Alice Waters & Lina Stores Ltd

Whilst looking on the penguin books website I came across a series of cook book's that have been re- released a few months back http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/penguin_food/index.html, which is a 20 book collection of food writing over the last 400 years. The book that I wanted to check out the most was by Alice Waters called "A Delicious Cooking Revolution". She is a founder of a restaurant called Chez Panisse in California & part of the slow food cooking movement. The recipes are very straight forward & easy & I really liked the sound of her orange & olive salad, so I bought it!

Boar

There is a section on seasonal menu ideas & one idea in the summer section I liked the sound of for lunch was sliced tomatoes with basil! So so simple but with the right tomatoes, delicious. I work around the corner from a lovely Italian Deli in Soho called Lina Stores Ltd on Brewer street so been popping there quite a lot this summer & getting amazingly tasty plum tomatoes, a bag of basil & some lovely focaccia bread as well as the odd slice of Chocolate souffle cake, slices of Wild boar Prosciutto & Pecorino cheese. My friend Jason had a lovely looking Parma ham & aubergine Focaccia (coming atcha) sandwich which they make up fresh. Definitely worth checking out!

So anyway this is how I've been preparing it & I've been using Alice Waters recipe for Vinaigrette for the sauce. 

2 Plum tomatoes sliced diagonally

Salt & Freshly ground Pepper seasoning

Good handful of basil chopped finely

A lovely Slice of Focaccia or crusty bread

Tomatoes & Basil

For the Vinaigrette 

Pour into a small bowl 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar then add Salt & Freshly ground Pepper. 

                                                                         Stir to dissolve the salt then use a fork to beat in a little at a time 3 to 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Thats it! 

Then pour the Vinaigrette over the tomatoes & basil, add some Salt & Pepper & Hey presto. Obviously bread to soak up the everything, delicious. 

This takes around 10 minutes to prepare, is very light, healthy & tasty. Perfect for the rest of our sunny summer (perhaps not).