This is a quick and a bit different lunch. It’s especially quick if you make the dressing the day before, and you adopt the sort of manufacturing production method I suggest below, laying out all the slices of prosciutto and distributing ricotta mixture and shredded rocket equally between them.

It’s worth getting the best prosciutto you can find – thin, soft, salty is what you want – it will raise these tasty morsels to another level.

If you have any left over you can cut through with a sharp knife and serve as a sort of crostini with drinks – a cool, dry, nutty sherry ideally!

Recipe for herby ricotta and rocket roulades

Serves 3 for lunch…. or 2 for lunch and some left over to enjoy with drinks later

Ingredients

• 250g/9 oz ricotta
• 160g/6 oz 10-12 slices Parma or San Danielle prosciutto crudo
• 2 tbsp capers – the salted ones are better than those in brine. If you have those in brine, go here to find out what to do to make them edible.
• 10 (or, at least the same number as slices of ham that you have) small sundried tomatoes in oil
• 40-60g/2 oz rocket
• some fresh herbs – thyme, mint, chives… all do well
• smoked salt (not much as the ham is salty) and freshly ground black pepper – or better still, Urfa pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 2 – 3 generous stems of basil
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed with ½ tsp smoked salt
• fresh crusty bread

Method

1. Either in a small food processor, or in a beaker using your stick blender mix the basil, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and some pepper. You can do this a day ahead.
2. In a medium mixing bowl mix the ricotta, some salt and the Urfa pepper flakes (or pepper), and the capers. Snip in some fresh herbs.
3. Cut the sundried tomatoes in half.
4. Shred the ricotta to bite-size lengths.
5. Lay out the slices of ham. At each end put a spoon of the ricotta mixture. Cover with rocket, and at either end place a half tomato. Make sure you’ve got ricotta mixture and rocket evenly distributed between the slices. Roll up.
6. Serve, drizzled with the basil dressing, with the crusty bread.