We were gifted the Abel and Cole: Easy, Seasonal and Organic cookbook a couple of months ago and with local produce in full swing here, it was time to crack out some of their recipes.

First, we were inspired by the grilled aubergines (eggplant) with buffalo mozzarella. Well, we had some nice Canadian zucchini (courgettes) on hand, so we swapped the aubergines for our courgettes. Why can’t we all just agree on one name for these veggies? I prefer the Euro terms - wouldn’t you rather eat an aubergine than an eggplant? The result was delicious no matter what the name.

A Sunday trip to the Bottega netted us a tub of buffalo mozzarella and a fresh loaf of Art-is-in rosemary/garlic bread. When you have ingredients like these, there’s no way your sandwich can suck. After tossing the zucchini in some oil and balsamic oil, we grilled them all up in the panini pan. One word: YUM. Buffalo mozzarella is totally worth the splurge. Loved it.

Then for dessert, I made the baked strawberries with whipped cream. This was interesting, but I’m not really a warm, mushy fruit kind of person… unless it’s in a pie. It looked great, it smelled great, but when I went to serve it… the strawberries were too hot and the whipped cream melted. Next time, I’d just cut up the strawberries and serve them with whipped cream. Raw berries just taste better to me.

I’m not sure this book is available in Canada yet, but you can find lots of recipes on the Abel and Cole website.