THE BBQ SUMMER

Peppers roasting in the street in Avola, Sicily

This has been the summer of BBQ’s both at home and away. We went back to Sicily and loved it just as much the second time.

Kindly pepper roaster

On every street corner in Sicily there seemed to be someone with a little BBQ roasting peppers or fish. We stopped here in Avola to buy some aubergines and peppers and the man above gave me a bag of cherries as a present when I took his picture.

In Palermo the men in via Butera spent the whole day preparing the charcoal and fish in the street before doing a roaring trade in the evening with crowds sitting at their rough tables on miss matched chairs, eating freshly caught fish.

Roasted aubergines in Sicily

Elsewhere round the island people roasted what they had on homemade BBQ grills in the street. Aubergines, peppers, onions. The smells tempt you as you walk past. Unlike here in the UK no one is quoting health and safety regulations at them, so they grow their veg or buy it from the local van that drives around the street and roast it. Other people buy it. Simple.  

Seafront near Avola,Sicily

We spent a week on the coast outside Noto, the gorgeous baroque town I have posted about before and home to the wonderful Caffe Sicilia- more about that later, and I went to Pescheria FLLI SPUGNETTI fishmongers in Avola, with my friend Ernesto.

Pescheria, near Avola, Sicily

The locals go as much for a chat as to buy their fish. Each visit includes handshakes, pats on the back and lots of banter. 

Fresh swordfish, Sicily

Catch of the day, Sicily

Chatting with the customers, Pescheria Avola

Banter on the shop floor! Sicily

One of the best things we ate was from them was local dentice, which looks a bit like a sea bream but apparently isn’t. It was quite simply delicious.

Fresh Sicilian Dentice, ready to BBQ.

Back at home, keen to prolong the holiday spirit and fight the creeping autumnal chill, we have continued to BBQ. The best thing has been local Hampshire trout, simply seasoned and with wedges of lemon. We might have to wear jumpers and sometimes due to rain, sit indoors but it tasted fantastic. 

Which sort of makes up for the cold!  

Hampshire Trout ready to BBQ

BBQ FISH TIPS
FOR BEGINNERS

1.     Keep it simple.

2.     Buy some fresh fish. Easier said than done here, where there aren’t many fishmongers. But supermarkets are fine.

3.     Heat the BBQ and make sure you have a wire rack that the fish can’t fall through.

4.     Wash the fish in cold water. Some suggestions for serving

Trout – stuff wedges of lemon in the sides two per fish

Dentice- sea bream or snapper stuff with herbs like basil, parsley and bay then drizzle with olive oil and lemon

Prawns- as they are. Serve with a garlic butter or mayonnaise

Sword fish- drizzle with lemon and olive oil

 Cooking time varies but is always quick, about 7 minutes per side for the trout and slightly more for the larger fish.

BBQ prawns in San Vito, Sicily

A TASTE OF SUMMER FROM THE SOUTH OF FRANCE

Melons in S France

This summer we're doing a house swap in the South of France which has been fantastic. It meant a lot of tidying and organising before we left home so our house was ready for another family to use, not easy after a month of non-stop exchanges, friends and visitors, however, it has been worth it. It is lovely to move into a proper home, so to speak, not a holiday cottage in a real village.

The village itself is tiny with an epicerie, butchers and tabac, everthing you need on a day to day basis, with the usual rash of hypermarkets not far away.

Market day at Céret

On a recent daytrip to Perpignan, a very pretty town in the south west France one hour from the Spanish border, I had a salad in a restaurant that was really good.

Simple.

Refreshing.

Tasty and so easy to do, and unlike a lot of salads here there wasn’t an onion or egg in sight.

It had charenten melon, kiwi, water melon, lettuce and tomatoes with a fine dressing and was one of the most refreshing things I’ve eaten in a while.

Charenten meons

Needless to say we have had our own version many times since, always with slight variations, depending on what is in the fridge, but the essence is the same.

PERPIGNAN SALAD

Serves 4 people

Preparation time 5 minutes

No cooking required!

INGREDIENTS:

¼ of a charenten melon cut into cubes about 1cm in size

2 kiwi’s cut into cubes

4 tomatoes roughly chopped

1 fresh green lettuce, washed and roughly torn into bite size pieces.

1 Slice of watermelon again cubed

For the dressing mix 1 part white wine vinegar to 4 parts olive oil with a pinch of mixed herbs, half a tsp of French mustard and half a tsp of honey and mix well.

tomato,melon and kiwi salad

It sounds like a cross between a fruit salad and green salad but really is gorgeous. Even those who aren’t normally particularly keen on melon in our family like it, that’s saying something. We had it with fresh prawns and crusty french bread which was gorgeous but it would go equally well with roast chicken.....

Prawns

So for a taste of the South of France, those fields of sunflowers and road side stalls stacked with melons try this.

A simple supper

SIMPLE PRAWN AND PISTACHIO SPAGHETTI RECIPE- ready in under 5 minutes

Fish market at Ortygia, Sicily

So many holiday drinks or foods just don’t taste the same when you get them home.

That bottle of the local speciality that tasted amazing on those hot evenings but tastes like jiff when you try it at home.

Thankfully the Sicilian diet, with its combination of nuts, fruit, vegetables and fresh sea food, is so delicious and fresh that it works really well back here in England.

It is also perfect for the vegetarian as it offers such a good balance of nutrients.

Ortygia,Sicily

On a hot day in Ortygia recently, having spent the morning looking at the Greek Amphitheatre at Syracuse, we stopped at a small fish restaurant where we had a range of delicious seafood.

Fresh seafood salad

One of the dishes we all adored was the prawn and pistachio pasta. It was simple yet tasty and one I decided I had to recreate.

Back at home, after a couple of attempts, I came up with this recipe below.

The key is to add the crushed nuts to the oil as it warms slowly allowing the pistachio flavour to infuse. The first time I tried it I didn’t do this and just added them at the end but we lost the subtlety of the flavours.

So if you want an easy, delicious healthy dish..try this.

It is as good here as it was under the scorching Sicilian sun.

Prawn and pistachio spaghetti

 PRAWN AND PISTACHIO SPAGETTI

Serves 6

Preparation time 3 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

50g shelled pistachios crushed

2 packets of small cooked peeled prawns about 350g

Large Splash of olive oil

Handful of basil leaves ripped up

Small jar of  Pesto Genovese approx 180g

2 medium sized tomatoes chopped

Juice of half a lemon

Quick cook spaghetti..the sauce takes 3 minutes so you need to have your spaghetti almost ready when you start!!

WHAT TO DO:

1.     Put on the water for the spaghetti and crush the pistachio nuts loosely

2.     Put the olive oil in large saucepan add half the crushed nuts and warm the oil very slowly

3.     When it is hot add the pesto and chopped tomatoes and stir for a couple of minutes and stir on the lemon juice

4.     When the spaghetti is done drain and leave to the side.

5.     Add the prawns to the pesto oil and stir in well for one minute then addthe spaghetti and stir in well.

6.     Put all in a bowl sprinkle with the remaining nuts and torn basil leaves

Market Palermo, Sicily

Boxes of basil, Palermo

Tastes of summer.

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