Now that the weather is getting a bit better and the summer holidays have kicked in, I’m turning my thoughts to picnic food! It gets so expensive feeding a family of 5, sometimes twice a day if we go further afield! This makes my mouth water just to think about it!
It is a classic Italian picnic loaf and is something that we always have when we have picnics in the spring/summer, especially or the grown ups. I can do a simpler version for the children that uses ham and cheese layers, but this is my favourite recipe.
What you will need:
- One fresh loaf of crusty bread that can be hollowed out but still hold its shape
- Fillings of your choice these were mine:
- Marinaded chicken strips, sliced thinly (I made my own using 1 breast of chicken, 2 tbsps of lemon juice, 1 tbsp of lemon infused oil and 2 crushed cloves of garlic – leave to marinade overnight or for at least 1 hour, then cook on gas mark 6 for 20 minutes)
- Mixed lettuce leaves – whatever is your favourite
- 3 Roasted peppers (again I made my own – slice 3 peppers, coat with oil and roar for 30 minutes on gas mark 6)
- 2 Roast red onion (same as peppers if you choose to do it yourself)
- 4 Roasted fresh tomatoes (again, if you want to do this yourself follow the same instructions as the peppers)
- 2 boiled eggs, sliced.
So, first thing is first: hollow out your bread. You want to leave roughly 1cm of the soft bread inside as this will soak up all of the juices from the veg and meat. Cut around the top of the bread so you pop off a ‘lid’ of sorts, once you had done this, you can hollow out. Don’t forget to hollow out the lid as well.
After this, if you have chosen to buy all of the ingredients, you can layer up. If you haven’t and are going to cook everything yourself, you will need to make sure that your ingredients are cooked and cooled enough. To layer: started with your peppers, red onions and tomatoes, follow with your lettuce mixture, then the chicken and the eggs. Repeat until you are full and then pop the lid back on. Squeeze the bread together and leave in a cool dry place or wrap for your picnic.
Done!
Remember this is just my version, you can fill yours with whatever you like. Traditionally this would have all sorts of meats with sundried tomatoes in. You can add, cheese, go vegetarian… the sky is the limit!
Harriet x
P.s – If you make this please share with me what you put in yours 🙂
They look really nice.
Oh yummy, this looks delicious. Great idea that you can add your very own fillings.
Laura x
Thanks Laura xx
Looks and sounds delicious. I love tiger loaf full of chicken and sundried tomatoes, yum!!
Thanks Kellie xx
That looks and sounds so tasty. X
It is! And you can put anything in x
Beautiful, fresh, crusty bread goes with everything really, I would make a simple feta and fresh tomato, with a drizzle of olive oil and a bit of oregano.Yum!xx
Ooohh feta and fresh tomato sounds lovely! Send one over! H x
I’ve seen these a lot on cooking shows and think they are such a good idea. This looks lovely! A real mix of all my favourite things.
They are so yummy xx
Omg! This looks amazing. It makes me want to picnic right now!! Xx
Thanks Sarah! It is so tasty! H x
Yum we love picnics too I can’t wait for it to be warm enough to have a picnic outside.
I know – me neither. I love a good living room picnic though xx