Minimally cooked summer dinner with Italian twist

I got the inspiration to this carefree summer dinner from a travel article in the Telegraph. In the article, Emilia- Romagna was praised as Italy’s most delicious culinary region. The writer served a dinner to his Italian friends based on local delicacies. The only cooking needed was boiling tortelloni for two minutes!

The success for this kind of dinner relies on carefully chosen best and tastiest products. As our supermarket in Nice has high- quality locally made fresh pastas, pâtés, and layered chocolate cakes, I decided to try the idea.

This kind of minimally cooked dinner is at its best on a hot summer evening when Provençal melons are ripe and cool AOC Côtes de Provence rosé goes beautifully with pasta and pâté.




For the first course I served a slice of Var melon with some prosciutto ham. This classic Italian dish is popular in Nice which has strong culinary ties with Italy.

The second course was ravioli Niçois filled with meat and blettes, chard. According to the advice on the package, larger ravioli needs 5- 6 minutes cooking, smaller less. Ravioli was sprinkled with some freshly grated parmesan.

For the main course I chose a slice of local pâté, drizzled it with some good balsamic, from Modena of course, and served with mesclun, baby salad leaves.

The dessert was a slice of layered dark chocolate cake made in our supermarket. It was a delicious dinner enjoyed on the terrace!