One of my favourite, or rather one of the few phrases I am able to say in Italian with great gusto is: “rosso crudo.” It means ‘raw red’ and here at Jamie’s Italian, it refers to finely chopped raw, red tomatoes mixed with fresh herbs, which accompany particular meat dishes…

Why not accompany a curry?

The first friend I made when I moved to Sydney was Bibek. He is someone who is like family and he happens to make the best (and only) Nepalese curry I have ever tasted. We were having a celebratory dinner and as usual I was making a salad. Believe it or not, the rawness and crunchiness of this Italian inspired salad went perfectly well with Bibek’s curry.

Mix of culture, mix of food. Yes please.

Ingredients:

• head of Oak Leaf lettuce
• 2 ripe roma tomatoes (or punnet of ‘rainbow nation’ tomatoes)
• 1 green capsicum
• handful roasted seeds
• 1 de-seeded, finely chopped chilli

Wash and place lettuce in a bowl.

Chop the tomatoes into sixths and the capsicum lengthways.

Toss into the leaves and sprinkle over the seeds and chilli.

Squeeze in half a lemon and drizzle over some olive oil. Enjoy!