Our in-house foodie Rita is all about experimenting and making good food look and taste better. This week she shares with us some tips on creating with mortadella, showing us that there’s more to this Italian cold cut than just sandwiches.

Have a play with texture and flavours–combine the meat with ingredients that will bring out the mortadella’s flavours such as rocket and black pepper. Compliment the mortadella’s smooth texture with light, crusty and flaky breadsticks.

Mortadella is great on platters for entertaining–roll up some mortadella and place on a bed of rocket, or mixed salad, with some salted breadsticks. The salt on the breadsticks brings out the flavour of the mortadella beautifully. Alternatively, use flavoured breadsticks, such as black pepper for that extra kick of flavour. Add a few ripened vine tomatoes to your platter, and for that final touch, drizzle some olive oil over your masterpiece–now that’s simple and affordable gourmet at home!

If you’re in the mood to cook, the plain mortadella goes beautifully in pizzas and is great to use in a meatlovers’ pizza. Alternatively, use the plain mortadella in baked pastas and in salads.