Deconstructed salad

Clockwise from top: pita chips, hummus,
cucumber sticks, grape tomatoes, Caesar dip, baby carrots

One of my cooking idiosyncracies is that I absolutely loathe cutting salad. I’m not really sure why; it could just be that I’m impatient. Or it could be that people always throw salad in to recipe and menu discussions as an afterthought, as if it’s a snap—you know, all that “serve with a tossed salad”; “all you need alongside is a salad”; etc.—when cutting and making dressing for a tossed salad involving more than one ingredient can take up a pretty good-sized chunk of time. It’s not hard, but it is fiddly, and not my first choice of activity when I’m trying to get dinner on the table for the hungry hordes, or for that matter, lunch on the table for my hungry self. I don’t find “knife work” (that’s cheffyspeak for “cutting up things”) soothing at the best of times, and right before I want to eat is definitely not the best of times.

Deviled eggs

When I was growing up, I had to eat an egg for breakfast every day. Every. Single. Day. Seven days a week. For approximately 17 years.

(I’m not sure exactly when I started, but I vividly remember staging a revolt on my 18th birthday, as had all my sisters before me. Because I was still in high school, my mother and I struck a deal, cutting eggs for breakfast to three a week until graduation, at which point I swore off them entirely for I forget how long, but until at least sometime in my mid-20s.)

(I think I’ve mentioned before about my mother’s, um, inflexible meal schedule?)

Oink oink

I mentioned that we brought a picnic to our Aussie football outing on Sunday. Nothing major, since it wasn't at a mealtime, but I wanted to bring some substantial finger food. I came up with this, knowing how Australians share my fondness for sausage (affectionately referred to here as "snags"). The main bit is roughly based upon a recipe from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Bites, and the dipping sauce is my own inspiration/insanity.

Maiali in coperte (Pigs in Blankets, Italian style) with salsa pazzesco

Pigs
4 Italian-style sausages

Blankets
375 g/11 oz flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
25 g/1 oz grated pecorino romano or parmigiano reggiano cheese*
250 ml/10 oz milk

1 egg
3 tbsp olive oil

Blanket glaze
1 egg, beaten lightly with

splash milk and
pinch salt

Dipping sauce
75 g/3 oz ketchup**
handful basil leaves
2 cloves roasted garlic
splash Tabasco sauce

1. Roast the sausages and let cool.

2. Whisk together the dry blanket ingredients, then beat in the wet ingredients. Stir together with a fork to make a scone-like dough just dry enough to roll out. Line a baking sheet with parchment and preheat the oven to 220C/425F.

3. Roll out dough, using plenty of flour. Cut four pieces about the right size to wrap around your sausages. (You are probably going to have extra dough—mine became cheesy scones for Monday night's dinner.)

4. Wrap sausages snugly in dough, and place seam-side down on baking sheet.

5. Brush blanket dough with glaze.

6. Cook pigs in blankets for about 15 minutes, or until dough is puffy and golden.

7. While pigs are cooking, dump all dipping sauce ingredients in a food processor and puree.

8. Allow pigs to cool, then slice into bite-sized pieces. Serve warm or at room temperature.

* Next time I would use more cheese. This amount didn't pack enough cheesy punch. Also maybe some mustard powder to give even more oomph.

** I figured, people make sauces out of jazzed-up mayonnaise all the time. Why not jazzed-up ketchup?