Summer food

A glass of smoke-filled pastis, a dish of those perfect, hard, little green olives that are the natural fruit of Provence, and a parcel of bright blue sea stretching as far as the human eye can reach - and then some - is my idea of a summer meal of perfection. At least, the humble beginning of a summer meal that might continue, if I were marooned in one of the little fishing ports along the coast of sunny Provence, with a Provençal anchovy salad, made with salted anchovies, wine and olive oil, and spiked with fresh herbs and thin lemon slices. The whole is marinated until the anchovies are tender and soft, and the essence of the lemon and herbs has permeated the flesh of these delicious fish.