Doing a salad
Hi gang,
Before kicking off this week’s newsletter, I want to acknowledge the pain and fear caused by yesterday’s Supreme Court announcement. I’ve donated £50 to the National Network of Abortion Funds in the US and another £50 (plus Gift Aid) to BPAS here in the UK. It feels like a drop in the ocean but it’s better than not doing anything at all.
It feels strange to just move on from that to salad, but… it doesn’t do the brain good to dwell on fear and anger. And anyway, this isn’t really a salad.
Let’s do a salad!
What is ‘doing a salad’? It’s a phrase that’s come into my vocabulary courtesy of a colleague, who used it to describe what someone did at a previous workplace. A new hire started on a Monday morning, and spent the week settling in, apparently quite happily. Then at about 11.30 on the Friday morning, he said he was ‘popping out for a salad’ and never came back. Now that’s gumption.
This salad is much less dramatic than that; with apologies to my Italian friends, this is my caprese-orzo summer salad. It’s my favourite thing to have for work lunches when tomatoes are in season, and I love that I can make 3-4 portions at once and have it quite happily sit in the fridge until I need it. I sometimes even - whisper it - mix a can of tuna in for some extra protein, or some baby spinach for extra microvitamins.
3 servings:
Ingredients:
150g dried orzo pasta (this can be weirdly hard to find in supermarkets; it’s often in the ‘Finest’/ ‘Taste the Difference’ ranges)
125g mozzarella ball (i.e. one standard packet),
3 round tomatoes, (or as many as you want really - you could use 10ish cherry tomatoes instead)
1 bell pepper of a colour of your choice
White wine vinegar
Nice oil - I used basil infused rapeseed oil but this would also be a great use for nice olive oil
Handful of fresh basil leaves if you have them, or dried if you don’t.
Salt & Pepper.
Method:
Pop the orzo on to cook like any other pasta - I find it usually only needs 5ish minutes as the pieces are so small, so set a timer and keep an eye. When cooked, drain using a sieve (if you reach for a colander as usual, you’ll lose all your pasta through the holes!) and pop back in the dry pan, stirred with about half a tablespoon of oil (no need to measure) to stop it sticking.
Cut the mozzarella up into little cubes, about a half a centimetre in each direction, and put them into whatever bowl or box you’re going to use to mix the salad. I love using the rectangular 2 litre Klip-It boxes for things like this - mixing the salad by putting the lid on and shaking is super easy, and I have a few of them so they stack neatly in the fridge and in my cupboards.
Quarter the tomatoes and then halve each lengthwise. Take the fleshy bit with the seeds out if you prefer. Pop those in the box with the cheese.
Chop the bell pepper using your preferred angle of attack and then into the box with those too.
Tip in the pasta and then a good sloosh each of vinegar and oil (you could mix them up into a vinaigrette first if you wanted, but there’s no need). I usually do a couple of tablespoons of vinegar and a little less of oil.
Season with salt and pepper, and use a pair of scissors to cut the basil leaves into little bits directly into the box, then put the lid on and shake. (Or use spoons to mix it like a normal person, if you want to).
This keeps for a good few days in the fridge, with the pasta soaking up the dressing and getting tastier on day 2 or 3. Like most salads, it tastes better at room temperature, so I usually take the day’s portion out of the fridge mid-morning.
Something good
Let me take this opportunity to remind you that the Paddington films exist. I had a stressful week last week and on Friday night a double feature of both of them was exactly what I needed. I’ll leave the marmalade sandwiches to Queen Liz though.
Another complete joy-bringer - I want to recommend Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico; it’s being made into a film with Lesley Manville, which I can’t wait to see. In the meantime, though, this is a total delight. It follows a London charlady in the 1950s, who through a series of adventures, ends up in Paris buying a Dior dress of her dreams. In the sequel, Mrs Harris Goes to New York (in the same volume), she ends up in America having even more capers. I read the whole thing in one long bath and can’t recommend it enough.
Speak soon,
Lily