A moveable feast

Summertime is made for picnics, even if it’s in your backyard, on your terrace, or inside on a rainy day.

Today I’m thinking the ultimate moveable feast: a ham and brie baguette, chilled gazpacho soup, wine, lemonade, a picnic blanket, pillows, and flowers.

You can take this picnic anywhere.

Let’s start with the gazpacho. There are so many versions of this excellent Spanish chilled soup. I’m going rustic except no bread (because I’m making a ham and brie baguette, so there’s enough bread in this picnic).

The world of gazpacho is rich and fascinating and worth discovering. This recipe is kind of a 101 version that I’ve been making since I read it in Bon Appetit magazine in the 1990s.

Don’t even start this recipe unless you have juicy local tomatoes, which I have, thankfully! Look at these beauties

Into a food processor I’m putting: 3 roughly chopped beefsteak tomatoes, 1/4 of a red pepper, chopped, 2 peeled mini cucumbers, 1 diced shallot, 2 cloves diced garlic, a handful of basil leaves, juice of 1 lime, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. (Add up to 1/4 cup water to smooth things out).

Blend in the food processor (blender is better if you have one; it’ll be smoother).

I like my gazpacho a little chunky but am also happy to have a perfectly smooth gazpacho. Either way, it’s summer in a bowl/cup. That gets jarred and stored in the fridge for up to two days.

We need a sandwich for our picnic and I’m remembering walking the streets of Paris and getting a streetside ham and brie baguette. So simple, so good. Here’s my basic mise en place: good butter, a good wheel of brie, nice country ham.

I’m only using half a baguette here, so I slice the baguette in two and then slice one half lengthwise, then slather that half with a generous amount of good quality salted butter. Don’t skimp: the butter should be memorable.

It’s not traditional to lay down a spread of dijon but I do so on the bottom baguette because if I can put mustard on a sandwich, I will. And then down goes the ham.

Time for brie!

A portable feast, in all its simplicity.

For my picnic, I’ve got my jar of chilled gazpacho, a few small ceramic cups for sipping, the jambon et fromage baguette, chilled white wine and it’s what summer is supposed to be all about. Good ingredients, simple food done right. Totally picnic worthy.

— Trish Hennessy