Market Day

After work today I dashed excitedly to a local Italian Market, a special event held as part of the May Day celebrations of a nearby village.

The market was only a small affair but it was a joy to go round.  Each stall sold a different product and all of which were authentic, Italian produce made locally to the sellers.

I was only aiming to spend a token amount of money – maybe £25-£30 but by the end of my trip I’d spent in excess of £100, eek, it’s a good job payday has just occurred

Coming home with olive oils, salami, prosciutto, dried fruits, olives, pickled garlic, fresh fruits and vegetables, Castellucio lentils, pecorino (Tuscan & Puglian), parmigiana, soft Sicilian cheese and goats cheese.  Along with a couple of bottles of vino (wine).

My only regret is that in my haste to get off to the market, before I missed the excellent bargains, I forgot to take my camera, so no pictures of the stalls I’m afraid.  Oh and that I missed out on the mozzarella too, gutted is the word I think.

But what to make with all this lovely fresh produce? So many choices and so much inspiration available.  Turning to Dennis Cotter’s Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me: A Chef’s Stories and Recipes from the Land for a little paradise in the kitchen, I suddenly felt I knew what I had to cook without even opening the book.

With the weather being as it is, sunny and rather warm, I decided on salad. A warm lentil and farro salad to be precise.  

These primary ingredients didn’t come from the market though, instead they came from a delightful small store in Assisi, the place I holidayed last May.

The Assisi store is tiny but like an Aladdin’s Cave, full of every delight you could imagine, not to mention selling the best porchetta sandwiches (as a side note if you’re wanting to recreate a lovely porchetta Nigella Lawson has a great recipe in Forever Summer).

To the mixture of cooked farro and lentils I added some sauteed fennel, red pepper, diced olives, slivers of pickled garlic and herbs (fennel top and parsley) and plenty of good olive oil, before topping with a round of goats cheese and a few niblets of Tuscan pecorino.

Both the farro and the lentils have a deep resonate nutty flavour which is greatly enhanced by the salty pecorino and brought out even more by the sweetness of the vegetables whose own natural sugar begin to carmelise during the saute. 

I love the way the soft and creamy yet sharp goats cheese remains cold against warm with the lentils, giving a most pleasurable sensation upon eating. 

The balsamic (I use a 25 year old one from Spoletto) is by no means essential, but it does bring out the sweetness of the cheese and round the deepness of the grains perfectly.

The combination was out of this world, nothing fancy but incredible fresh produce working in harmony with each other.

This is also my first entry to CLICK a food photography competition run by Jay and Bee over at Jugalbandi. This months theme is beans & lentils, I hope you don’t have to incorporate both elements, as I only have luscious lentils in this recipe, although some beans would be great here too.

The Recipe (Serves 4)

• 200g castellucio lentils
• 100g farro pearls
• 60ml olive oil
• 1 fennel bulb thinly sliced, fronds finely chopped.
• 1 red pepper cut into thin strips
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 4 pickled garlic cloves thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons diced pecorino (the soft creamy kind, not the very hard sort)
• 4 individual goats cheeses
• basil leaves & balsamic vinegar for garnish

1. Cook the farro and lentils in a pan of boiling water with the bay leaves for 20-25 minutes or until tender but with bite, drain and reserve.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and saute the peppers and fennel very gently until softened but not coloured.
3. Add the garlic, olives and herbs and heat through.
4. Add the reserved lentils, farro and pecorino and toss through.
5. Serve with a goats cheese on top, decorated with basil leaves and drizzled with balsamic vinegar, as shown above.