Just a little sprinkle of parmesan and basil.

Preparing dinner can be a challenge when you work full time, and even more here the last couple of weeks. The snow has made the traffic terrible, and too much time is spent in the car. I play some Italian music on the cd-player while driving, Roberto Murolo, and dream about tasty dinners under the stars during long and warm Italian summer nights.

But even a very simple dinner can be made into a feast with a couple of simple tricks. Two of my winning tricks are a piece of parmesan in the fridge and a pot of basil on the dresser. And both tricks send me dreaming southwards to Italy.

So, what other name can I give this easy and fast to make salad than:

Dreamy chicken salad.

I usually buy a chicken pregrilled in the shop, remove the bones, cut the chicken meat into small pieces, and mix with what I have of vegetables - onion, tomato, cucumber, paprika, a couple of oranges - and I boil some pasta (this time it was penne) which I cool with cold water before adding it.

The salad is sprinkeled with extra virgin olive oil (how can one be an extra virgin actually, a virgin is a virgin.......) and the parmesan cheese is put on the table - not all in my family wants the parmesan taste in their salad.

I usually make a huge bowl, hoping for leftovers to take to work for lunch the next day, but........so far there has been none.