Tomato and pasta salad sprinkled with herbal oil

We had this yesterday at big party in our garden - it was a hit! Sounds like one you may have made before but sometimes its good to refresh your recipes....

Serves 10 in a buffet

500-750 grams of cherry/cocktail tomatoes

500 grams of short pasta (penne ideal)

1 clove of garlic

2 lemons

8-10 sprigs of basil

5-6 sprigs of parsley or chervil

1 ½ - 2 dl of olive oil

5 spring onions

150 grams of baby spinach or lamb’s lettuce

1 ½ dl toasted pine nuts or sunflower seeds

salt and black pepper

Boil the pasta ‘al dente’ and leave to cool.

2. Peel the garlic. Grate the lemon peel. Mix garlic, basil, parsley/chervil, grated lemon peel, the juice from one lemon and the olive oil until it becomes a green, smoothe herbal oil. Season with 1 ½ tsp of salt and 1/3 tsp of black pepper. Mix the herbal oil with the pasta.

3. Slice the tomatoes and the spring onions. Put in a dish pasta, tomatoes, spring onions and toasted pine nuts/sunflower seeds in layers, starting with the spinach/lamb’s lettuce.

Chocolate Choc Chip Cookies

Found on another food blog but cannot remember which one,so apologies to the blogger for stealing & reproducing with a couple of tweeks of my own.They really are delicious & fudgy & I dare you not to eat more than one !!

125g butter
250g brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
180g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarb of soda
35g cocoa
320g mixed dark & milk choc chips

Beat butter,sugar,vanilla & egg until smooth & combined.Sift in flours,bicarb,baking powder & cocoa. Then add choc chips. See how easy it is ?
Roll into balls on baking tray,lined with greaseproof/baking paper & flatten slightly.Bake in 180C oven for 10 mins for soft fudgy texture or 2 minutes longer if you want them more crunchier.Remove from oven & leave to rest for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Swiss Chard

Looky look !
Lovely rainbow swiss chard from my garden. I am so in love with this vegetable & its earthy flavours & only wish my family were too.....
...all I do is fry it with a little butter & garlic until slightly wilted then squeeze some lemon juice over it before serving.Yum !