It is time for our secret recipe club reveal and for this month I was assigned Leigh’ s blog Chit chat chomp. Leigh lives in Melbourne and she describes herself as being” in love with pots of tea, farmers markets, French jazz and fresh flowers. Winters spent rugged up under blankets.It’s the little things in life that make me smile.”

I couldn’t agree with her more!The most beautiful things in life are indeed the simplest ones. Like going on a long awaited trip back home. Cutting lemons off the last few trees of your grandparents orchard , being enveloped by their enchanting smell, that transforms you back to your childhood in a heart beat. Now just looking at the pictures, makes you smile.

On her blog leigh shares beautiful French recipes,she has a cookbook challenge in which she chooses recipes from her collection of cookbooks and features them.I bookmarked her Orange soda bread with mixed seeds and her Golden shorties but her shaved fennel, ricotta and pea salad won the day. The kid (who are usually not too keen on salads) asked for seconds! The salad turned out to be light and refreshing. The peas and mint are a wonderful match but pairing them with the zesty lemon and the crunchy fennel really takes this salad to the next level!

Shaved Fennel, Ricotta, and Pea Salad

Cookbook: Where the Heart Is
Author/TV Chef: Karen Martini

2/3 cup fresh or frozen green peas
4 table spoons extra virgin olive oil
salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
1 large bulb fennel
5-6 sprigs mint, leaves picked and torn
Juice of one medium lemon
200g ricotta

Whisk the lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil in a small bowl, set aside

Place peas in lightly salted boiling water and blanch for 15-20 seconds. You only want to warm them through.

Drain the peas and set them aside

Cut the fennel in half, slice bulb very finely.

Now you have two options:

You can place the fennel, peas, ricotta and mint in a large bowl and toss them with the dressing or you can arrange them in layers the way I did and drizzle them with the dressing when you are ready to serve them

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