If it's Saturday . . .

it must be mussels for lunch, because the coquillage producer from Bouzigues comes to the village in the morning, full of lively conversation and with a vanload of mussels and oysters, and sometimes other shellfish too, depending on what's available. There's usually a queue because the shellfish is very good, very local, and unlike other sea food it's very sustainable because the mussels are farmed in the clean salt water of the lagoon.

I bought a kilo of the larger mussels and tried re-creating (with a couple of additions of my own) a dish our friends S and D made for us a week or so ago when we had lunch with them (so thanks S & D!). I finely chopped some red and green peppers (some of the last from the garden), a paprika pepper, a couple of cloves of garlic and some fresh basil leaves. I liquidised a couple of small peeled tomatoes (again some of the last from the garden this year) with a couple of tablespoonfuls of olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar. Mixed the dressing with the chopped peppers and put a spoonful in each cooked mussel shell. A squeeze of lemon, some fresh bread and a glass of rosé and we had a delicious lunch!

(There were 36 mussels in the kilo - I just thought these few looked nice on this plate for the shot.)

Edit: as promised over a month ago, I've finally begun to sort out my Flickr sets, starting with this one taken in Valencia, if you're interested. More to follow....