Quick lunches with little fishies
Eat plentiful #18
One of my favourite things about not having an office and working mostly from home is that I get to cook for myself at lunch. Not for Woody, not for Ash, for me and in my own time - a total luxury.
And the beauty of these warmer days is that you don’t feel like anything too stodgy for lunch. I like to keep it light, fresh and quick to make so I often resort to what one might call ‘assemblage cooking’.
What I call assemblage cooking is basically keeping a variety of ready to use ingredients in your pantry that can be pulled together into a last-minute lunch. Assemblage also requires minimal or no cooking, it’s just about putting several things together in a way that it creates a great dish. It’s an important culinary weapon to have which will get you out out of what could have been a food crisis at home.
Here are two of my favourite summer lunches, which often make an appearance in my weekly rotation. For those of who do not like anchovies or sardines, this is not your week. I think you havn’t eaten the good stuff yet. Keep trying please, it’s much easier to get your hand on some good tins from Spain or Portugal these days.
Roasted red peppers, anchovies & mozzarella
Serves 1
Preparation: 5mins
Ingredients
Jarred red bell peppers
Anchovies (depending how much you like them)
A couple of sprigs of parsley
A few capers
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tspn of vinegar
Half a ball of mozarrella, could also be some burrata, and feta would also work well
Instructions
Not sure you need a recipe…but for the sake of it.
Lay down your 2 half peppers on a plate, and add olive oil and vinegar
Place mozzarella and anchovies on top.
Sprinkle with parsley and capers, and season with salt (not too much as the anchovies bring enough saltiness already) and pepper
You could slide a slice of bread under all of it if you’re feeling a bit peckish. I also think this makes a great starter for a dinner, or great dish for a cold buffet.
Pan con tomate with sardines, lemon and fennel
Serves 1
Preparation: 10 mins
Ingredients
2 tomatoes
zest of half lemon (using microplane)
slice of sourdough bread
a tin of sardines ( I like mine in oil with chillis)
a garlic clove
a tspn of capers
a few sprigs of fennel
olive oil for good measure
Instructions
Great your tomatoes on a cheese grater and place the pulp in a sieve. Throw away the juices and keep the pulp remaining in the sieve.
Put a slice of toast in the toast. Once it’s ready, rub a whole clove of garlic along the toast until there isn’t much left of it.
Spoon the tomato mixture on the toast, add the sardines, chillis from the tin, lemon zest, capers and fennel. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
You can omit the sardines if you don’t like them, it works just fine without. I have also had this toast with some nice Iberico ham on it, like they serve it in Spain.
Both of the above would also work perfectly as a starter for a dinner or for an apéritif.
Hope you enjoy them x