Dear Morgensternchen: Dutch Salad

Dear Morgensternchen.

Phuuuh the weekend is over and all gradually returns to normal.
We had fantastic weather for a change and even managed to have a BBQ. I think the whole street did and at some point the road was black with smoke.

The reason I made a Dutch Salad and I call it this because the first time I had a version of it was in lovely Zwolle, NL. Well now where was I, oh yes, the reason that I made this lovely salad is that I got accused by my seven year old and I quote:” Mama, your food is a little uninspirational!”, looking down on his bowl of pasta with a homemade tomato sauce. I had make the mistake of instead of freshly sliced morzarella, I’d put some bought, grated cheese over it!!!
That happens when you train of your children in the art of good food. As a peace offering and there is nothing better to create an explosion on those trained pallets I made Dutch Salad.

You’ll need:

250g boiled pasta (Farfalle or any short length pasta will do)
2 TBL spoons pesto salt to taste
Mix together and let cool down.

250g of strawberries quartered, but not sweetened with anything.

150g mixed salad, a rocket mix goes very well combined with maybe lambs lettuce
For the salad dressing:
mix 4 TBL spoons extra virgin olive oil
1 TBL spoon Balsamico ( to taste, depends on what kind of Balsamico you use)
1 tea spoon of honey
1 tea spoon of mustard  Dress the salad.

Roast in a dry pan 50g of pine kernels. Let them cool down.

Crumble up 100g of French goats cheese (Chevre Blanc).

Now for the assembly, you’ll need a deep serving dish.
In the bottom you put the pasta. Top it with the fresh salad. Scatter the strawberries, the cheese and the pin kernels to finish it all off.
 Enjoy.
Sorry this is a post and run. It’s Monday and there is a long list of things-to-do for me :)
Yours The one M

Dear Morgensternchen: Surpriiiiiiiise!

Dear Morgensternchen,

juhu, yes it's me. I can see you are rubbing your little eyes in disbelieve....

Now calm down, get yourself a nice cup of coffee, seek a sunny spot somewhere in the garden, thanks to wifi and read on.

Or is Malkreis?

Remember you asked me what I was going to cook for lunch. Well just recently back from Italy we fancied some pasta.
This is the easiest recipe you'll ever encounter: wild garlic pesto pasta!

You'll need for four people:
500g spagetti
15 leaves of wild garlic (Baerlauch in German)
2 tips of fresh thyme ( and this is the secret ingredient, which makes all the difference)
2 tbl spoons of a good mild olive oil
1 tbl spoon of soya cream ( another secret ingredient, or alternatively cream)
200g of grated mild cheddar or what ever cheese you fancy, maybe an older gouda
salt to season

And now for the magic. Boil your pasta as per instruction.
In the meantime chop the wild garlic leaves into fine strips. Try to chop the thyme as fine as possible. Add both to a bowl with the oil, the soya cream and some salt and mix thoroughly.
Drain the pasta and mix in the wet garlic pesto.
Serve with cheese on top.
Easy, fantastic, tasty! Food in under 15 minutes!
Enjoy.

Yours
The one M