Sunday Morning In The Kitchen

  Nothing like a grey and wet day to inspire me to stay put in the kitchen.

  Plus, it's Sunday, so that makes it even better. 

  Why? Because.

  Remember all those veggies I bought this week at various roadside stands?

  Well, some were gifts from our landlord, too...all the yellow peppers. 

  I cut those up in pieces, along with the veg stand potatoes, then tossed them with good olive oil, salt and pepper. 

  Also, I had a bunch of wild fennel seeds that I picked on our walk yesterday. I thought these would be perfect in this dish...

Out of focus, but those are the fennel seeds...

All ready to pop into the oven.

   I was so happy to find some local Japanese eggplant at the stand, too. I sliced these up, soaked them in heavily salted water for a good hour, then rinsed them and patted them dry with a clean kitchen towel. I brushed a little olive oil on them, and set them on my hot grill pan...

Slow and steady is the way to go.

All they need is a sprinkle of flaky salt.

  Since I had the grill pan out and hot, I decided we needed a slice of toast with lunch, and why not grill some figs? These were beauties from our pals, Jody & Bob.

 
I had held back a couple of the smaller peppers to roast, cut lengthwise in half.
  We had some like this at a cicchetti bar in Venice. OMG, So good! I smeared some soft cheese in them, and topped with bits of sun dried tomatoes...this was also the preparation in Venice. I used stracchino cheese, a mild soft cheese found all over here, in Umbria.

 All the components done, we enjoyed our crazy Sunday lunch!

Perfect lunch for two...I forgot to mention the whole roasted garlic heads.
I did these a couple of days ago when I roasted tomatoes.
Perfect to spread on the warm grilled bread.

Just add a glass of local white...

Best garlic bread ever.
Sweet and roasty.

  While all that went on, I was still roasting the peppers and potatoes with fennel seeds. The house smelled so good! These are for another time, in the next day or two. Maybe with a nice salad...

  I love a rainy Sunday morning. So does my tummy. And Johnny's, too.