato, capsicum, carrots, fennel, asparagus, corn on the cob, pumpkin, yellow squash are my favourites.



Get about half a kilo of the cheapest fetta your supermarket sells - this is usually danish or bulgarian. Maybe 300g of olives if you're into them. If you've got a heftier budget, artichokes and sundried tomatos are also a mainstay of these kind of platters and way too much hassle to make yourself.

Top this off with a big bag or two of lebanese bread, a pane di casa or a few turkish breads (if they're cheap, forget the $5 rubbish you get in a supermarket). A few bottles of clean-skin wine is a good idea, but otherwise get your mates to byo drinks.

Chop the vegetables into smallish chunks and spread them out across a couple of baking trays. Spacing is important - if they are too bunched up then the vegies steam rather than roasting. Then you drizzle them in olive oil, salt and pepper, rub it in, then roast them in a hot oven (200+ degrees) until delicious.

Some veg cooks faster than others, a very rough guide is:

10 minutes - Small mushrooms, garlic (don't take the skin off until it's roasted), asparagus, leeks
20 minutes - Onion, fennel, sweet potato, carrot, corn
30 minutes - Tomato, capsicum, eggplant, pumpkin, zucchini, squash

Check it all every 10 minutes or so, take out what's ready and lay it out on a big platter. Don't worry about the different cooking times - these things are best cold. Add the cheese and olives and any other antipasto you fancy.



Now we get the bread sorted, depending on what you bought:

Lebanese bread - rub it in a tablespoon of olive oil, and a bit of salt and pepper, bake for about 10 minutes, turning once until stiff and light brown. It will break into delicious scoopable shards.

Turkish bread - slice it into 1cm thick strips, cut them in half, rub them in a little olive oil, salt, pepper then roast them top side up until lightly browned.

Pane di casa - slice it very thinly, rub with oil, salt, pepper on one side then bake, turning once, until light brown and firm.



Then you're ready to go - delicious, simple meal for multitudes. Or just yourself - it's my favourite lazy deluxe dinner for nights in.


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