Traditional Caprese salad doesn’t have pesto, balsamic, loads of herbs or other ingredients, it’s just fantastic tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala campana, basil, extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper. That is all you need for the most amazing, light, bright, fresh mouthful of summer. When you see the tomatoes in season, it’s time to jump at this perfect vegetarian lunch dish and KISS! (Keep It Simple, Stupid!)

Caprese Salad – Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil

Gavin Wren Recipes, Salads, Small Bites, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Today, I revisit the world of beautiful Italian simplicity, the Caprese Salad. Borne out of luscious hot summers that gift the Italian land with amazing tomatoes, they marry with thick wedges of traditional Mozzarella di Bufala Campana perfectly, creating a dish that deserves only the best ingredients, and nothing else will do. Along with it’s stablemate, the Tricolore Salad, the Caprese sits in the throne of elegant beauty amongst dishes, so often bastardised by those who don’t know better. On the other hand, you, my friend, do know better, or at least you will do, in about 730 words time.

Last year I published a rant about how Italian food is debased by people’s interpretations of it. Italian dishes often require just a few ingredients, which makes them incredibly accessible and simple, but they should be the most amazing examples of the ingredients that you can find.

Perfect spelt pizza bases made with spelt flour to create crispy, thin crust, beautiful homemade pizzas that any Italian would be proud of to top how you like or enjoy the beauty of a margherita, perfect for the summer weather and a meal that everyone can get involved in.

Spelt Pizza Bases: A Guide to Perfect Pizza

Gavin Wren Baking, Dairy free baking, Main Dishes, Recipes, Spelt & ancient grains, Vegetarian

Making homemade spelt pizza is an utter joy, once you know how to ‘Do It Right’. It’s about three years since my first highly unsuccessful attempt to make a spelt pizza, and about 7 years since I first tried homemade pizzas, so I now fully understand all of the details required to make a light, crispy, delicious spelt pizza base, without causing utter carnage in the kitchen, spilling toppings all over the place or ending …

hot melt sun-dried tomato and mozzarella muffins

Hot melt sun-dried tomato and mozzarella muffins

Gavin Wren Baking, Breakfast, Recipes, Small Bites, Spelt & ancient grains

I’ve got a muffin hangover today. In fact, that’s a lie, I deserve to have a muffin hangover today, because I ate… errr, six muffins last night, instead of my dinner. If that had been six of the supermarket’s in-store bakery, not-quite the finest double chocolate efforts I might not be so chipper about it, but the muffins I ate were actually really wholesome, soft, crumbly little cakes with very little sugar or unhealthy bits, …