Owning a food shop is no guarantee that there’s going to be something readily available to eat in the house.
Inviting friends to drop in for an apéritif was fine on the drink front – I had chilled some wine and made ice cubes but then I started to wonder what we could have for an instant aperitif. This is an art the Spanish have perfected – open a can of fish or some other wonderful ‘conserva’ so I had a look on our jumble of a can shelf and found a can of sardines.

Delicious as they are, but whizzed up with a little red onion, lemon juice, olive oil and sake

they made an unctuous spread that makes lots of little tostadas.

I diced up tomato, red onion and parsley and piled it on top to make what looked like quite an elegant creation.

Yum!