Whether you’re trying to cook more healthily at home or simply missing being able to eat out at your favourite Italian restaurant, LECHUZA has the perfect recipe for creating your own delicious pizza and pasta dishes at home, using the freshest ingredients. Fear not, there is minimal gardening involved, as LECHUZA planters do the hard work for you. All you need to do is picture yourself in the Mediterranean, with the heady scents of fresh basil, garlic, tomatoes and oregano filling your kitchen.
Italian cuisine is known for creating simple, yet beautiful, dishes with very few ingredients and letting the flavours of the fresh produce do the talking. Forget supermarket-bought herbs and veg; growing your own with LECHUZA can take your cooking to the next level and help you create dishes that would make Antonio Carluccio proud.
Your first step is getting the basics right. Basil is an essential herb for Italian-style cooking and can work wonders tossed in a Caprese salad, stirred into pasta sauce, or sprinkled over the top of a pizza fresh out of the oven.
Of course, if you’re planning to grow basil, it makes sense to plant a few of its culinary chums alongside to make sure you have access to a selection of classic Italian flavours within an arm’s reach of your hob at all times. Whether oregano, rosemary, parsley or thyme, you can grow these fragrant friends easily on a windowsill or kitchen worktop in LECHUZA’s self-watering CUBE planters and take yourself one step closer to the Sicilian kitchen in your dreams. Not only do these pots look stylish – earning their place in any chic kitchen setting – they will keep your Italian edibles in top condition, thanks to LECHUZA’s smart self-watering feature. The integrated stick irrigation reliably supplies the herbs in the grow pot with the perfect level of moisture. All you need to do is keep an eye on the water level indicator, which lets you know when the reservoir needs topping up. This feature also makes it easy to grow thirsty plants, like garlic, which is used in no small amount in Italian cooking.
LECHUZA CUBE planters are available in a matt weave or high gloss finish across a wide range of colourways, including limited edition Spicy Copper and Smoky Diamond grey, meaning you will be spoilt for choice finding something to complement your décor.
You can’t talk Italian cuisine without picturing piles of juicy tomatoes – perfect as a base for many pasta sauces or to make a sauce to smother over a pizza base ready for topping. There are so many great varieties of tomato to choose from. Thankfully, LECHUZA’s TRIO planter gives you the space to grow a selection to cook and experiment with. The large trough planter, which is suitable for indoor or outdoor use, features three removable interchangeable planter liners – each with their own water level indicator – and an optional trellis that acts as the perfect support for tomato plants as they grow and can also double up as a patio divider or privacy screen for when you want to sit and get lost in your own imaginary corner of Tuscany.
For a quick and easy snack made from homegrown ingredients, rub a toasted slice of bread with a garlic clove and top with chopped fresh tomatoes, dressed with olive oil, torn basil leaves and salt for the perfect bruschetta. Imagine how incredible that could taste with homegrown ingredients! LECHUZA’s self-watering planters making gardening easier can help make that dream a reality.
If space is at a premium, make use of the BALCONERA. This versatile box planter can be hung on balconies, window sills, walls, fences and even tables – helping you to create a gorgeous herb garden or the perfect home for tomatoes, which can hang down instead of growing up supports. The BALCONERA benefits from LECHUZA’s irrigation system and comes complete with our high-quality pure mineral plant substrate, which offers plants optimum nutrient distribution and drainage. Available in an array of colours and finishes, the BALCONERA is offered in two sizes. RRPs from £26.99.
Italians often like a bit of a spicy kick in their cooking, with iconic pasta dishes like penne al’arrabiata, and the late-night favourite, Spaghetti Aglio olio e pepperoncinos; a simple dish made using just five ingredients (spaghetti, olive oil, garlic, red chilli, parsley) that is enjoyed by natives after a heavy night; hence its nickname of ‘midnight pasta’. Recreate these favourites and more by growing your own capsicums at home.
Chillies and small sweet peppers grow happily on a windowsill or in a sunny spot outdoors. Different varieties have specific needs and the plants benefit from drying out more between waterings but don’t let that scare you off. If you’re using a LECHUZA planter, let the pot do the hard work for you. The self-watering system will take any guesswork out of growing, making sure the plant receives the optimum amount of moisture and avoids any risk of overwatering, helping you achieve a bumper crop.
About LECHUZA
LECHUZA brings decades of experience in state-of-the-art, precision manufacturing to bear on its stylish high-functionality range of planters. All LECHUZA products are designed in-house and manufactured in Dietenhofen, Germany, from high-quality, robust polypropylene, which is weatherproof and frostproof. All LECHUZA planters and furniture are DIN EN ISO certified (Energy Management System 50001 and Enviornmental Management System ISO 14001) and can be fully recycled.
LECHUZA planters come in a variety of colours and shapes and are highly reliable – both indoors and outdoors. The integrated soil irrigation system ensures that the plant receives the perfect amount of water for optimal growth. Thanks to a reservoir that always holds enough water and is controlled by a water level indicator, dried out or overwatered root bales are a thing of the past.
For more information visit: https://www.lechuza.co.uk or follow @lechuza.co.uk on Instagram.
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Notes to editors
- LECHUZA planters are fully recyclable
- All LECHUZA planter liners are made from 100% recycled* material
- LECHUZA processes 990 tonnes of recycled* plastic each year
- LECHUZA reuses 100% of plastic waste in production
- As part of LECHUZA’s sustainability efforts, over 70% of the water used in production comes from cisterns.
- LECHUZA is a multi-award winning brand including the 2019 Design Award, Reddot Award winners 2018 and German Design Award winner 2019.
* post-industrial material