The Working Lunch #28
Panzanella; whipped ricotta & pesto toast; smoky chickpea wrap; and patatas bravas. It's your weekly reminder to show your lunch break some love.
Happy Monday!
What’s on your lunch menu today?
If you’re new here, “Hello!” As you may have guessed, these lunches that I share each week are the ones I made and ate for my lunches the week before.
Sometimes the food is good, sometimes it’s just ok. There are a couple of times when it hasn’t really worked. You’re not gonna love all the ideas. You can probably make many of them better. We all have our own ideas and little spins, and taste preferences!
Sometimes a lunch would be so much better if it had something extra - fresh lemon zest, a herb that I don’t have, or a certain type of bread. If I don’t have it, I’ll try and improvise or leave it out. It’s only lunch. The priority is that we take a break, make time to make and eat lunch, and find some enjoyment in the process.
P.s. It’s still hot. ☀️
Maybe post-lunch-siesta hot?
Maybe, I wish-I-worked-in-an-air-conditioned-office hot?
Too-hot-to-eat-lunch hot? Never.
Make ahead…
Panzanella
I’m a huge fan of any recipes that use up leftover ingredients or food that might otherwise end up in the bin. The possibilities with stale bread are huge. When one of my kids brought home a huge sourdough loaf at the weekend, I knew I’d have a bit spare that I earmarked for Panzanella.
I’ve followed a Jamie Oliver recipe from Jamie’s Italian, there’s a similar one for Panzanella Tuscan Tomato Bread Salad here. I had no capers in my cupboard, so I’ve left them out. And obviously, I went for sourdough rather than ciabatta - which I think must weigh lighter, as I had a very good ratio of bread to tomato. It’s basically a bread salad!
To make it make-ahead, I’d prepped up the bread the day before, drying it out in the oven, then storing it in an airtight container), and made up the rest of the salad separately.
Then tumbled it altogether at least an hour before I wanted to eat.
Simple swaps: you can easily leave out the anchovies to make a vegetarian version.
Something on toast…
Whipped ricotta with pesto, sun-dried tomato & basil
This is a minimal prep light lunch that uses a few spoonfuls of shop-bought pesto to jazz up some ricotta cheese.
To make, whisk however much pesto you want, depending on how strong you like the flavour, into the ricotta. For a whole tub of ricotta, I added a couple of tablespoons of pesto.
Spread onto toasted crusty bread and top with chopped sun-dried tomato and fresh basil. Drizzle a little of the sun-dried tomato oil over and season.
What to do with the rest of the ricotta?
To use up the rest of the whipped ricotta and pesto, I used it as a no-cook pasta sauce stirred through some bucatini. It was really good, adding in some lemon juice and plenty of lemon zest (which I hadn’t had in when I made the toast version), along with a handful of grated Parmesan, and topped with some crispy bacon. The Parmesan and the lemon really lifted the ricotta; I’d add that to the toast version next time.
Simple swaps: Try jarred roasted peppers or crispy bacon, instead of the sun-dried tomatoes.
Just a sandwich…
Smoky chickpea wrap with sweetcorn relish
Half a tin of chickpeas, a bit of salad, some relish and a few store-cupboard ingredients and you have a big flavour, filling wrap for lunch in no time at all.
Pan-roast the drained chickpeas with a little oil and smoked paprika.
Very lightly toast the wrap (they are so much better if you can be bothered to warm them up).
Shredded salad of lettuce, cucumber, spring onion, and fresh coriander.
A good spoonful of sweetcorn and red pepper relish. I think it’s really meant for burgers, but the sweet and sour flavours work really well with the smoky paprika.
Add in the chickpeas. Mix it up, wrap it up, eat it up.
Simple swaps: If you don’t have any type of sweetcorn relish, try BBQ sauce instead and add tinned sweetcorn to the salad.
If you like this, try falafel and herby sweetcorn wraps.
Love your leftovers…
Patatas Bravish
I had some leftover cooked potatoes that I tucked into the back of the fridge so no one else would eat them. Then on Friday, lunch for one, as everyone else was out, I fried them up for a bravas-style plate of potato heaven.
To make it, I simply fried the pre-cooked potatoes in a little oil, and sprinkled over some garlic powder and smoked paprika towards the end.
For the two sauces:
Instead of Bravas sauce, I used a sriracha-based sauce (it has the peppers, paprika, chilli heat, vinegar and sweetness already).
A cheat’s aioli made from shop-bought mayo with grated garlic added to it.
Once the potatoes were cooked, I topped them with both sauces.
If anyone knows if authentic Bravas sauce is supposed to have tomato in it or not, let me know. It’s never tasted tomatoey when I’ve had it, yet most recipes for Bravas sauce seem to have tomato in?
Want more leftover potato ideas? Try oven-baked tortilla.
Event: Show Your Freelance Lunchtime Some Love - Cook Together
Join me and Freelancer Magazine to cook aubergine banh mi together in October. Register here and check out the other events on offer.
If you’re not feeling the lunchtime love with this week’s selection, don’t forget that you can tuck into the archives at any time.
Why only four meals?
I know, most people work 5 days a week, I do too. But it’s nice to wing it one day a week.
Check the cupboards, see what’s left in the fridge that needs using up, make a good old cheese sandwich….
See you next week, lunch buddies.
Patatas bravas is something I could eat and eat and eat... they're so good. Even better when modified!! Great lunch ideas as usual!