I love cooking on holiday more than eating out. Those who know me well will know that I am ever amazed at the lack of vegetables in meals in Southern Europe on restaurant menus.
I look forward to cooking in our self-catering accommodation, and spend a lot of time and money buying local produce. Admittedly we do tend to use the supermarkets more than the street markets. From a practical point of view, markets tend to be in cities, and so, apart from buying non-perishable goods and really firm fruit and vegetables, the question of how far it is to dash back to the villa to get the food into the fridge. This year we are having average daily temperatures of 85 degrees plus; no joke when you need to keep food fresh.
All of my recipes are a blend of Southern European, with a touch of Modern British and some Indian and Asian thrown in for good measure. The pictures above are of the first dinner I made in the apartment: Pasta with roughly sliced Italian sausages, canned tomatoes, fresh fennel, courgette, onions and garlic, with some white wine and fresh parsley and basil thrown in for good measure.
I also cannot resist making my version of Spanish tapas. Whether or not these are entirely authentic does not matter to me. I always think it is worth taking some good base ingredients, and a wonderful concept such as tapas, and creating a snack that you really enjoy. The other night we had a meal entirely composed of my tapas recipes. In the following pictures you see:
Tuna and Chick Pea Salad with Fennel and parsley, dressed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Olives with feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and some mushrooms from a jar, in olive oil
Egg Mayonnaise
Warm Ratatouille
Squid cooked with Chorizo and Hot smoked Paprika
We ate all of these with thin Italian bread, which is a speciality of Sardinia
I’ll be posting more holiday recipe ideas as we continue our jolly jaunt in Sardinia!
Yummy!