Alfresco lunch

This is your recipe if you're dreaming of having a large alfresco lunch, but don't have the time to spend in the kitchen.

It looks sensational and is very simple to prepare, the secret is in the tomato sauce which you can happily make your own with a bit of 'tweeking'.

Find the best cooked free range chicken, grab as many as you need, work on 5 people per chicken for this dish, tear the chicken apart into nice chunky pieces discarding the bone, or if you feel that inner 'martha' stirring, keep the carcass for that perfect chicken soup, arrange the torn chicken on a large serving platter and set aside.

Now for the tomato sauce, here is the basic- 2 tins chopped Italian tomatoes, 1 onion chopped, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tsp smoked paprika, pinch of dried chilli flakes, a gluck of balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, salt and pepper and and gravy from the chickens. Saute the onions and garlic, add tomatoes, paprika, sugar etc and simmer away for 30 mins.
When your tomato sauce is cool, pour artistically over your torn chicken, dollop with creme fraiche and scatter with fresh basil leaves and maybe add a drizzle of balsamic blaze.

Tweek with any of the following additions, add more chilli, fresh chilli for a bigger bite, add bay leaves for a more Italian flavour, sliced chorizo sausage will make your man very happy, or even some sherry for a sweeter boozier edge....have fun!