Finally spring has arrived, nature wakens up, the days become longer, one feels like spending the day outdoors…It’s time to open the BBQ season!!

Here is the perfect complement, a BBQ sauce based on a recipe from The Perfect Pantry that has nothing to envy to the manufactured versions…

See for yourself…

Ingredients:

- 1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable oil

- 1 cup (125g) minced onion

- 2 tbsp minced garlic

- 28-ounces (800g) can crushed tomatoes

- 2 cups (500g) ketchup

- 1/2 cup (125ml) water

- 3/4 cup (175ml) Worcestershire sauce

- 1/3 (80ml) cup cider vinegar

- 1 cup (200g) brown sugar

- 2 tsp dried chili flakes

- 1/4 cup (60ml) mustard

- 2 tsp ground black pepper

- 1/2 tsp ground allspice

Cooking instructions:

Pour the oil into a large saucepan at medium-high heat. Toss in the onions and stir, cook until soft. Add the garlic and cook for a minute.

Then add the rest of the ingredients, bring to boil, simmer for 10 minutes to thicken.

Cool or chill and then use to slather the meat when it is about to be grilled.

Remainings can be frozen, or else you can choose to halve the recipe

Enjoy!!

This is my second favourite salad all time…An incredibly surprising combination of flavours, and some lettuce and tomato to justify it.

There are 1001 variations of the Caesar salad, but I adore this one, a variation of Barefoot Contessa’s…What about you? Do you have a favourite salad? Do you know any tasty variations of the Caesar salad? I’d love to hear about it…

Ingredients:

- Romaine lettuce, washed and sliced

- tomatoes, peeled and sliced in chunks

- some olive oil, salt and ground black pepper

- bacon, in small cubes

- 1 yolk

- 2 tsp Dijon mustard

- 15 canned anchovy fillets

- 2 garlic cloves, chopped

- 125ml lemon juice

- 2 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

- 180 ml olive oil

- 125g grated Parmesan

- optional: some extra Parmesan to serve

Cooking instructions:

Preheat the oven at 400°C. Put the tomatoes in a baking tin, toss with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes, until soft.

Cook the bacon in a skillet on medium-low heat, for 15 minutes.

Mix in a food processor the yolk, the mustard, the garlic, the anchovy fillets, the lemon juice, the salt and the pepper.  While still blending, pour down the feed tube the olive oil, slowly, and finally add the Parmesan and pulse 3 times. There you have it, your own delicious dressing!

On each plate, put some lettuce, some tomatoes, bacon, add the dressing and if desired, toss some extra Parmesan.

Enjoy!!