Cream Cheese dip with Tomato and Basil

Apart from challenging Adrian's aversion of certain foods (beet root, eggplant, scones), I enjoy finding ways to getting rid of ingredients (such as zucchini) before they turn bad. That's also one of the factors running a kitchen in a household of two. As a result, I often find myself searching for recipes based on what I no longer want to see in the refrigerator. One of my favorites is turning ingredients into preserves or jam (strawberry, raspberry). Sometimes freezing foods prepared ahead helps too.

This time, I foresee no dinner at home for the next 5 days. What have I got? Let's see: wilting basil, browning parsley and ripe tomatoes. I was going to make tomato jam (which takes 1 1/2 hour of constant stirring) and, again, basil-parsley pesto. Then I came across a dip that would use all of the above, plus cream cheese. A tempting combination that save time.

You may substitute cream cheese with cottage cheese. What to do with it? I intend to serve it over toasted sourdough muffin with mashed hard-boiled egg for breakfast sandwich (did I tell you Adrian's lack of faith for egg sandwich?) or as dip/ spread on bruchetta for appetizer.

On toasted sourdough muffin with sun dried tomatoes and sunny-side-up.

As omelet filling.

Scrambled egg

Ingredients:

(Makes about 1 1/4 cups)

• 125gram cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 2 ripe Roma tomatoes, finely chopped
• 2 TB real mayonnaise
• salt and pepper to taste
• lots of basil and parsley, chopped
• 2 TB fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 2 TB Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Stir and blend all the ingredients with a fork.
2. Taste, season and adjust with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
3. Chill lightly and serve as a dip, spread or with bruschetta.