salad sandwich

just got back from the allotment, to where i have not been as often as i should. i think that i was due a phone call, much like the one that mervyn king gets when inflation is too high, telling me to get up there and get those weeds out. i was at my children's sports day first and the allotment is very close by so it was with great relief that i left the school grounds and got stuck into two hours of hard graft. two hours later it was with far greater relief that i got away, although i had to go back to get my glasses because i left them on the bin. the allotment was looking better, although two lettuce and eight radish had been lifted by me. most of those lettuce and four of the radish are now working their way through my body as i have just eaten them in what could have been the largest salad sandwich in history. accompanying the radish and lettuec was some cheese, four tomatoes and a whole avocado that had been in the fridge for a week. i cut it without much hope but to me great surprise it was still green, soft but still green. stuffed between two slices of wholemeal and with regular escapees hitting my plate, only to be brought to justice eventually, i scoffed the lot. it is this kind of impromptu food that i like best and the recipe that i am going to write is for the filling for our current filo offering.

this filling first saw light because i had all the ingredients in the house and fancied some pasta; it was the pasta sauce. but i don't like doing pasta at the restaurant, save for ravs, and so it had to fill a pie.

fry some onion until soft then add some diced courgette and mushroom and gently fry as well. once softened add a few cherry tomatoes, the zest and juice of one lemon, and some fresh chilli or chilli flakes and cook out. open a jar of artichoke hearts (i love these) and some fresh parsley and mint, chopped. this is great on pasta, sould be amazng with a touch of cream, would make a fantastic lasagne and does make a bloody good pie filling. (in the restaurant we cook everyting separately so that it's not too wet for the filo, you can always put it in a sieve to drain, unlike the jumblies)

cheers

wayne