If you like wine and cheese tables, you might like to try varying your presentation with this salad. It's bright and colourful and goes well with a large helping of wine and a wedge of cheese or two.
During the first week of my first attempt at attending university, we freshers were all invited to a cheese and wine do to meet each other. After only recently leaving school, it felt quite posh and adult to be invited to a cheese and wine party. They called it an 'Ice-breaker' and I do vaguely remember breaking something but I don't think it was ice. I only met one person. His name was Donald and he was hovering around the wine table like me. We became good friends - I think we must have told each other which rooms we were in before getting totally plastered. We enjoyed the party so much that when our grant cheques came through we went down to Oddbin's wine shop and bought a selection of cheap bottles and then picked up some cheese at the supermarket. We had a cheese and wine party in Donald's room, just the two of us, and I remember waking up on the floor the next morning surrounded by empty bottles and half eaten bits of cheese. Is that sad or what?
A medium-sized red pepper
1 tin of pitted black olives
A dessert spoon of extra virgin olive oil
A large pinch or two of dried rosemary
A few lemon wedges
Core the pepper and slice it finely. Mix all the ingredients together and leave in the fridge for a few hours before serving. Green olives in herb dressing also makes a nice accompaniment to cheese and wine.