Roasted Peppers with Anchovies

This is a delicious summer salad, on it's own, as a side or as a topping on toasted maltese bread. Can be also made for vegetarians by omitting the anchovies.

From when i was a little boy, every summer i remember my godfather roasting peppers on the naked flame and meticulously removing the charred skin to make this delicious salad. It always seemed like a very laborious process for a side but it was worth the effort.

I recently found this recipe which is very similar to what he used to do but with added anchovies... and an easier way to skin the roasted peppers... so i tried it and the result was delicious.

Parma ham and mozzarella salad with basil fig balsamic vinegrette

Another wonderful light salad for summer.

Maltese rucola and fig salad

It's summer here and it's fig time in malta. After work I go for a walk in the countryside and as fig trees grow on the walkways, I help myself to this wonderfull fruit. 

This is one of my favourite summer salads and it's very easy and simple. 

Tabouleh

Tabouleh is uswally greener, but when I did this I had a limited amount of parsley

• Summer is a good time to try different salads. 
• The first time I was in Damascus I had this wonderful parsley salad and I have been trying to find the recipie ever since... 
• Tabouleh... it is very refreshing and tasty and you can still get free parsley from your vegetable vendor here in Malta... actually it's the only free thing we still get :)

So try it out and enjoy... 

Barley with rucola and parmesan

This is a very easy to prepare summer dish which could serve both as a healthy lunch or else as a filling dinner.  Smaller portions could also be served as a starter.  

Ingredients
(for 2 )
 

1.5 cups cooked barley
rucola or mixed green leaves
parmesan shavings
olive oil
fresh baby tomatoes
olive oil

Method
 

1. Cook barley as per instructions
    
2. Run under cold water to stop it from cooking any further
    
3. In a salad bowl add the sieved barley together with  the mix rucola / mixed green leaves
    
4. Add some parmesan shaving / pecorino cheese
    
5. Cut the baby tomatoes in half and add it to ingredients
    
6. Season with salt and pepper and extra virgin olive oil.  (I used Tartufo flavoured olive oil).

 

Mediterranean Couscous

Feel like something really easy to do, very fast and can be adapted with whatever ingredients you have at hand... This is one of my favourites when I don't know what to do or when I do not have time. Can be served as a main course or as a side salad.

Ingredients:

460ml stock (or stock powder dissolved in water)

300g couscous

quater cup raisins

1 ts tumeric

1 small chillie chopped

1 ts sage

1 ts thyme

400g Chick peas boiled and drained (or 1 can)

8 chopped sundried tomatoes

2 chopped peppered gozitan cheeslets (gbejniet tal bzar)

1 tbs capers

1 chopped pickled onion (basla tal-pikles)

Olive Oil

Method:

In a small pan, bring the stock to a boil (or dissolve the stock powder in boiling water).

Add the raisins, tumeric, chillies, sage and thyme to the stock and stir.

As soon as it starts to boil, turn off the heat, add the couscous, stir once and cover for 5 min.

In the meantime, chop the sundried tomatoes, the pickled onion and the cheeslets.

After the 5min, add some olive oil to the couscous fluff with a fork.

In a mixing bowl, add the couscous and the rest of the ingredients.

Mix and serve.

You can also garnish with some chopped almonds.

Enjoy.