tapas

The September issue of Cooking Light has a section on Spanish tapas cuisine--small plates of savory food, usually served buffet style, along with wines and especially sherry. All of their recipes are wonderful.

Tonight I toasted up slices of leftover Italian bread and some pita and served them up with a tomato and mozzarella vinaigrette with basil, a cucumber and tomato salad with lots of flat-leaf parsley and mint, and a plate of thinly sliced proscuitto, manchego cheese, tomato, and olives. Plates of various kinds olives and toasted almonds are a good accompaniment. While low-alcohol Laurel drank a Woodchuck cider, I enjoyed a nice glass of complex amontillado.

The best thing, in my estimation, was salad of strips of red and green roasted peppers with chopped olives and minced fresh oregano, flavored wonderfully with olive oil, vinegar, anchovy paste, and garlic. Man, that was good stuff.