I’m sure you all know Gazpacho, but have you ever tried Salmorejo? It’s from Spanish Andalusia as well, you eat it cold too but it has a thicker texture which makes it a cream rather than a liquid soup. You can eat it as a starter or as an appetizer. In Spain, people usually dip it with bread but it’s also pretty good with crude veggies (pepper, cucumber, Portobello mushrooms, zucchini etc.). Vegetarians can skip this part, the others will top it with a hard boiled egg and some cured ham.

Preparation time: 10 mn

Ingredients (for 6 servings)

Salmorejo

2.2 lbs (1 kg) ripe tomatoes
7 oz (200 g) of bread from the previous day
1 cup (250 ml) of olive oil (click here to buy online)
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons of vinegar
Salt

Topping

1 egg
3 slices of cured ham

Instructions

1/ Heat tomatoes in a pan filled with water until their skin gets easy to take away. Let them cool down a little off the water.

2/ Cut bread into pieces.

3/ Peel tomatoes and garlic clove.

4/ Mix bread, tomatoes, garlic, vinegar and olive oil in a blender.

5/ Season with salt and keep in the fridge.

6/ Before serving, get water to a boil in a small pan. Add egg thoroughly with a tablespoon and leave in boiling water for 9 minutes.

7/ Rinse egg with cold water, let it cool a little and shell.

8/ Dice cured ham and egg.

9/ Serve salmorejo in individual dishes or in a salad bowl for dipping and sharing. Top with egg, ham and a dash of olive oil.

Enjoy

Here is a recipe I like to make often. It’s fast, easy and really tasty! I love Mediterranean flavors and these ones really enhance a good beef meat. I used green olives, but it’s only a matter of taste, you can replace them by black olives if you prefer. Replace capers by sun-dried tomatoes and you have a new Mediterranean meatballs recipe .

Preparation time: 20 mn  Cooking time: 15 mn

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

18 oz (500 g) of ground beef meat
5 tablespoons of stoned green olives
5 oz (140 g) of feta cheese (1 1/2 oz for topping + 3 1/2 for mixture)
4 tablespoons of dried breadcrumbs
7 tablespoons of milk
4 tomatoes
2 eggs
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 big onion
2 teaspoons of capers
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1/ Soak breadcrumbs in milk in a small bowl.

2/ Peel and chop onion.

3/ Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and let it melt gently.

4/ In a salad bowl combine meat, eggs and breadcrumbs. Add salt.

5/ When onions are translucent and soft, take them off heat and let them cool down.

6/ Chop olives and feta cheese. Combine with meat mixture.

7/ When onions have cooled down a little, add to mixture along with capers.

8/ Shape into meatballs. (Don’t make them too big, they would be more difficult to keep in one piece. A good size is slightly  bigger than the tomato slice you’re going to add on top )

9/ Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C/Th 6).

10/ Heat in a pan over medium/high heat 2 minutes on each side.

11/ Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to an ovenproof dish and dispose meatballs.

12/ Rinse and slice tomatoes.

13/ Add a tomato slice on top of each meatball. Top with feta cheese, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper.

14/ Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until feta cheese has a nice golden color.

Serve with gratin dauphinois,  green asparagus, mushroom baked potatoes or spinach soufflés.

I hadn’t had cuttlefish for so long I almost forgot how good it was! This recipe was made with a fresh cuttlefish, but if you’re a beginner you might rather use frozen pieces… I must admit that cleaning it was pretty disgusting although the result was totally worth it

Preparation time: 20 mn  Cooking time: 1 h

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

3,3 lbs (1.5 kg) of cuttlefish
3 garlic cloves
2 1/2 cups of white wine (dry)
2 onions
2 bay leaves
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of thyme
1/8 cup of Cognac
Saffron
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Clean and dice cuttlefish.

2/ Pour olive oil in a frying pan and heat it over medium heat. Add cuttlefish.

3/ Peel and chop garlic and onions.

4/ When all the water from the cuttlefish has evaporated, add garlic, onions, bay leaves, thyme and a small amount of saffron.

5/ Add Cognac. (If you’re an advanced cook, you can ‘flamber’ which means setting the alcohol on fire for a short amount of time. In this case you need to warm Cognac before adding it to the pan, take pan off heat, then lit it on fire).

6/ Pour diced tomatoes and wine into the pan. Add salt and pepper.

7/ Get to a smooth boil for approximately 5 minutes then reduce heat and leave covered for 1 hour.

8/ Serve with rice or tagliatelle pasta.

Here’s a great appetizer recipe, very easy although it takes a little time  to make .
It’s very common in France to have friends over for a pre-dinner drink (apéritif). But we also often invite them for what we call « apéritif dinatoire » which means there is no dinner after it, you eat while drinking! In these occasions, I make different finger-food like Spanish tapas. It’s important to vary tastes and types so your guests don’t get bored.  There are tons of delicious recipes I’ll try to share with you in the finger-food pages.

Preparation time: 15 minutes – Marinating time: at least 30 minutes

Ingredients (for 20 skewers)

20 toothpicks

20 tomatoes cherry
20 small mozzarella balls
10 basil leaves (5 if they’re big)
2 tablespoons of parsley
2 tablespoons of small chive
2 tablesoons of olive oil
salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Chop parsley and small chive. Pour mozzarella balls in a bowl. Add olive oil, parsley, small chive, salt and pepper. Cover and leave aside for at least 30 mn. (If you can leave it overnight, even better).

2/ Cut tomatoes and basil leaves in half. On a toothpick, line up one half of tomato, a piece of basil leaf, a mozarella ball and finish with the second tomato half.

We’re not exactly in the middle of the tomatoes’ season but I made these stuffed tomatoes a few days ago for a dinner with a vegetarian friend of mine and it came out pretty good

Preparation Time: 15 mn – Cooking Time: 15 to 20 mn

Ingredients (for 4 to 6 servings)

8 big tomatoes
1/2 lbs (225g) of feta cheese
4 slices of bread
2 garlic cloves
5 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of fresh cream (crème fraiche you can replace it by Quark or fromage blanc)
1 tablespoon of capers
1 tablespoon of thyme (or parsley if you prefer)
Salt & Pepper

Instructions:

1/ Clean tomatoes and carefully cut off the tops. Scoop out pulp (very easy with a teaspoon, just be careful not to break the bottom of the tomato). Chop pulp finely and leave aside.

2/ Take out crumb from bread and dice it.

3/ Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan; brown crumb dices and chopped garlic.

4/ Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C – Th 7).

5/ Dice feta cheese. Combine it with fresh cream, salt and pepper. Add thyme, capers and crumb dices.

6/ Put tomatoes in an oiled baking dish. Fill with mixture. Put tops back on tomatoes.

7/ Pour chopped pulp between tomatoes (not everything if you have a lot). Add salt & pepper and 3 tablespoons of olive oil on top.

8/ Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with a salad or rice.

Note that the picture was taken before the dish was ready, your tomatoes should have more « wrinkles » when ready to get out the oven.