A one hour holiday
Lunch: The Tuna Holiday Sandwich
On Sunday, I went to a local market in a beautiful medieval market town, not far from where I live.
It’s amazing how easy it is to overlook places that are close by. Drive past, never stop. Drive through, never look.
It’s made me think there must be loads of lovely places that we never see, simply because we don’t give ourselves a reason to stop or go.
While I was sitting in this market square in the warm late-morning sun, I looked around, taking in the vaguely familiar surroundings with fresh eyes, and it reminded me of holidays. Not one specific holiday, just a sense, I suppose. The everything of the sunshine, sitting outside, the chatter, the clatter of cups and plates, the bustle, while the irresistible smell of freshly baked bread and ripe cheese carried across the square.
How about conjuring up a holiday moment on weekday lunchtime with the help of a sandwich?
While we’re on the subject of lunch — when aren’t we? — I went to a lunchtime webinar Q&A thingy last week, all about how to promote yourself. My biggest takeaway: make sure you back up your Substack. If you write/invest your time in/pour your heart and soul into any online platform, you might want to read this cautionary tale.
Just a sandwich
The Tuna Holiday Sandwich
It’s never just a sandwich.
Some recipes you can never quite get to the bottom of. They’re like legends, passed on, hand to mouth, mother to daughter. And some food will never taste the same at home as it did on holiday.
Well, that’s how I feel about this tuna sandwich. None of the recipes I found online agreed on the ingredients for a tuna ftira. So here’s mine.
If you love tuna, you need to try this. Move over, tuna mayo!
Ingredients:
Baguette
Sun-dried tomato pesto
For the filling:
Tuna in oil, drained
Finely diced red onion (soaked in boiling water to mellow the flavour)
Sun-dried tomatoes
Green olives
Capers
Roasted red peppers
Flat-leaf parsley
Lemon juice
Black pepper
To make:
Prepare and chop all the ingredients and mix everything together for the filling. How much of each is up to you, but the ratio of my filling was about half tuna to everything else.
Then, split the baguette lengthways and butter the bread with the pesto.
Fill with as much of the tuna mix as you can!
Variations: There’s definitely room for variation. Leave out anything you don’t like. You could add to it as well, perhaps chopped hard-boiled eggs or fresh tomatoes.