I have just got back from Barcelona and am still not recovered from this unfortunate turn of events. The sun, the sea, the crazy restaurant hours (I swear locals don’t even contemplate dinner before 10PM), the tapas, the seafood, all gone. To ease the transition, I plan to attempt some Catalan-ish cooking.

The problem with being inspired by Catalan food is that some of it – the tender squid rings or the excellent grilled bream, for example – is not easy to replicate unless you have an excellent fish market nearby and you’re in possession of some serious cooking skills. Fortunately, it’s not all hopeless, there are some things that require hardly any effort.

One of my favourite things to eat in Barcelona and its surroundings is pa amb tomàquet, Catalan for bread with tomato. You get this served almost everywhere and with good reason, as it’s delicious. It’s also one of the easiest dishes in the world. You need to toast some white bread (in the oven, preferably), take a clove of garlic, cut it in half and rub it on the bread – how vigorously, depends on how fond you are of garlic. Then, take a very ripe tomato, cut that in half as well and rub it on top of the garlic. Drizzle some olive oil on the bread and finish with sea salt according to taste.

It is a genius food, the only thing you need to give some thought to is that your olive oil is of decent quality, the rest will take care of itself. Add some jamon iberico de bellota and you have a lunch. And you can always prepare Ferran Adria’s sweet version, with olive oil, sea salt and chocolate, for dessert.