watermelon, lime & ricotta salata salad

A few years ago Mr Weiss’s mum got remarried.  The bride was about 70 and the groom 76-ish, they met a a peace rally, shame right? Us “kids” were requested to take care of the food for a small gathering of about 35 or so… or so… or so… we were also told everyone was going to “bring something” and it would be more like “pot luck”, but could we make a few things to add to the festivities, my famous whole baked fish included (recipe to be posted for sure!)

Anyway so the wedding is a Saturday afternoon, we arrive into and head straight to Wholefoods for some supplies, do a bit of prep work, drop it off at Mr Weiss’s sisters house, then amble over to the night before wedding dinner bash, at the happy couples.

Pretty much all the guests are from out of town, and upon us entering and mingling we started catching on to the comments like “oh you guys must be soooo exhausted from cooking all day”, “what’s on the menu for tomorrow?”, “how are you going to get it all done and over here?”, our eyebrows continued to raise and reached a full blown forehead arch when our suspicions were confirmed, via the bride, when Mr Weiss’s mum ambled over to us and calmly asked if her 8ft dining table was big enough to hold “all the food we were bringing”

Um, YES no one else actually bought a bloody thing, well that is if you don’t count some scary looking fruity bean concoction a vegan guest was trying to inflict upon everyone else, we were THE catering.  Lets just say when dealing with Mr Weiss”s mother, some things tend to get lost in the translation.

We quietly exited and raced straight back to Wholefoods brains whirling with quick fix recipes… but I have to say, this one was a real crowd pleaser and easy to whip up in a pinch!!

Watermelon, Lime & Ricotta Salata Salad

1/2 seedless watermelon sliced into thin triangles (I just happened to have yellow and red watermelon, you can use this mixture or either types)

roughly 4 oz ricotta salata cut into similar size as watermelon (a lot of people use feta with watermelon, but trust me give the ole ricotta salata a try, its something a little different and has a nice texture to add to the salad)

zest and juice of 1 lime

1/2 medium red onion thinly sliced

8 – 10 mint leaves julienne

2 tbsp good olive oil, sea salt and black pepper

Toss everything together and serve… see told you it was easy AND it travels quite well!