The Complete Italian Vegetarian...

I love this cookbook - not a lot of pictures, but lots of great ideas and I really like the fact that I can just thumb through it and know that none of the recipes will contain meat. I made pasta with Olivada yesterday. I used this recipe and just used half of it with a pound of pasta and 4 large tomatoes chopped in small pieces, with a dash of olive oil. So yummy!

Olivada

2 medium garlic cloves

8 large fresh basil leaves

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

1 1/2 cups drained black olives (about 7 oz), pitted

2 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp olive oil

Throw all this together in a food processor and pulse until fine. This can be stored for several days, and to prolong store life, pour a thin film of olive oil over it.

I also made a yummy salad by roughly chopping up tomatoes and cucumbers, adding some feta cheeses and sunflower seeds and dressing it with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and dried basil.

I used an old loaf of sourdough bread that I had frozen and cut it up and buttered it, adding garlic powder and dried basil...then stuck it under the broiler.

A quick, easy, yummy summertime meal!