Today the sky was lightly grey and the temperature had dropped. Friends came over for lunch, something I really love!! The day before I had found fabulous vegetables and fresh, wild berries at the market.

• as a ‘stuzzichino’, I served first a little ‘crostino’ with
• some beautiful anchovies my friend Alberto gave me

• in a large oven tray, I baked these amazing
• carrots
• baby beans
• I added two, sliced Spanish onions
• some olive oil
• salt and pepper

I could not resist the pale, long baby aubergines and the baby peppers. The season of these aubergines is very short!
• leaving the vegetables whole
• spread them on an oven tray
• add two Spanish onions
• two baby fennel, sliced
• olive oil
• salt

• bake all the vegetables in a hot oven, 200˚
• for about 20 minutes

• I also made a fresh herb and Parmiggiano ‘frittata’

and a delicious tomato salad. Everything was served at room temperature.

At this time of the year, I can not resist the fresh berries. It is such an explosion of the different flavors and textures in your mouth!

I also made this batch of ‘Madelaine’ to accompany the berries. I ground some lemon rind into the pastry, to make them fresh and tangy.