Simple summer dishes using in-season ingredients feel so right they just can’t be wrong! This wonderful little dinner came about when I had very little in the kitchen to cook with apart from a few potatoes, some baby gem and some beetroot. If I’m left with a glut of tomatoes I always roast them in the oven, it’s a great way to make them go further. You can use them straight away while they’re still warm from the oven or store them in a jar with olive oil to be added to pasta or in sandwiches.
I get very excited about cooking, especially in the summer where I can shimmy, (yes shimmy!) into the garden to collect things like chive flowers, pea shoots and nasturtiums to make dishes really look amazing. The ultimate highlight of this particular dish is the griddled baby gem lettuce, a trick I’ve fallen in love with since coming back from the US, where it seems to be quite common. It gives the lettuce a deep smoky flavour and really makes them star of the show. You want to griddle them just until they have some nice charred marks but haven’t lost their shape and gone all soft. Give this little summer salad a try this weekend, it’s simple but wonderful flavours will really brighten up your day!
