Meat-Free Tuesday

                 At a local Spanish restaurant with two musicians and flamenco dancers

 I've written in previous posts about my vegetarianism which started in senior school and lasted pretty much until my early thirties, with a few relapses here and there.

When we bought a property in rural Spain and I decided to embrace the culture, vegetarianism became a difficult diet to pursue. Spaniards, particularly in rural locations, have a deep understanding that some animals are for food and as opposed to many Britons, who quite often choose to close the door on the uncomfortable aspects of eating meat, eat parts of the animal we would eschew.

We gladly eat chicken breasts because the horror of battery farming is out of sight and out of mind, yet cheap cuts of meat such as oxtail, pork belly and offal are viewed as revolting, we have a skewed way of looking at things.

                        An Italian shepherd with a slaughtered lamb (courtesy Jamie's Italy)

For most of his life the shepherd in the above photo will have earnt less than the average Briton on the dole. For many Italian and Spanish people there is a real reverence towards the meat they eat, far from an easy come, easy go attitude, virtually every part of the animal will be eaten, there is more honesty between the concept of land to plate and life to death. Whilst we may shudder at the thought of eating offal or pigs trotters or seeing a dead animal, we Brits exploit animals for our greed and ignore the intense factory farming which lies behind our food choices which are hardly superior.

We should all consider eating less meat, both in terms of a balanced diet and for ethical reasons. Our grandparents, along with our Mediterranean cousins, substituted meat with vegetables, grains and pulses and used ingredients such as offal, cheap cuts, dripping (see previous post) and a typical mid-week meal might be corned beef hash or faggots. We should treat meat with respect, buy from trusted sources, waste less and if we can't afford to buy free-range and organic, cut our losses and eat equally delicious vegetarian meals 2-3 days a week.

I have recently made dinners such as liver and bacon, homemade faggots and homemade meatballs which I shall be sharing with you, however, today's recipe is meat-free and utterly delicious. The inclusion of anchovies may immediately put some of you off, however, once sautéed down anchovies lose their fishiness and just add a delicious savouryness that is hard to acquire with any other ingredient.

Spaghetti puttanesca

Recipe
500g spaghetti, cooked to packet instructions
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 handful of pitted olives (black or green)
12 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon dried chillies
Olive oil
400g tin of tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Grated Parmesan (or Cheddar)

Cook the spaghetti
Meanwhile fry the garlic, olives, anchovies and chillies in a little olive oil

Add the tomatoes, bring to a simmer, continue to cook for 4-5 minutes
Remove from the heat, plunge drained spaghetti into sauce, combine well, season and scatter cheese on top, serve immediately

This dish is very savoury (you won't miss the meat) nutritious, so simple to make and very economical, what's not to like?

'We are not encouraged on a daily basis, to pay careful attention to the animals we eat. On the contrary, the meat, dairy and egg industries all actively encourage us to give thought only to our own immediate interest, taste and cheap food, but not to the real suffering involved. They do so by deliberately withholding information and cynically presenting us with idealised images of happy animals in beautiful landscapes, scenes of bucolic happiness that do not correspond to reality. The animals involved suffer agony because we choose ignorance.'
- Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson.

Love Donna xxxxxxxx