Serves 4
Today I am feeling particularly lazy in the kitchen department. The weather is wonderful, the garden (after several hours slave labour last weekend) is looking pretty good and I have a number of newly hatched ducklings on the pond (“ahhhh”, I hear you say... yes it is quite cute). So for lunch today I can think of nothing more appropriate than this dish. With its gorgeous colours and simple fresh flavours it is perfect for a relaxed garden lunch. It can be prepared in advance and finished off last minute making it the perfect starter for a dinner party or barbeque or light lunch. You can cheat by buying the pesto if you want to but it is so easy to make and tastes better fresh. Also it does look more aesthetically pleasing if you can cut the aubergine, tomatoes and mozzarella pieces around the same size.
For the stacks
1 Aubergine cut into 12 equal rounds
3 large or beef Tomatoes cut into 12 equal slices
12 slices of Buffalo Mozzarella
16 Basil Leaves
For the Pesto
Handful each of fresh Basil and Mint
1 clove of Garlic
50g Pine Nuts
50ml Olive Oil
25g Parmesan
Salt and Pepper
For the finishing touches...
A few Parmesan Cheese shavings
Drizzle of Olive Oil
A few Black Olives
Brush the aubergines with olive oil and chargrill them on each side for a few minutes until scorched and cooked through. Drizzle with more olive oil and set aside.
To make the pesto, place the pine nuts, garlic and herbs in a blender and blitz until it forms a paste. Add the olive oil and mix until you have the required consistency. Add the parmesan followed by the seasoning to taste.
Assemble the stacks starting off with the aubergine followed by a slice of tomato, then mozzarella and the pesto. You can make the stacks as high or low was you want – I normally have two layers finishing off with another round of aubergine.
Place the stacks on a serving platter; scatter a few olives around the platter along with more pesto. Finish with another drizzle of olive oil and the parmesan shavings.