I typically dislike the television shows that focus on restricting a recipe to only five ingredients. It doesn’t seem to “fix” anything. I find them boring and annoyingly exclusive. But when ingredients are really good – you can throw together some amazing dishes with very few ingredients. Fresh summer tomatoes, freshly made mozzarella, basil from the garden, good olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar, Maldon salt and fresh cracked pepper – maybe one of the top five best simple dishes. I know, it is seven ingredients, but those silly shows never count salt and pepper – or olive oil that I’m aware of!

 Along with a beautiful display of Caprese Salad, I picked up sweet Italian sausages from Giacamo’s Italian market in Greensboro. I planned on grilling them and serving them over lightly dressed greens – but of course I ran out of propane and ended up just tossing them into a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. They turned out just as delicious – despite the phallic jokes coming from the rowdy end of the table (you know who you are).