Do you know anyone who doesn’t like mediterranean food? Mrs J struggles to find an example. The fact that there’s so much to choose from may have something to do with it.

• You don’t have to like fish.
• You don’t have to like meat.
• You don’t have to like vegetables (though if you don’t, it helps if you like fish and/or meat).

You don’t have to commit to a nationality – the med has a long coastline. If you have beef with the French, have some mezze with the Turks. Or Greek lamb chops. Love those.

If you don’t like tomatoes or lemon, you might struggle. But if you don’t like tomatoes and lemon you’re probably not reading this anyway.

Because it’s so diverse, there’s always something suitable from the Med food menu at any point during the year. You could say it’s always in season.

This is a modified Italian dish that Mrs J likes to do in summer, when the summer isn’t very hot. It’s great for that day before and/or after the best day of the year.

You need cuts of veal in the osso bucco style on the bone. About 200g with the bone per person for however many you want to serve. Mrs J has also made this dish with turkey cuts done in the osso bucco way. Sounds a bit bizarre perhaps, but it really works well.

Also, she mixes fresh tomatoes with canned tomatoes. You can use 100% fresh tomatoes, but if you have good canned Italian whole tomatoes they give the dish more sweetness than so called fresh supermarket tomatoes, without having to cheat with added sugar. Up to you.

For 3-4 people finely chop two yellow onions and two cloves of garlic. Also finely dice two stalks of celery and two carrots.

Set your oven to 175°C. Mix some flour with salt and freshly ground black pepper and coat your cuts of meat.

Brown the meat in 50/50 butter and olive oil in a pan. If you plan to use only one pan for this dish be aware it needs to be oven proof.

Remove the meat from the pan and keep to the side. Add some more butter if the pan is dry, then add the chopped vegetables and cook until golden.

In the meantime cut four fresh plum tomatoes in half. Remove the seeds and the woody bit.

Add 1.5 dl of nice white wine to the vegetables in the pan and let the alcohol steam off. Reduce the heat and add 2.5 dl of double strength beef stock. Add 1/4 tsp dried thyme and 1/2 tsp dried oregano. Then place 2 bay leaves in the pan.

Add one 400g can of good whole Italian canned tomatoes. Cut the canned tomatoes in half in the pan. Put the meat back in the pan. Add a handful of finely chopped flat leaf parsley. Also, add the fresh halved tomatoes. Season again with salt and black pepper.

Cover and place the pan to cook in the oven for 2-2.5 hours. Check at half time. If it looks too dry, add some water. If it looks too wet, let the lid stay partially open for a while.

When done give the sauce a stir and a taste. Add more salt and pepper if required.

Mrs J likes to serve this with plain warm couscous (takes less than 10 min to cook following instructions on the packet).

For the final topping you definitely also need a fresh gremolata made of 2 pressed cloves of garlic, 1/4 tsp of salt, 3-4 handfuls of chopped parsley and about 1 1/2 lemons grated lemon rind.

Hope you enjoy!

P.S. The best day of the year? Swedish summer. Just so you know.