We’ve just returned from a few hot and heady days in Rome enjoying some delicious food –and arrived home in time for an English heat wave.Our west-facing kitchen was too hot to handle last night and, to be honest, the fridge was a bit bare post-holiday. So I assembled a few ingredients (including some prosciutto and Pecorino we bought in a wonderful deli in the Campo dei Fiori the previous day) and we decamped to the cool grass in the garden with a glass of deep chilled Orvieto Classico and an icy bottle of San Pellegrino. It’s hardly a recipe, but it may provide some inspiration for your own no-cook supper in the coming days; I gather this weather is here to stay.

Our picnic consisted of three plates (clockwise from top left):

A: Rainbow room salad with lots of added parsley.

B: Mozzarella di Bufala torn into small pieces, prosciutto di Parma, and a ripe peach sliced into segments*.

C: A salad of wild rocket and red lettuce, heritage tomatoes, celery crescents, a jar of artichoke antipasti, and some shavings of organic Pecorino cheese – dressed with extra virgin olive oil. Black olives would have been nice but I didn’t think of it at the time!

*If the peach is ripe enough I always slice it on the stone, segment by segment and gently pull each segment off. Much easier than trying to remove the stone first.