Tuesday 11 September 2012

Hodgepodge

A delightful old English word, dating back over 400 years – synonyms include gallimaufry, hash, mishmash and jumble. But if you are Italian, then the word is miscuglio

DSCF4567Last week, a friend gave me a thank-you gift for some sewing I had done for her. ‘This is quite unnecessary’ I said ‘I knew you’d say that’ she replied, grinning. She handed me a pretty pink carrier bag. Inside, I found some miscuglio

It is a delicious, traditional Italian herb mixture of garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, onion and red bell pepper; all very simple ingredients with an amazing combined flavour. Incredibly versatile – they suggest you can

  • Make a dip using half sour cream and half mayonnaise
  • Add to tomato sauce for pasta
  • Shake in omelettes
  • Sprinkle on baked fish with balsamic vinegar
  • Great on pasta with a good extra virgin olive oil
  • Make a delicious salad dressing with your favourite extra virgin olive oil and vinegar
  • Mix with mayonnaise and spread on a sandwich

I used some of it to top some stuffed courgettes – and it certainly added great flavour. I think it will be using it in a pasta sauce, and also making some into a dip before too long. You don’t need much – so I hope the jar will last ages.

DSCF4566

The bag of goodies also contained Costa Coffee [always enjoyable] some Champagne Mustard, and some Strawberry and Black Pepper Vinaigrette [the latter has already been drizzled over a lunchtime salad…delicious!] These things [apart from the coffee] all came from ‘Oil and Vinegar’. They have an O&V shop in Leicester now.

oilandvinegar

We have occasionally been in their Norwich store and feasted on their free samples – but it is really lovely to be treated to some of their products like this. Thanks A – a really thoughtful gift which will bring much pleasure. And I have learned a new word-miscuglio!

8 comments:

  1. Looks like I'm not the only person receiving lots of goodies at the moment!
    Thank you so much for our little somethings in the post, it really made me smile this morning over breakfast.
    x x x

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  2. Miscuglio sounds lovely, in our house that would be spinkled on top of meat when cooking. I may have to look into getting some :-)

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  3. I'll have to look out for this. You made me hungry, reading this!

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  4. In scrambled tofu for we vegans!
    Jane x

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  5. Mmm, that sounds very good, and what a lovely name!

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  6. This sounds delicious. What a lovely thank-you.

    Now to find a recipe for it.... :)

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  7. I had NO idea that's what Gallimaufrey meant, and that it was a synonym of hodgepodge! My favourite wind band piece I ever played was called Gallimaufrey by Guy Woolfendon and now I understand why all the movements had such different titles! Thank you for re-educating me, 14 years on from the last time I played it!
    Anyway, what a lovely thought of her to have given you those things!

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  8. We had flibbertigibbert in Erik the Viking tonight, but they were too tired to ask thereof and I'm two tyred to smell it now!

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