Tonight’s recipe

Panzanella with tuna and olives

Ingredients

Olive oil, for frying Roughly 350g stale white bread, torn into chunks (but use your eye and tear up as much bread as you like)

2 red onions, finely sliced ½ tsp sugar

2 tsp fine salt

4 tbsp red wine vinegar 8 tomatoes, quartered

4 tinned anchovy fillets, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, grated

2 tbsp capers

220g tuna in olive oil, reserve the oil if it’s a good quality jar 3 spring onions, finely chopped

Black olives, preferably the rich, greasy kind

1 small bunch parsley, roughly chopped

1 small bunch basil, roughly torn

Method

Set a large frying pan over a medium heat with a good glug of oil (the bread will soak it up so you’ll need more oil than you think). Fry the bread in batches, turning until it is golden all over. Set aside on a baking tray lined with kitchen paper and sprinkle with a little salt. NB, you could also griddle the bread on a barbecue if you prefer.

Toss the red onion in the sugar and 1 tsp of salt. Pour over the red wine vinegar and leave to steep while you do everything else.

Put the tomatoes in the serving bowl/dish you’re going to use. Sprinkle over the remaining salt and leave them to release some of their juices.

In a large jar or Tupperware, mix the anchovy, garlic and capers with the oil from the tuna jar (or just a tablespoon of olive oil)

Pour the juices which will have been released by the tomatoes into the jar/tupperware, and do the same with the vinegar which the onions have been sitting in (adding the onions to the bowl of tomatoes. Pop the lid on the jar/ Tupperware and give everything a really good shake so it comes together as a dressing.

Add the tuna, spring onions, olives, herbs and most of the bread to the bowl of tomatoes and toss everything together. Reserve a few pieces of bread so you have a couple of super-crunchy bits in there.

Leave for 15 minutes to an hour before tossing again with the remaining bread and serving.