Fast summer recipes without using the oven
Guests for lunch at the last minute? Guests for dinner in a hot summer evening of July? Or easily do you want to prepare a tasty dish without using oven and pans? Hot temperatures are enemies of the cooking and above all in these months it is better to prepare fast and light summer recipes.
Enjoy Food & Wine won’t give you the usual recipes of rice salad and ham and melon; the following recipes are fast but tasty with a touch of vegetarian flavour.
Fast summer recipes: eggplant meatballs and mint sauce
This fast and easy recipe, of a certain success, doesn’t require the oven and only a quick passage in the pan. Riddle with holes two big eggplants, cook them for a quarter of hour in the microwave, once cooked empty them with a spoon and collect the pulp in a bowl. Mix with three spoon of pecorino, three spoons of breadcrumbs and a handful of fresh grinded herbs: oregano, basil, mint, coriander and thyme as you like. Knead with the hand and add salt and pepper. Rest in the fridge for half an hour, form meatballs with your hands and roll them in a mix of breadcrumbs and sesame seeds. Sauté the meatballs in a pan with oil. Serve them with a sauce obtained with Greek yogurt, grated cucumber and lots of fresh grinded mint.
Fast summer recipes: olive tofu with marinated courgettes
A starter, main or second course, cold and without turning the stove on. To marinate the courgettes, cut them in sticks or with specific tool you can obtain a kind of spaghetti, place in a pan and wet with a half lemon mixed with olive oil, and a drop of balsamic vinegar, cover with grinded parsley and basil and some slices of garlic. Mix and make macerate. In the meantime rinse the tofu with fresh water and whip with black olives, oil and a pinch of chilli pepper. Make quenelles of tofu and roll them with abundant marinated courgettes. Serve with rice crackers and toasted bread.
Fast summer recipes: mousse of red turnip and arugula robiola
A complete dish, perfect for a summer lunch. For the boiled potatoes, leave aside the pot and the fire, use the microwave! It is sufficient to riddle them with holes, rolling with plastic wrap; after ten minutes they will be ready. Mash the potatoes, mix with chive and aromas. Take the red turnip, precooked and vacuum-sealed, whip adding a spoon of lemon juice, oil and salt. Mix the potatoes puree and blend. With the help of a square mould, give the shape of a brick and dust with poppy seeds. On one side place two abundant spoons of robiola, mixed with milk and grinded arugula.
Fast summer recipes: “uncooked” Carasau lasagna, with buffalo mozzarella, tomato “cuor di bue” and basil sauce
A Mediterranean dish, for who doesn’t want to give up with lasagna, try this cold version, without cooking!
Pasta is replaced by slices of Carasau bread alternated with fresh and seasonal ingredients. Dice the tomato “cuore di bue” and sear quickly with oil, chilli pepper and salt; cut thinly the buffalo mozzarella and let it drain. For the basil sauce, whip 50gr of basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, a handful of salt and a spoon of Parmigiano Reggiano, obtaining a sort of light pesto. All you have to do now is to moisten the Carasau bread with cold water and alternate it with the seared tomatoes, the grinded mozzarella and the basil sauce. Make three levels and make rest in the fridge for half an hour before serving it.
