Panzanella

I don't remember where or when I first heard about this Tuscan bread and tomato salad, but in recent years I've grown really fond of it - especially in the summer, when there's usually an abundance of ripe tomatoes.  The exact types of bread or tomatoes are not crucial, but ripe tomatoes are key for good panzanella. The recipe calls for stale bread, but I guess it would work with fresh bread too - but stale bread is just fine.

Ingredients:
- 3 tbsp anchovies, finely chopped
- 4 tbsp capers, finely chopped
- a generous pour of olive oil
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1,5 tsp apple cider vinegar
- fresh basil, coarsely chopped
- 4 ripe, "normal" tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- 2 ripe beef tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- a handful of datterino tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- a 10 cm of stale bread, coarsely diced
- 125 g mini-mozzarella, quartered

The finely chopped anchovies and capers were stirred with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Then tomatoes, basil and bread was added, and the ingredients were mixed with tongs. Mozzarella was added lastly. Best left to soak for a while before consuming.

I love it, and it's quite filling too.

In this version I used a mix of tomatoes and for an even more colourful version one could use more different kinds of tomatoes.

This time I also added a number of ingredients I often do not use - cutting it down to basics it's still delicious.

Basic panzanella:
- stale bread, coarsely diced
- ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- fresh basil, coarsely chopped
- salt
- black pepper
- olive oil

For the basic version, I usually just add alternating layers of bread, tomatoes, salt, pepper, basil and olive oil - often in a lunch box in the morning and then consume for lunch at work.

Triple cheese quesadilla

When I lived in California, I would most often choose a cheddar cheese for quesadilla. I remember others favouring a blend of cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese. While cheddar is available here, Monterey Jack isn't. Lately I've taking a liking to mixing cheddar with Jarlsberg which is readily available here.

Most recently, I've found that I get a nice result mixing in a third cheese - a creamy, salty white cheese (think feta or similar).

I would use a roughly 2:2:1 mixture of cheddar, Jarlsberg and white cheese.
A pan is heated on heated, then a tortilla, then cheeses, then another tortilla - flipped over when the cheese is about halfway melted.

Goes well with sour cream and a roasted salsa.

Roasted salsa v.2

Very similar to roasted salsa, but I think I prefer it like this.

Ingredients:
- 4 tomatoes
- 2 red chillies
- 2 cloves garlic
- juice of 1 lime
- salt

Tomatoes, chillies and garlic were roasted under the broiler - the garlic was not pealed before roasting - until the skin of the tomatoes was well charred.
The tomatoes and chillies were both used with the charred skin, but the skins of the garlic cloves were removed. Everything was liquefied in a blender with the lime juice and a good teaspoon of salt.