Cured ham with Provençal rouille on tartines

Hehe, well, you're going to think this isn't even a real recipe... but it's definitely worth trying! In my opinion, the nicest way to have cured/Parma ham. 

First of all, you've got to keep in mind that this is a real tapas from the range of Spanish tapas you can find when you go to Spain. What you may also want to know, if you go through Avignon (a city not to be missed!), in the Tapalocas, which is ZE PLACE TO BE, they do their own version of this classic (from which my 'recipe's inspired).

The first time we tried to do it at home (coming back from a weekend in Avignon of course!), we were stuck because of the tomato sauce, clearly, it was not just any out-of-a-jar tomato sauce (I hate these anyway), and by using fresh tomatoes, the main threat was to get our nice crusty/crunchy bread get all soaked in (reminder: a tomato is about 80% water)... so, basically, it seemed difficult to reproduce this tomato sauce in a satisfactory - and not too painstaking - way.
So we had this brilliant idea : why not use "rouille sétoise" (a specialty from Sete, near Marseilles, a mayonnaise-type of sauce with spices and garlic, usually served with fish soup) - hey, it's even the right colour (orange-y).

So at this point I'm starting to wonder why I even bothered to write this in English, I don't think anybody's going to google "recipe including parma ham and rouille Sétoise" haha. Especially as the stuff I'm on about can only be found in France...

Yeah, whatever: so, for this recipe you will need: a small jar of "rouille" (in French, it means "rust", probably because of its colour), my favourite - if you have access to a supermarket in France is the brand "Marius Bernard" (as obviously, not all "rouille" taste the same, some can even put you off my recipe (beware of those flavoured with fish stock - they don't go down so well with the Parma ham!). If you want to make the "rouille" yourself - don't.
Next you need nice French crusty, traditional bread (pain de campagne), and Parma/Bayonne/any other cured ham as long as it's not smoked!

Put one on top of the other in the most likely order, and ENJOY!

What was the point of all this again?

tapas on the right: cured ham, chick pea salad with basil & squid fritters (homemade)

Bon appétit!

Tapas at the Tapalocas

This picture shows a sample of the tapas you can have in the Tapalocas bar-restaurant in Avignon, while you sip away a nice, chilled sangria, while you watch the world go by... from bottom to top and from left to right: "caracoles sauce piquante" (snails in spicy sauce: AMAZING!), ensaladilla (vegetable mix in a garlic mayonnaise dressing), "tartines jambon cru à la tomate" (yeah, the famous cured ham tartines", patatas bravas, morcilla (spicy black boudin) with roasted potatoes, cheese fritters, another Parma ham special, and squid with garlic. All at the one and only Tapalocas.

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Comments

[mama]

Bonjour chef.... Pourrais-tu s'il te plaît nous mettre ta recette "purée navet foie gras" pour quelqu'un a qui j'ai raconté ton EXCELLENT menu...
MERCI