We follow Spanish mealtimes here, eating our main meal in the early/mid-afternoon and tapas or a light salad in the evening. And we feel much healthier for it, we’re eating less. This Spanish adaptation of Italian bruschetta is eaten a lot and is an instant meal once you’ve got the bits to hand. We eat two versions and always use Mercadona’s pan pueblo, rough country bread.

The first takes minutes to make: while the bread is toasting, open a sachet of shop-bought pesto [find it in Mercadona’s chilled cabinet next to the fresh pasta], slice mozzarella and tomato, and pick some fresh basil leaves. Drizzle the slices of toast with a little olive oil and add your toppings.

The second bruschetta [below] takes some pre-planning in terms of making a tomato sauce, as follows. Skin fresh tomatoes and roughly chop [alternatively use two 400g tins of chopped tomatoes] and add to a saucepan with a generous slug of olive oil and some chopped garlic. Simmer gently for 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened and is sweet [bottom]. Cool, then store in the fridge in a plastic tub.

Simply toast your bread then drizzle the toast with olive oil, spread with a generous helping of tomato sauce and top with one or two of Mercadona’s large Cantabrian anchovies [the kind in the large flat plastic pack in the chiller cabinet, next to the smoked salmon and mojama, the dried salted tuna]. We keep these anchovies in a tub in the fridge too. 5 to remember
la hora del almuerzo – lunchtime
italiano/a – Italian
instantáneo/a – instant
la tostada – piece of toast
la bolsita – sachet