With the yellow pear tomatoes and herbs from our vegetable garden, I had been thinking of how to consume them. Earlier on I made a caprese pasta. Another idea I got was to make a farro salad with roasted vegetables. Instead of using white wine vinegar, I found out that balsamico blanco (a white balsamic vinegar) is a very good subsititute, it tastes a little sweet and less sour than normal white wine vinegar. As a fitness menu, I ate this as a main dish for my meat-free day.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup farro (spelt)
• 1 red pepper
• 1 egg plant
• 1 medium zucchini/ courgette
• small basil leaves (if using normal basil, cut into small pieces)
• mint leaves, cut into small pieces
• yellow pear cherry tomatoes for garnish (you can use red cherry tomatoes of course)
• dried basil
• salt n’pepper
• extra virgin olive oil

Dressing:

• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 lemon
• 1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp balsamico blanco

Directions:

• Preheat oven at 130ºC
• Soak the farro in water for 20-30 minutes.
• Cut the cherry tomatoes into halves and line in a baking tray. Drizzle olive oil on top of tomatoes, sprinkle some black pepper, pinches of salt and dried basil. Roast for 40 mins.
• Cut the pepper, deseed and cut into four pieces and cut the zucchini and eggplant into slices diagonally.
• Heat up the griddle pan at high heat, brush the pan with olive oil and then lay the vegetable slices on the pan, brush olive oil on both sides of the vegetables, grill on both sides until softened.
• Transfer the grilled vegetables on a plate, set aside to let cool.
• Boil the farro until soften and then drain.
• Cut the grilled vegetables into small cubes.
• In a large mixing bowl, toss the vegetables, farro and herbs together. Add in the crushed garlic, olive oil and balsamico blanco. Drizzle with lemon juice. Mix well and taste, season with salt and pepper where necessary to suit your personal taste.
• Serve in small plates for individual portions and garnish with yellow cherry tomatoes. If serve in big salad bowls, you can toss in the roasted tomatoes.

Enjoy!

I am submitting this recipe to O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

CONTEST RULES

O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and for the second year in a row, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are hosting the O Foods Contest to raise awareness of this important health issue.

There are TWO WAYS to take part in the O Foods Contest:

ONE: Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato); include this entire text box in the post; and send your post url along with a photo (100 x 100) to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

PRIZES for recipe posts:

• 1st: Signed copy of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma, Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who is currently battling ovarian cancer, inspired this event, and will be choosing her favorite recipe for this prize;
• 2nd: Signed copy of Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali (winner chosen by Sara);
• 3rd: Signed copy of Vino Italiano: The Regional Italian Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianich (winner chosen by Michelle)

OR

TWO: If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word and send your post url to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Awareness posts PRIZE:

• One winner chosen at random will receive a Teal Toes tote bag filled with ovarian cancer awareness goodies that you can spread around amongst your friends and family.

From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:

• Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.
• The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose, but include bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).
• There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.
• In spite of this, patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
• When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

And remember, you can also always donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at our page through FirstGiving!

Please help spread the word about ovarian cancer.

Together we can make enough noise to kill this silent killer.