pepper

Bashing the hell out of a lump of meat is always a fun task. Ted came running downstairs to see what all the noise was about.

You can make a couple of flash fry steaks go a long way if you cut them into strips for sandwiches. I stretched two of these steaks into lunch for 3 adults and 1 Ted with two steaks left over for a future supper. That’s the child size portion above if you think I’ve short changed anyone – the grown ups ate twice this amount.

Simply spread chunks of fresh baguette with butter and cream cheese – today I’ve used Boursin with Black Pepper which goes beautifully with beef and fresh rocket.

This is one of my favourite post-supermarket Saturday lunches because it only takes about 10 minutes to prepare but feels special enough to celebrate the weekend!

Do you have a special favourite lunch after buying the groceries?

With thanks to Boursin for samples of cream cheese. Say hi to them on Twitter @boursincheese.

Last month I visited Venice for my 40th birthday and one of the things I was eager to try was cichette style appetisers in a Venetian bar.

I will publish a Maison Cupcake post with the various Venetian dishes we tried but here is something I reproduced myself at home having been inspired during our trip.

Chargrill some red peppers – I am using my Le Creuset griddle pan which was also used in the courgette salad I published on Tumblr recently.

Now honestly, I did try to buy real polenta. But actually I could only get hold of a ready made block. Venetian white polenta would have been hard enough to find but I didn’t expect to struggle finding yellow polenta in a gigantic branch of Sainsbury’s. So ready made we have.

It slices up and carries tiger stripes extremely well and it tastes good too. Although admittedly you can’t soup it up with parmesan like you would if you made it from scratch.

To fire up my red chargrilled pepper I am using Fiery Chilli Sacla pesto which as you can see is one of numerous flavours – I have already instagrammed the wild garlic one in some stuffed mushrooms and there’s a tart post in the pipeline for Maison Cupcake using the classic basil.

This fiery chilli pesto packs a punch. I was rather taken aback how strong it was and it beefed up the Three Little Pigs salami beautifully.

To assemble the cichette simply stack polenta squares, pepper, a teaspoon of chilli pesto and a disc of salami and fix together with a cocktail stick. I could almost be in the backstreets of Fundamente Nove.

I had a trio of these cichette for lunch and when Ted saw the pictures he wanted them too. So my six year old had cichette for supper. Next he’ll be begging me to take him to Venice but that can wait.

Had you ever come across cichette?

With thanks to Three Little Pigs and Sacla for sample products.

Boursin beef baguette

Cichette Venetian style appetisers with salami and chilli