vegetarian feast

'Casa Moro' pumpkin and chickpea salad

Juicy medium rare iron filled steak or big can of chickpeas?

I could probably easily be vegetarian, but I do need a little animal flesh, or the stock from some broiling bones of chicken. Pure un-tampered genuine protein. I'm a carnivore at heart, but I do have a weakness for meaty pulses (I'm sure most men might gasp at the horror of receiving such a dish...'where's the meat?').

If you have chosen to be a vegetarian, do it this way, as my friend did for me one supper. Or, go down the spectacular vegetarian options route as Yotam Ottolenghi provides (do I have to tell you who he is again?). For whatever reason you might be a vegetarian, please please please, I beg of you, don't tell me you eat those bizarre 'fake' protein, mycoprotein nuggets, or even worse, have fake 'chicken' or fake 'sausages.' Surely if you are vegetarian, you don't need to be tricked into thinking you're eating a real sausage or piece of meat, AND surely as a supposedly health conscious/weight conscious individual you would know the wonders of the pulse/wild, red, brown rice/root vegetable/herbs and flavouring world?

I shiver when someone mentions the word 'Quorn.'

Do you?

Blah.

My friend chose a delicious Ravinder Bhogal portobello mushroom recipe and a 'Moro' pumkin and chickpea salad.

I was not dissatisfied.

Let the adventure begin...

'Casa Moro' chickpea and pumpkin salad

Pumpkin and chickpea salad with tahini taken from 'Casa Moro' (4)

Salad:

• 1 kg pumpkin or squash (peeled, de-seeded and cut into cubes)
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper
• 400g can cooked chickpeas, drained
• 1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
• 4 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander

Tahini:

• 1 garlic clove, crushed to a paste with a pinch of salt
• 3 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp tahini paste
• 2 tbsp water, to taste
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Oven - 220 'C/425 F/Gas 7

Toss pumpkin with garlic, allspice, olive oil and some salt and pepper. Place on a try in the oven for about 15-25 minutes until soft. Remove and allow to cool.

While the pumpkin is cooling, make the tahini sauce. Mix the crushed garlic with lemon juice and add the tahini. Now thin with the water and olive oil and check the seasoning.

Assemble the salad by mixing together the pumpkin mix, chickpea, red onion and coriander. Pour on the tahini sauce and remaining oil and toss carefully. Season with salt and pepper.

Ravinder Bhogal portobello mushrooms

Portobello mushroom and cheddar crumble (4)

• 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 8 portobello mushrooms
• extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

Tomato sauce:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 fat garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 dried red chilli, crumbled
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• sea salt and black pepper
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Crumble:

• 200g breadcrumbs
• 1 heaped tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 20g parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 50g cheddar cheese, finely grated
• 1 handful of torn fresh basil leaves

Oven - 190 'C/375 F/Gas 5

Mix all the crumble ingredients together, season and set aside.

For the sauce, saute the onion until soft and add the chopped garlic and chilli and fry for a couple of minutes, then add the tomatoes, sugar and seasoning. Let it bubble on a low heat for 15-20 minutes to reduce down. Add a little bit of water if it does get too thick. Add the parsley at the end.

Peel and trim the mushrooms.

Spread half the tomato sauce over the base of a large roasting tin, then top with the slice garlic and mushrooms, stalk-side up. Pour the rest of the sauce over the top and finish with the crumble.

Drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until it is bubbling on top.

fresco fresca

Fresh fresh fresh is the produce and small small small are the shops. That is the beauty of island life. Every bit of produce is up front, in your face and ready to be served. Sure, there is little supermarket, but they are pretty empty. Anyone in there are often after a quick purchase of milk or toiletries...or they are passing tourists! Down one street towards Ischia Porto there are about 4 small shops of the same 'genre.' No one seems to be in competition with each other. Everyone seems to be selling the same thing, and each one has a different character. The one similarity is the absolute marvellousness of the fruit and vegetables displayed outside that one can fondle and play with to assure of the right ripeness.

Each little shop also seems to come with a little lady looking like to be in her 70's, each of whom are willing to offer advice if needed. I silently crept up into one that looked like it was closed. For a moment I thought I had just walked into someone's house. Only the hue of natural daylight highlighted the products.

The power was out.

...but still in business, however, the lady was gabber gabber gabbering outside. I picked up a little tin of tonno (tuna) and started eyeing up the cannellini and borlotti beans. Within the blink of an eye she reappeared to my side and gave me the nod of approval that I was heading in the right direction. She pursed her mouth and signalled with her fingers that it was a very good combination.

Ah ha, I know.

....I've been making this dish for years now! I was desperate to respond, but only knowing a few words could only muster a grunt and a giggle.

Stupid English girl.

In fact, everything is so fresh that one doesn't even need to go to the shop. Upon opening the fridge, observing the strawberries, cherries and peaches and being offered an apricot, I was told that they were all from the gardens of friends.

'...many people have a little patch of land...and they grow many fruits.'


Others also have pumpkins.

By golly this makes eating fresh easy. I like fruit. I like vegetables, but when the choice has been made for you and it's on your doorstep then it's simple. No decisions. Everything will be vibrant. Everything is colourful. The lemons look like they've been injected with a growth serum.

Things are the RIGHT way around here. Fresh fruit and vegetables on display at the front. First. Foremost. Attracting salivating mouths and glittering eyes. Distracting and mesmerizing. Then as you step in you're hit with the extra virgin olive oils, pulses, pastas and tinned vegetables and tucked away in corners are the more manufactured things. They are almost...almost ordered like the Mediterranean food pyramid (if you don't know what that looks like then here it is below). It's a far cry away from being bombarded at the front with coca cola, milk chocolate digestive biscuits and cheese string deals in the UK supermarkets. Here, they want you to eat well. Italians wouldn't understand why you wouldn't?

It's sad that we've lost many many 'local' shops :( and instead we've turned into a conveyor belt franchise for money making...but who are the ones with the obesity and diabetes problem?? Thickos. A simple solution to our nations health problem. You do the maths...

Mediterranean Food Pyramid