Bocconcini & Grilled Tomato Salad

I actually stuffed this recipe up. . .but it still turned out okay. It was supposed to be Crumbed Bocconcini & Grilled Tomato Salad but on that particular day I was rather disorganised. I had plans to go to the beach prior to the barbeque but that went out the window too. Racing around trying to get ready I had no time to prepare my salad, except for the dressing, so I threw everything into the esky and raced off to the birthday barbeque with an idea of making the salad once I got there.  I had read through the recipe several times- it didn't look all that complicated- but never-the-less I threw in my recipe folder just in case. Or so I thought.

Upon reaching my destination and unpacking the esky I discovered that I did not- in fact- have the recipe. Oh well. I had the ingredients, I had read it through a few times, I could remember what I had to do. That was until I put the boccincini in the fry pan to fry them and they all melted rather than looking like the nice, crispy balls they were supposed to be. And to top off I had forgotten the bread crumbs! Despite all this the salad was a success and only I knew that there was something wrong with it. Only I was aware that there should have been breadcrumbs mixed with the parmesan cheese and that I was supposed to quickly deep fry the balls of boccincini rather than spray oil in a frying pan and melt them.

And since I substituted English Spinnach for Rocket-I am not overly fond of rocket- I guess I have almost made up my own recipe. The original recipe came from one of the free Coles or Woolworths magazines- I think. I cut it out of the magazine a long time ago when I was getting bored with the same old tossed salads and I can't quite remember where it came from. The only problem with this salad is that you have 3 different things to make- although none of them take that long- the dressing, the salad and then the crumbed boccincini.

You will need:-
180g of boccincini drained
1/3 cup of plain flour
1 egg beaten
1 1/3 cups of bread crumbs
1/3 cup parmesan cheese shredded or grated
oil for cooking
Salad
punnet of grape tomatoes halved
4-6 thin slices of prosciutto
rocket leaves- or if like me you don't like rocket- English spinnach leaves
Dressing
1/2 cup basil leaves shredded
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1teaspoon of brown sugar

Dust boccincini ( I quartered mine so that they were smaller- not that it mattered for me in the end because they melted) in flour seasoned with salt & pepper and then dip in the egg. Roll boccincini in combined breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Place on a plate & chill for 30 minutes (I missed that part out entirely- no wonder they melted). To make salad preheat oven to 180 degrees and arrange tomatoes and proscuitto on baking tray and bake until proscuitto is crisp. Break proscuitto into pieces and toss with tomatoes and rocket(or English Spinnach). To make dressing whisk together dressing ingredients till combined and then sprinkle over salad. Shallow fry crumbed boccincini- these means enough oil in the pan not a quick spray of olive oil as I did- until cheese is golden and crunchy. Drain on paper towels and the spread across salad and gently toss.

You can tell by the description of 'fry until crisp and golden' in comparison to my picture of melted, pale boccincini that somewhere I went wrong. It doesn't mean, though, that this is a difficult recipe, only that I obviously didn't read it properly and I didn't have it with me when I prepared my salad. Considering I had never made this salad before having the recipe to hand, even a simple one, would have been indispensible. However, just because a mistake is made does not mean that it is alaways going to be a complete disaster. Most things are not only salvagable, but can go on to be something different or even something better.

Next time I cook this dish- and there will be a next time- I will do it by the recipe, step by step. Only then will I be able to compare which version I like best. Or perhaps I will like both. Certainly my 'accidental' version would be lower in fat as I didn't fry my cheese but considering the proscuitto it still wouldn't constitute a low fat dish. What this experience has meant for me is that its okay to get a little creative, to adjust a recipe to suit yourself, or accidentally create something a little different than was intended. The point is that you enjoyed cooking it, you liked eating it and you come home with an empty plate.