Sardines lightly oiled, salted, and grilled over coals for three minutes a side, served on bread toasted over the same fire. A lemon, olive oil, red wine vinegar and sorrel dressing finishes; toasted pine nuts scattered over the top. The simplest dish in the show, somehow the most memorable.

Fresh sardines (the small silver-blue fish with the dark stripe along the side, fished out of every Mediterranean port from Lisbon to Beirut) are at their best straight off coals. Two to three minutes a side over moderate heat is all they need; the skin crisps, the flesh stays moist, the oil renders out and bastes the meat.

Grilling the bread over the same fire is the move that ties the dish together. The bread picks up the smoke, the drips of sardine oil flavour the toast, and the whole thing reads as one continuous cook rather than two separate items on a plate.

Sorrel is the lemon-flavoured leaf the French call oseille and the Greeks have used in pies for centuries. The tartness cuts the oily fish in a way that flat-leaf parsley or rocket can't match. Substitute baby spinach with extra lemon if sorrel is impossible to find. Pine nuts toasted in a dry pan for crunch and nutty depth. A glass of cold dry rose or a vinho verde alongside.