Tomato Is Another Day

So much for today's proposed strimming mission. A sneaky lie-in, a peak out the window at the grey but not terribly ominous sky... and then a torrential downpour that's forced a change of plan. Grr. Never mind. We have a nice errand to run, the donation of our "old" TV to the Mrs L's mum as hers has gone "mammaries skywards" as a friend of mine has it. And to continue his vernacular, last night's supper was the "labrador's undercarriage".

What was so good about it? Probably the simplicity, the freshness and the fact that it cleared a bit of space in the fridge. To start then, bruschetta. I've left a supermarket beefsteak tomato catching some rays for the last few days so it was all lovely and sweet. That got diced with a handful of basil from the plant on the window sill (99p late-ish one night from Waitrose and happily into its repotted third week) and a sprinkling of Halen Mon celery salt (one of the handful of good things at last week's RFF). This was then left to one side while we caught up with the week's ER (Neela and whatsit: was that the most tedious romance the series has ever had or what?) and Big Bang Theory (a show that's always been funny but it's really hitting its stride now). At the end of that little interval, the salt had drawn the juices out which meant there were lots to drizzle on the garlic-rubbed crusty toast, before topping with generous spoonfuls of chopped tomato and basil. As a bonus, I'd also discovered a bottle of Prosecco in the wine rack, which just added to the sunny spring mood.

After that, a fine 10-minute supper of tagliatelle (having remembered the remains of the packet in the salad drawer), some griddled asparagus and the piece of hot smoked salmon I picked up at Ally Pally's increasingly decent farmers' market last Sunday. The fish had dried a little, so I flaked it, added a couple of spoonfuls of creme fraiche, and then mixed it together with the chopped asparagus before tossing it into the tagliatelle. The result? A not-terribly-photogenic plate (hence no pic) but a spot-on TV supper.