This famous recipe by Ottolenghi made its appearance in the NOPi recipe book. I have eaten burrata there twice, once with loquats and once with rhubarb, reflecting the seasonal fruits available at the time. The season for blood oranges is short, and I love to celebrate them – we often have them simply sliced and topped with chopped dates and toasted chopped hazelnuts for dessert, but – pair them with burrata for a starter, or as part of a main dish, and they are truly scrumptious! For the drizzle over the burrata, I flavoured olive oil with garlic, lavender and runny honey and used toasted coriander seeds.
Today’s lunch was a fortuitous combination of what was in the fridge – some cooked puy lentils, a soft but still vibrantly green avocado, a little celeriac remoulade and some pickled beetroot, and falafels that I heated up in the air fryer. The other stars of my plate are the green leaves, freshly picked from our polytunnel – my bargain buy of 3 baskets of lettuce plug plants in the autumn, together with an unheated propagator where I sowed winter spinach and mixed leaves, has enabled us to have fresh salad leaves all winter.

As we have less red meat these days, I am including more lentils and chick peas as sources of protein, and always love to have colour and variety on our plates, aiming for at least 30 different plants a week, and keeping things fresh and seasonal as much as possible. Friday lunch often includes fresh bread that we haven’t made ourselves, and this week it is a 50% rye loaf, that made a great toast base for the smashed avocado with garlic and lime juice. I bought the falafels ready-made. Here’s the link to Ottolenghi’s recipe.