I like to call Christmas the Cookbook Season. Every year during Christmas, book publishers offer shiny, pretty cookbooks to hungry, food porn loving readers. Don’t worry, I’m not judging, I’m an avid food porn lover myself after all. Today we are giving away three copies of Phaidon’s “Recipes From An Italian Summer”. This lovely, thick, hard cover tome is filled with Italian inspired dishes and is authored by the Silver Spoon people with newly collected recipes.
It is divided into seven sections including picnics (don’t you just love that there is a whole chapter devoted to picnics?), salads, barbecues, light lunches and suppers, summer entertaining, desserts and ice creams and drinks. It even starts with a calendar of Italian Food Festivals that will have you wanting to move to Italy (sorry Dear Readers, this doesn’t come with an airline ticket 
) and a seasonal food calendar.
The whole book stretches to over 400 pages and has lovely gems such as bottarga crostini, buffalo mozzarella caprese salad, quails with white grapes, duck with peaches and an intriguing lettuce omelette and strawberry risotto. You know I’m a big food photo lover and the photos are nice although like some Phaidon cookbooks they tend to be bunched together in sections rather than opposite or near the actual recipe.
Thanks to Phaidon, we are giving away three copies of Recipes From An Italian Summer to some very lucky NQN readers! For a chance to win one of these copies, all you have to do is tell me which is your favourite picnic dish and why. Simply add your answer as a comment to the story. The competition ends at Midnight AEST 12th December, 2010 so you may just get your copy under the Christmas tree! You can enter this once daily. This competition is open to anyone in Australia.
***The lucky winners are:
Steve H.
Angela H.
Matilda A.
***
Best of luck!
Love,
Lorraine
xxx
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sorry! fav picnic dish is momofuku’s recipe for its crack pie. it’s the least messy pie to eat and of course the taste is awesome.
Anything that you can drink with champagne
Oh that is easy, I love the Muffaletta! It is the round bread stuffed with antipasta filling. Yummy! Conor from Hold the Beef tells the story of the muffaletta better than I do.
I made a muff burger for a picnic which was pretty awesome! (burger fillings instead of antipasta).
I would love a trip to Italy but a beautiful Italian cookbook would hold me over for a little while longer
Favourite picnic dish? Bacon & Egg pie, eaten at a deserted west coast beach north of Wellington as a kid many years ago. Perfect flavours, flaky pastry all over my face, and another piece if I asked nicely. Followed by my second favourite, Pippies straight out of the water and into a skillet over a driftwood fire.
I love to eat peeled prawns in chive or dill mayo in a petite bread roll on a picnic rug on the grass overlooking Coogee Beach. It’s easy to make, easy to pack and very ‘posh-summery’ for other picnic guests.
Favourite picnic dish? hmmm that’s hard. I could go for pasta salad. Or potato salad.
But I think my absolute fav would have to be good cheese, bread, fruit and wine.
I would love to win Recipes from an Italian Summer! My favourite picnic dish is Fruit in a jar. You simply toss in your fav summer fruit, top with vanilla syrup and after a bumpy trip in the car, the fruit is beautifully marinated and ready to devour with a dollop of creamy yoghurt. No mess, no fuss… perfect!
It’s absolutely ridiculous but whenever I go on a picnic and someone reveals fairy bread I squeal and get excited like a little girl all over again. I’m sure the recipes in this book are quite a bit more sophisticated!
A hard choice! Dolmades with Lemon and Herbs? or Casey’s Pumpkin Feta and Pine Nut Muffins? It has to travel easily without refridgeration, need no utensils, and to be at its best eaten cold.
My favourite picnic dish is a big crusty baguette with fresh tomato, basil and brie cheese.
Yum!
Such a cool prize! I love making vegetarian rice paper rolls and taking a small jar of homemade dipping sauce along. The lack of meat means it lasts a bit longer in the sun and I love how fresh the flavours taste.
I always love fresh fruit salad to round off an al fresco meal. Made with whatever’s in season (and/or from my garden)it’s deliciously cool and refreshing. Can’t beat it.
What a lovely book to try and win! For me, a fav would have to be a yummy fruit salad, and grapes, icy cold grapes!
I just love eating yummy meatballs when going to picnics accompanied with a yogurt dip, yummy…
In addition to a delicious simple loaf cake, I do always fall back on a seasonal quiche as it’s so transportable.
My favourite picnic dish is Vietnamese spring rolls.
When I was young, Mum loved to get together with my aunts to make these wonderful ‘Cha gio’ (as they are called in Vietnamese). They are made with fresh lettuce leaves, lovely vermicelli noodles, prawns or pork, top up with mint leaves, wrapped nicely and ‘securely’ inside paper thin rice paper. They are healthy and great for me and my little cousins to carry around without dropping the precious food, so they said
. Mum usually had lots of spring rolls packed inside a picnic basket for weekend excursions to the beach or caravan parks with friends and relatives. Everyone would help themselves to this nice little ‘package’ with their hands as they indulge in the food, fun and laughter. No need to wash the dishes, nice and easy! 
Phaidon’s “Recipes From An Italian Summer” looks gorgeous. I’ve always had a loving passion for hard cover books. They make a great companion for reading over the summer, with a glass of Pinot noir!
Cheers,
Djurida
Zuchini and bacon slice is my favorite picnic dish, it’s easy to make, tastes great hot or cold and packs really well.
This looks like an amazing cookbook! I love the idea of a picnic section too. My favourite picnic dish would have to be baby chargrilled octopus salad with a delicious load of bread because I love octopus and it is a perfect excuse to eat them as picnics are always a special event.
nice German bread, cheese and lettuce. Simple and easy
I love a perfect potato salad, with plump soft potatoes, soft-boiled egg, bacon, spring onion, and celery (don’t forget the mayonnaise!)
Erm, does champagne count as a dish? I recently got married and we got given a beautiful antique silver ice bucket, and I love taking it on picnics to keep wine cool. It adds this glamorous Brideshead Revisited feel to everything.
Though I suppose if it came to it, I could serve potato salad in the champagne bucket…
i love salads, potato salad, caesar salad, but my favourite would be the vietnamese shredded chicken and cabbage salad, its so refreshing with bursts of sweetness from the palm sugar and sourness from the fish sauce, oh and ythe crunchiness of the cabbage strands
I’m hopeless with picnics…usually throw together an antipasto platter and then suffer “picnic envy” for all the carefully planned, delicious and witty meals on the rugs near us!!
My favourite would have to be the zucchini slice that was in delicious magazine years ago. It is so easy to make and can be packed full of other vegies if you want. Great way to use up all those zucchinis from the garden too.
A citrus syrup cake is the perfect dessert for a picnic- fresh, zesty and sweet!
My favourite picnic dish is a cottage loaf fill with ham and salad. Everybody loves it! It is a compact all in one meal. Of course it is never served alone. But I feel that if I am bringing a dish that includes meat, bread and salad, I have done my bit to fill empty stomachs with all the right things. I like to use ham, ricotta, baby spinach leaves, grated zucchini, mint, parsley and garlic all layered into a hollowed out cob loaf. Easy to prepare and a cinch to transport. Healthy and easy!!
I would have to say egg mayo and dill sandwiches. Soy started making this a few years ago, and we are both crazy about it! We’ve had many picnics with other people and just the two of us where this egg mayo and dill filling was a hit!
Marinated drum sticks – a family favourite especially with children. (The chicken comes with a handle.)
Fresh bread rolls or baguette with combinations of the following: ham, BBQ chicken, triple brie, olives, semi-dried tomatoes, marinated artichokes.
Oh damn, I’m hungry now….
Butternut,rocket and pine nut salad as nigella makes, a recipe from the heart of the home
My favourite picnic food is so easy – fresh prawns (preferably purchased straight from the fisherman), a squeeze of lemon juice and a fresh crusty breadroll that when bitten into leaves a trail of crumbs down the front of your t-shirt … add a bottle of homemade ginger or lime cordial the company of good friends and life doesn’t get much better than that!
Egg & Bacon Pie just superb at a picnic.
Poacher’s Plait – elegant puff pastry plait filled with chicken and pork minced meat, bacon, onion, mushrooms and sage, baked and taken in picnic basket to be cut in slices. Eat with fingers. Yummy Picnic Food.
My Sweet potato salad.
Very similar to potato salad but I use sweet potato,fetta,rocket,mayo with roasted slithered almonds. Served with crusty bread and white wine, it’s perfecto!
Picnics are always a treat and I can think of a hundred delectable things to eat but I have many wonderful memories of a hot summers evening on the beach, fish, chips and a cold beer with the sun setting over the ocean.
My favourite picnic dish is a fresh, crusty baguette filled with moist chicken, tomato, rocket and homemade mayo mixed with pesto! All washed down with a crisp, chilled South Australian Riesling. The only thing better would be to follow it up with a slice of gooey chocolate brownie!
What a delicious Christmas gift. Am not entering as I have enough lovely cookbooks (just passed some preloved ones onto my lovely sister-in-law who has been helping me move house). And of course, if I’m ever stuck for ideas, I come here to NQN, as I always find something yummy to make out of things in my pantry/fridge/freezer.
A cold bottle of champagne, a fresh crusty bread, a nice big wedge of camembert and some quince paste… divine!
Hi L. Book looks nice in a rustic way. Hopefully a balance of complex and quick/easy dishes – everyone has those moods right? Anyway, fav picnic dish at the moment is Jamie O’s smashed tomato and olive focaccia. Tasty and easy to grab a piece and get back to the frisbee and pole tennis! Baci, Ant
My favourite is my husband’s version of prawn and corn fritters as well as his eggplant meatballs. Yum!
Definitely Hungarian layer cake! Best made with sourdough rye bread, crusts removed, has layers of ham mixture, egg mixture and sardine mixture and the entire ‘cake’ is coated with liptauer cheese!
I love cookbooks and love the look of this one!
My favourite thing to eat on a picnic is simple antipasto – this includes handmade dolmades and pickled veg, eaten with lovely crusty bread and of course a big lump of cheese! Mmmmm!!!
my favourite is easy… potato salad made the ‘german’ way by my mum… along with thin slices of rye bread and slices of salami, liverwurst etc….. my favourites because every summer my parents would pack us kids up, we’d drive for ages, then set up somewhere for a picnic…. and these were always the ‘goodies’ mum had made for us…. along with grans ‘raspberry’ water… yum…. and I still do this today!
My favourite picnic dish? I just went on my first picnic with my partner on Tuesday this week – we’d been planning to do it for over 6 months but never found the time, and when we did it rained or something else came up! But we finally went, and it was so magical – a champagne picnic in Lavendar Bay. I cooked most of the food that we had – but my favourite was probably the chocolate ganache tarts I made from the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook. They are such tasty little morsels and because they’re individual tarts they’re perfect for picnics as there is no messy cutting or anything! And the filling is milk chocolate – so it wasn’t too overpowering and was a nice end to a lovely day.
absolutely wonderful, a dream. Marita Grant
My favourite picnic dish is spiced nuts
Completely travel-safe, and you can eat them before the main dishes, before dessert, after dessert, after a swim, after playing frisbee… I’m all about equal opportunity snacks 
Fav picnic dish is masshed boiled egg and grated cucumber sandwiches with mayonnaise on white bread!
I am a sucka for the roast chicken and creamy pasta salad baguette…. I know… Im a chef, but seriously, it’s classic! Yummy!
My favourite picnic dish is oysters provencale (not sure if this is the real name, but that’s what we call it!). Fresh oysters from the harbour (I live by the sea, so all picnics overlook the water) topped with a small slice of smoked salmon and a dollop of hollandaise sauce. A sprinkle of cracked pepper and YUM!
If it’s winter we will have a ‘chipnic’ where we buy some hot chips and sit by the lake and share them with the swans. It’s a good way to get out in the freezing Canberra weather for an hour or so and absorb some fresh air before racing back home for a nice hot drink.
duck with peaches sounds absolutely divine, we just don’t eat enough of it
My favorite picnic food is Beet Pickled Eggs. Their bright red color and tangy tinge remind me of the festive picnics of my childhood.
So simple yet so delicious: zucchini slice.
My favourite picnic food is pâté. Plain and simple. (especially if someone else cooks it!).
It is not a picnic without a barbecued chicken – still in the takeaway bag.
Scotch Eggs…simple to make, great hot or cold, loved by the entire family and able to be managed easily without the need of plates…just not necessarily healthy….but delicious just the same
Fried chicken yum yum…can be eaten cold or hot…
Balsamic roasted pears and goat’s cheese wrapped in prosciutto…. mmmm summer picnics!
I do love a good terrine to take on a picnic. You can make it a day or so before so on the day of the picnic it’s all good to go. Exceptional with a crisp white wine and some crusty fresh bread. My favourite is a mushroom and almond terrine (Women’s weekly Fruit and Vegetable Cook Book circa 1987)
Oh this is an easy one to answer – muffuletta! My favourite for a number of reasons – it has a funny name, people’s eyes light up when they see it, it can be fairly heavy so it’s a good workout, and it’s the perfect way to make piles of antipasti super portable!
for my favourite picnic dish, I get a cobloaf, pull out the center, leaving the crust and begin layering yummy things such as tuscan grilled eggplant(homemade), leg ham of the bone, brie, marinated capsicum, prociutto, fresh herbs. Pack it in tight put the (bread)lid on, wrap in many layers of alfoil ready to be put in the glowing coals of your campfire for a while to warm through and melt the cheese. Of course if you don’t have a campfire it is still just as yummy cold and sliced through. What can I say but it’s delish!!!
my favourite picnic dish:
Home made bread with good quality ham, cheese, sundried tomatoes and black olives accompanied by orange juice and good wine and followed by a chocolate based dessert and seasonal fruit.
It is divine.
Spicy Chicken Drumsticks… They can be eaten with your fingers and kids love them too! A win-win for everyone.
What a stunning looking cookbook. I love Italian food, but apart from Spag Bol and Lasagne haven’t ventured much further! Good luck everyone.
Meredith Dairy Goats Cheese (the one in the jar) with crusty soy linseed sourdough from Luxe bakery in Newtown. Some semi dried or cherry tomatoes don’t go astray either..
Or the same goat’s cheese with pretty much anything. It’s divine.
YUM
Book looks FAB
thanks Lorraine!
My favourite picnic food is chicken sandwiches. Simple – with home-made egg mayo, chopped chicken breast, chives and or parsley, slivered almonds and a smattering of chopped celery on crustless white bread and a couple of glasses of champagne – it’s the perfect start to a picnic!
my favourite picnic food is bacon,lettuce,tomato with mayonaise three stacker sandwiches and potato salad,bon apetite!!!
You can’t have a picnic without watermelon and the only way for that adults at the picnic to have it is to introduce a little liquor. Be experimental with your choice of “marinade”.
Cut a small “plug” out of the rind just big enough to accommodate the tip of a funnel. Into the funnel pour about a cup and a half of rum, a little at a time and as the rum is infused into the watermelon flesh, top up the funnel, bit by bit. Replace the plug and allow the watermelon to soak up the flavours for a few hours with the plug replaced into the hole. When serving, slice it in the normal way. The flavour is exquisite. Variations worth trying are rum and pineapple juice, vodka, vodka and lemon (and or lime) juice. Be experimental to find “your thing”. You can even throw it all in the blender with some ginger ale, freeze it to make slushies. Yummo
The book looks gorgeous, would love to own a copy. My favourite food for a picnic is fresh blue swimmer crab meat sandwiches with lime and coriander mayonnaise and a glass of champagne
My favorite picnic recipe is a picnic loaf (large rustic bread which is cut on the top, has is inside removed and filled with any sandwich filling. the lid which was cut is put back on. The “sandwich” is then cut like a pizza.)
Me and my mummy will be making this for Christmas (we go to the beach and have a huge family picnic beacause we have alot of cousins, aunts,etc). Everyone loves it.
I love buying a big round cob loaf of bread, cutting the top off, pulling out some of the insides and stuffing it with chargrilled marinated vegetables (eggplant, capsicum, zucchini, mushroom) and some fried haloumi. Then pop the top back on and you can slice it up so everyone can have a ‘slice’ of sandwich!
oops – why? because it tastes amazing, and its kind of like cutting up a cake, only its a sandwich, so its a little different…
Ooooh, there are so many but if I have to choose just one it has to be gourmet rolls – lightly toasted ciabatta, sprayed with oil, rubbed with garlic and a selection of:
- roasted eggplant, capsicum, basil and fetta;
- rare roast beef, horseradish and rocket;
- chicken, coriander, lemon zest mixed in a little cream cheese;
- prawn, thousand island dressing, lettuce and parsley!
Don’t forget the wine…
Absolutely have to have a great cheese board with variety of soft, hard cheeses, quince paste, grapes, oat cakes, lavosh bread, pate, marinated olives, salami and twiggy’s to go with a lovely chilled crisp white as the sun goes down.
My fave is a fresh sourdough bread filled with turkey and cranberry and freah crunchy lettuce!! Yummy Yummy. Oh and don’t forget to add the good company to the picnic!
well I have a few: small meatballs made with sausage mince seasoned with a sweat and sour a side dish of rice salad with a fresh herb bagette washed down by a nice chilled wine
My favourite picnic meal is cold roast chicken, which has been brined in apple juice for 24 hours before roasting, inside crusty bread rolls, topped with fresh tomatoes and baked onions.
A good Hunter Valley chardonay, my darling wife and a few friends – bliss!
Oh my goodness, this book looks divine! Strawberry risotto!? Beautiful. My favourite picnic dish at the moment is a simple tart with caramelised onions and goats cheese. So nice to eat cold, and it is a little special
I adore Italy, I cannot wait to go back. It is my favourite country. Sicily in particular. There are no words. Besides La Dolce Vita
Heidi xo
in nigella form, i love her duck mint salad with pomegranate. perfect for a summer day, it’s tasty, looks amazing and is so easy to prepare. eaten with a pimms cocktail in hand!
Freshly cooked crab caught down at our local beach put on Sunday baked bread with lettuce/tomato and mayo would have to be the ultimate in taste.
my favourite picnic dish is a milanese lamb- basically a lamb chop crumbed in a mixture of breadcrumbs and parmesan after being dipped in egg and garlic, then fried. Lovely
Marinated olives, stuffed w feta with some nice cheese and crackers along for the ride….Simple but great if you’re laying around the park or beach for a lazy picnic.
I love a good fancy sandwich. Boring as it may be but at least it’s easy and clean!
Frittata! Our current favourite is with onions (lots of onions)slowly cooked in olive oil till unctuous and then made heavenly with Pukara Estate Caramelized Balsamic Vinegar. Eaten on crusty Haberfield Bakery bread. Rocket and roasted capsicum are optional, but such perfectly Christmassy colours….
Peach Bellinis all round. Cheers!
Walnut and red onion bruchetta, with slices of fresh sour dough, perfect picnic dish because its easy to pack, simply slices, in one container, mixture in the other, topped with parmesean.
Vitello Tonnato. A delicious veal with tuna sauce dish served cold that can be made the day before. Add a tossed salad and a glass of wine and I’m in heaven.
I can’t go past a really yummy,fresh, crusty sour-dough with blue castello and slices of cucumber on top. How can it get any better than that?
Home baked bagels with goats cheese, honey and spinach. it’s simply delicious and getting up early to bake the bagels always gets me excited for the day to come
Favourite picnic dish would be cold chunks of quiche lorraine, made with lots of cheese and ham, because it is portable, tasty, filling and appealing to many.
Egg and bacon pie. Hands down. Winner.
Picnics , migrant style tended to be just like a meal only you carried the food with you. We would gleefully go on our road
trips knowing that we had so many delicious offerings to look forward to:
Eggplant Parmigiana
crumbed lamb cutlets
Suppli
Lasagna
loads of salads and grilled vegetables
fresh and dried fruit
homemade butter cakes ,jam crostata
and the adults would finish off with an expresso brewed on the plate or bbq.
Now that was a Picnic!
I’d love to win a copy of this book Lorraine, birthday coming up in December
A good potato salad!
champagne and strawberries
What’s not to like about puled pork with coleslaw on a huge soft roll…gotta have me some kosher pickes with it. wash it down with a large glass of iced sweet tea…………a meal to die for!!!!
I know this is so weird, but as a teen I started a tradition of taking dodgy cake shop neenish tarts on picnics- now it’s not a picnic without one. I know it’s not the classiest thing!
Oh i do love a picnic … i make little butternut pumpkin , caramalised onion and feta tarts on puff pastry and wash them down with some nice bubbly ..heaven …and so easy
For years I have made my “Polo Chicken Salad” to take with us wherever we go for a picnic. Its divided into three sections, the leaves & separate last minute addition dressing, the marinated then pan fried chicken (wrapped in foil to keep warm) and the pre cooked and also wrapped in foil to keep warm, and a large bowl. When you get to where you are going, you put them all togther, and voila, a beautiful warm salad that stands alone, maybe just needing some fresh crusty bread and slatherings of butter to accompany it. My kids (now all in their twentys) are still hankering for me to make it at home when they come for dinner, it has stood the test of time !
whoops,they were precooked potatoes !!!
Oooh… that looks like wonderful food porn.Heirloom tomato salad with buffalo mozzarela. I know its a clique but so very delicious.
An antipasto breadbox – I have no idea where I got the recipe but you get an unsliced loaf of bread cut the top off it, take out the middle and layer with your favourite antipasto – chargriled zuchinni and eggplant, semidried tomatoes, artichokes olive tapenade etc… add the bread lid back on and wrap tightly in foil and place in the fridge over night. take it on your picnic and slice into fat slices… all the good stuff, with none of the mess and all those containers!
Finger food is a must for me at picnics and I love the stuffed baby capsiums. They mean summer picincs to me!
Tough to choose- for the casual picnic where are not worried about eating with your hands,then Grilled lemon chicken pieces with seasonal salads or if trying to stay clean then Fresh baguettes with roast turkey, camembert, cranberry jelly and red oak lettuce.
I love a terrine, with fresh crustry bread and the best tomatoes you can find (ones my dad grows are best!)
Love Italian food – spent a month there in summer last year and one of the best summer meals while there was Pesto alla Genovese washed down with white wine.
Otherwise, can’t go wrong with South American empanadas for picnics – their version of our meat pie!
Cheese and biccies – because a picnic isn’t complete without them!
A great big chocolate cake. Memories from a Mickey Mouse story I loved as a kid where they went on a picnic and Donald Duck stole the food. It all ended happily and they finished the meal with Minnie’s chocolate cake!
I really enjoy the “stacked” sandwiches that are all the fashion – and perfect for a picnic as they’re so easily transportable. But if I’m honest, I have fond memories of sour cream and chives flavoured pringles from picnics as a child…
My favourite picnic dish would have to be a chicken and pistachio terrine with a good homemade chutney. Plus a nice glass of white wine.
Not very glamorous but a bbq chook eaten with fingers and shared with friends. With crusty bread rolls, lettuce and mayo… beautiful. Foods always better when it gets all over your fingers
I love making (especially around this time of year) Pork and Cranberry sausage rolls sprinkled with fennel seeds. Take them hot and bu the time you get to them they are still warm on the inside. Yum. I might make them this weekend now!
Italian Stuffed Lobster Tail and a glass of Dom………poured by the butler!
Crispy crunchy chicken strips that can be eaten cold and my killer homemade potato salad.
A picnic for me is a chance to leave the gourmet stuff behind and tuck into a store-bought roast chicken, eaten with fingers no less!
I just love this delicious salmon, dill and caper frittata, cut into little squares, topped with a lime aoili and nicely rounded off with a Sauvignon Blanc….. Yummy!
Chilled watermelon, feta cheese with mint leaves and olives with crusty bread. Heavenly just laying under a moreton bay fig tree and enjoying the day…with a vinto blanco or vino tinto … what more could one want !!
My favourite thing for a picnic is an oozey, deliciously messy and downright decadent wheel of brie, ripened to perfection. Sure, many readers and even NQN herself, may argue my response does not constitute a “picnic dish”, however team it with some dates and a cob of crusty bread (and a nice local bottle of shiraz) and that’s a downright splendid pincic dish to me!
I love the layered antipasto cob with pesto. So easy and so delicious.
Roast pumpkin & sweet potato salad with spinach leaves, bacon & cashews with a lovely cold chicken and of course something cold to wash it all down … bubbles preferably
Italy holds a special place for me because this is where my husband proposed (in Florence) and it was from a phone booth in Cinque Terre that I announced to my mother that I was not only engaged but pregnant! For me, Italian picnics are about freshness. So I would say chilled asparagus wrapped in proscuitto with some flaky bread, cheese, tomatoes and a nice Brunello di Monalcino.
I make the most devine Chicken Pies and these are a must for our picnic basket!
Muffuletta with my very own twist! I bake my own mini-muffuletta loaves, and then scoop them out filling them with different combination’s of delicious delights (to suit everyone’s different tastes). once they’ve been weighed down and set, they’re so east to pack in the picnic hamper, slicing and serving once we reach our location.
Good old fashioned potato salad. Everyone loves it, nearly as much, if not more so than me! And it goes with everything, from a cold roast chook, cold cuts, to a BBQ…or even on rolls!!
Cold meatloaf. You can’t go wrong with it. Every member of our family and all our friends love it…….my wife is such a great cook, making our picnics pure perfection.
Oh, fruit salad! It’s a bit boring, but can’t beat fresh fruit on a hot day.
Cooked prawns with an aioli, rocket, & fresh baguettes.
Then an apple pie.
Hi! Great giveaway
I haven’t really had a chance to go on a “proper” picnic, you know, in a park or somewhere with beautiful green grass to lie on. But when we go to the beach, my family takes a whole watermelon, cracks it on a rock and we all just take a massive chunk and devour it. Funnily enough, sea water lends an interesting flavour to it… Lol.
I love to pack a picnic whenever my partner drags me along on a fishing trip. He loves when I cook my grandma’s quiche, and I also mix up a fruity punch and put it in a thermos to keep icy cool. Perfect for a long day on the water!
I suppose it’s not really a dish, but when I go for picnics with my best friend, our favourite thing to have is antipasti. We go to the deli together and pick out artichokes, olives, salamis and other cured meats, bocconcini.. oh so many lovely things!
Then we head to the park, spread out a blanket and pick at the treats with our fingers until we’re full and worrying about sunburn.
To narrow this down to only one dish … it would definitely be a home baked cob loaf. The morning spent preparing chargrilled aubergine, zucchini brushed with garlic oil, sweet red and yellow capsicum which are skinned after grilling to be mixed with oregano, parsley, garlic, white wine vinegar and oil (with seasonings). The anticipation is a prelude to the picnic enjoyment! Plucked and simmered artichokes with a little dill, cooled and sliced. Freshly picked rocket, baby spinach and a variety of letttuces all mingled together. Semi-sun dried tomatoes with a little sliced red onion all layered with a layer of proscuitto in the middle into our huge cob loaf. The preparation is as much fun as enjoying this delightful offering with a glass of Tasmanian pinot noir (or sparkling mineral water for the littlies). It is transported wrapped in layers of foil beside a nice cold ice brick in the chilled bag beside our wine. Absolute picnic bliss!
Big crusty bread rolls filled with chicken, cheese, lettuce and mayonaise. YUM!
I must admit I am a cookbook addict!
My favourite picnic dish is fresh seafood. I always like to have picnics by the water, so it seems fitting to have something from the water!
Grilled octopus salad with tomato, cucumber, onion and lemon & balsamic dressing. A tub of this, baguette, some olives and chilled watermelon – can’t ask for much more other than friends to share it with.
My fav is potato salad with crispy shallots! Nice and quick to prepare..
I’d have to say my sister’s beautiful salad, though unfortunately I’m not sure what it’s called! It’s a wonderful concoction of baby spinach leaves, roast pumpkin pieces, toasted cashews and roasted cream cheese (yes it works!) with a yummy dressing over the top. So delicious!
BBQ in the park followed by some fresh fruit salad and a platter of cheeses.
My favourite picnic food is simple vanilla cupcakes! They always seem much more special when enjoyed outside in the sunshine
My favourite picnic dish is my famous “Orange and Kūmara Salad”. Real NZ kūmara is unavailable in Australia, so I use the orange flesh sweet potato. I always make extra because people always want to some home.
EATON MESS hands down! It might seem quite intimidating cause of all the layers but it’s something that is quite convenient! All the ingredients could be bought ready made at the stores! It’s just a matter of assembling everything together!
It’s such a refreshing dessert as well! Creamy and sweet!:)
oysters wine some white wine
Port Wine jelly slice, crunchy, sweet and cool in the mouth
Revenge – a dish best served cold.
Favourite picnic food? cold arrancini … mmm or cold Italian rice salad … fresh thinly sliced prosciutto and hams… olives … and no Italian picnic is without Italian pork sausages.
My homemade potato salad – boiled and diced potatoes, mayonnaise, chives, parsley, onion, spring onion and bacon. Package refrigerate until ready to serve.
My favourite picnic recipe would probably be the gorgeous goats cheese and leek quiches from the bourke st bakery cookbook. easy to handle, delicious and they fit in the size of your palm. yep, they tick all the right boxes. oh god, i want one now.
George Clooney… Oh wait, you mean FOOD dish?
That’s big slabs of my Pork And Green Peppercorn Terrine on crusty bread.
I love cold grilled lamb chops. Not only do they taste great but the bone acts as a perfect handle. No cutlery needed!
Best picnic dish – my Blue cheese and leek deep dish quiche, served cold with a crispy mesclun salad – fabulous!
Ideally I like to just stop at the deli on the way to the picnic and stock up on some lovely cheese, antipastos and a baguette.
Summer pudding is the ideal picnic dish for summer. Berries are summer. Mess can be cleaned with a refreshing dip in the nearby creek, river or lake. Not the sea as sand is not condusive to pleasant picnic.
Fav picnic dish is olives and cheese with some decent bread
I vote for number 68, the bloke with the sozzled watermelon idea.
Sounds very refreshing, like the bit about the Ginger Ale. Obvious health benefits, keeps you hydrated while you also get your fibre and vitamins at the same time.
Don’t you just love summer and the outdoors!
The most perfect food in my opinion for a picnic at the beach is watermelon and mangos, eaten sitting in your cossie. A taste sensation, it just doesn’t get any better or more Aussie than this. It doesn’t matter how much mess you make, it’s a short sprint over the burning sand to wash off and “Bob’s your uncle”
Salmon Quiche served with Fatoush and Crusty Bread is a much adored family picnic tradition!
Definitely my boyfriend Dave – because food tastes better with him always!
Fresh ceaser salad!! Yummy…
My favorite Italian export is my other half, and the cherry tiramasu he makes (his mothers recipe).
My favorite Italian export is my other half and the cherry tiramasu he makes.
Quiche Lorraine, surely it was created to make the perfect picnic
Fave foods to eat at a picnic are strawberries , watermelon and grapes.
simple but good roast chicken, yummy salads and freshly baked crunchy bread rolls!
Moist leg ham carved from the bone, my own potato salad and crusty bread: simple but delicious.
Definitely cold bacon & egg pie. It’s delicious, substantial & transports well.
The perfect picnic is held regularly on a Friday night in the park on the river just near our house. It’s a gathering spot for my son’s mates and their families. The food consists of sausages and whatever was at hand. The plates are shared and the wine flows long into the evening. A perfect start to the weekend!
Remember scotch eggs? So easy to make and always a hit with the kids and adults alike. Go well with a beer (for the boys) and a dry New Zealand white from the Marlborough region. Delicious! Marry that with a spicy chickpea salad that my 88 year old Mum makes, a big shady tree and a blanket; what more could you want.. I know a lovely Italian Cookbook to while away the hours.. x
Polenta cake with cherries – it’s seriously yum, nourishing, and baked fresh cherries are da bomb!
Preferably eaten with friends and served with vino under the sunset at moonlight cinema *sigh*
My sister has the Bourke Street Bakery cook book and on picnics she would occasionally choose a pie to make and make it for the picnic. So my favourite picnic food would be a Bourke Street Bakery Pie. I like how those pies have a lot of different flavours and i love how its so nice that i wouldn’t even need tomato sauce!
A good bbq/roast chicken always does the trick. it’s good hot or cold and it’s not messy, the kids love to hold the drumsticks and the adults peel off the meat to mix it with the salads and bread….easy and tasty picnic!
Quiche – it’s easy, you can make it the night before. It’s nice warm or cold and you can do so many flavours and even different crusts (or no crust at all!). Failing that, cheeses and duck pate with crusty french baguette.
mixture of cheeses and biscuits along with a good wine followed by some lovely pasta salads and cold meats
You can see it’s summer! The line of ideas simply would not end! Not original, but – I agree with chicken legs or wings suggested by others – easy to handle and filling. I make mine a little differently – marinate them in HOMEMADE teriyaki sauce with quite a bit of natural honey and star anise in it. Into a plastic bag overnight. Then I STEAM them in the bag until done. How juicy and the taste will have really permeated!
My home made potato salad containing spring and spanish onion, bacon, potato, parlsey and mayonnaise.
Fav picnic food is sandwiches! Shredded chicken, mayonnaise, mustard, gerkins, tomato, lettuce, cheese slice. If you make the sandwiches at home, by the time you have your picnic, it all somehow gels really well and is rather filling
My favourite pic nic dish is pasta salad, it is refreshing, yummy and easy to carry.
Mediterranean Pork Tenderloin in Pita!
Curried Egg sandwiches!
I love salads for picnics: potato salad, grilled veggies salad, rocket salad, greek salad…
Salmon Quiche served with Rocket ,Parmesan and Macadamia Nut Salad. The mild flavour of the quiche is complimented by the peppery taste of the rocket and goes down a treat!
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[...] say and I am forever trying to find the “perfect” pastry. This tart is from the Phaidon Recipes From An Italian Summer cookbook I was sent. It is a collection of recipes gathered by the Italian The Silver Spoon authors. As soon [...]
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