Stuffed Picnic Loaf for National Picnic Week

I can’t believe it, I’m sure my eyes are deceiving me. We’re actually seeing a little bit of sun up North!  The wonderful weather coincides perfectly with the guys at Unilever sending me a beautiful hamper bursting full of ingredients, with the challenge of using them to create a delicious and easy picnic recipe.  Petrified I was going to miss the sun, I decided to cobble something together from what I already had in my fridge before the clouds and drizzle descended once more.  With this in mind, this is one of the easiest and most forgiving recipes I have ever attempted, all you need is a loaf of bread and whatever you can get your greedy little mitts on. 

Here’s what I did…

Stuffed Picnic Loaf

Ingredients:

1 loaf of crusty bread

1 scraping of Bertolli

2 small rounds of mozzarella cheese

1 bag of washed rocket

Handful of basil leaves

4 roasted red peppers from a jar

250g Prosciutto

250g peppered salami

250g Italian speck

1 large tomato

Squirt of Colmans garlic and chilli mayo

Method:

Cut the top off your loaf and hollow out the insides.  Keep the leftover bread for breadcrumbs.  Spread the inside of the loaf with Bertolli and layer up your ingredients.  I started off with the parma ham, mayo, rocket, tomato, cheese, basil and repeated with the different meats and finishing with red peppers. 

Once you have finished layering your ingredients replace the lid on your loaf and wrap the whole thing tightly in cling film.  Place the loaf in the fridge and pop a heavy wooden chopping board on top.  This compresses the loaf and helps everything stay together when cutting.   Leave in the fridge for 8hrs before taking on an adventure.

This is such a forgiving recipe, you can change everything and anything with what you have available.  No mozzarella, use cheddar.  No Prosciutto, just use regular sliced ham.  The possibilities are endless.