Sensational Salads

For my recent Italian dinner party, I made two sensational salads - Bill Granger's Rocket & Pumpkin Salad, pictured above, and Curtis Stone's Tomato Salad with Basil, Buffalo Mozzarella and Balsamic.

Unfortunately, one of my guests was not a salad man, but I enjoyed the salads. It was a nice change from roast veges to go with my porchetta.

To make the rocket & pumpkin salad (from the May 2007 edition of Delicious magazine), you will need:

500g peeled pumpkin cut into 1.5cm cubes
1 thinly sliced red onion
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes (I left these out)
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt (to taste)
100g rocket leaves

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

Put all ingredients other than the rocket into a baking dish, toss to combine, and bake for 45 minutes or until the pumpkin is cooked through.

Put the rocket into a salad dish, add the pumpkin mixture, and toss to combine. It's that simple!

To make the tomato, basil, mozzarella and balsamic salad (from the May 2008 edition of Delicious magazine), you will need:

1kg mixed tomatoes (no mixing at Woolies - just tomatoes)
1/2 cup basil leaves
6 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
6 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 balls buffalo mozzarella or 4 bocconcini

(Note - I only made a half batch, so you'll get way more salad than in my photo)

Cut the tomatoes into 2-3cm pieces and place in a salad bowl. Add the basil and half of the balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Season the mixture with salt and pepper and toss to coat the tomatoes.

Scatter over the torn mozzarella, and drizzle with the remaining olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Enjoy!