grape salad Archives - Proud Italian Cook

The extreme heat we’ve been having here has called for lighter meals, lots of veggies, salads, and fruit desserts.
So if you’ve gathered up a few eggplant from your garden or farmers market and are still thinking about what to do with them, consider making these eggplant patties.
You can eat them like a burger with a bun or without, either way they’re chock full of flavor in every bite!

They couldn’t be easier to make all you have to do is dice up 2 or 3 eggplants and place them on a baking sheet along with 2 minced garlic cloves, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 425 degree oven until soft with a little color, then let it cool down.
Place in a bowl the cooled down eggplant, grated romano cheese, 1/2 diced red pepper, 1/2 diced onion, 1/2 cup of fresh or defrosted frozen corn, fresh basil, parsley, 2 eggs and a handful of breadcrumbs. My advice is to taste the mixture before adding the eggs so you can adjust all ingredients to your desired tastes, I never measure romano, I just sprinkle it in by the handfuls.

Stir everything together, form patties and place on a silpat or parchment and drizzle the top with olive oil, bake at 425 until golden, turning over once.

These are so good you’ll want to make them again and again!

As far as desserts go, we have been obsessed with this grape salad, we had it at a party and it was a big hit, people go crazy for it, it disappears before your eyes! It’s so refreshing and cold, perfect for a hot summer day.
The most time consuming thing about making this is picking the grapes off the vines.

Use a mixture of green and red seedless grapes, make sure they’re really cold, I had a bag of each. In a bowl add 1 heaping cup of full fat Greek yogurt, squirt some honey in to it and sweeten it up. Now add 1 heaping 1/4 cup of softened cream cheese with a teaspoon of vanilla and stir everything together and then fold in your cold grapes. You can make this the night before but when you’re ready to serve add a sprinkling of brown sugar and toasted walnuts for garnish.
Please make this for your next party, you’re guests will love it!

Melons, I could seriously eat everyday, so refreshing! Try making
cantaloupe ribbons they look so pretty on a platter with dollops of honey yogurt, blueberries, blackberries, sprigs of fresh mint and garnished with crunchy Marcona almonds.Cut a melon in half, scoop out the seeds, cut into wedges, trim off the rind then slice each wedge with a mandoline into ribbons. Do not use an overly ripe melon, the ribbons will be too watery, a little firmer is better.
Enjoy the last days of summer, before you know it we’ll be making big pots of hot soup!