An hors d’œuvre course to the French, like antipasto to the Italians, is the start of the midday meal. Individual, small, simple dishes designed around an aperitif to stimulate the appetite, make for a novel, but civilized and leisurely approach to. In a world where we constantly try to eat less and where the time and money afforded to meals and manners is so diminished, it seems sensible to identify dishes once attributed to the hors d’œuvre course. After all, hors d’œuvre dishes are a very simple affair and work perfectly as an easy light meal or snack with a robust glass of chilled wine. These versatile ideas are particularly pertinent in the warm summer months where we may be less inclined to cook, yet wish to take to full advantage of the bounty of summer ingredients.

Hors d’œuvre are never overworked, nor do they appear contrived and certainly they are never reconstituted from leftovers or something intended for something. Essentially hors d’œuvre should be exactly the right food for the moment. It may consist of a selection of small dishes served with piles of the best and freshest bread. Alternatively it may be a single large salad such as a Salad Niçoise, or dish of prawns and beans. Either way, everyone serves themselves from the table. So long as you render the care and respect the food and your guests deserve everyday ingredients will provide visual appeal that induces excitement, as though they are seen and experienced for the very first time.

Elizabeth David reminisces about a meal she enjoyed at the Hotel de la Poste in Duclair, France that beautifully encapsulates what an elaborate hors d’œuvre course can contain. Her recollections of the airiness of the room, the chill of the muscadet, and the table overlooking the Seine, become the visual and tactile cues of a gastronomic experience that was clearly right for the moment. Unfussed and uncontrived - an aged earthenware terrine full of a local duck pate, a mound of pork rillettes were followed by a number of other little dishes. A dish of boiled prawns, dressed in extra virgin olive oil and seasoned well with salt. She ate winkles at this meal - more accessible possibly, are clams cooked over heat in a dry pan, dressed with their juices and a drizzle of olive oil; : sardines or anchovies - still packed in their tins of revered brands. Little salads served in small individual dishes - dressed and seasoned differently, arranged imaginatively, creating an impressive array from nothing particularly startling.

Dishes of thinly sliced cucumbers, perhaps served on ice, little mushrooms in a red and gold sauce, a salad of tomatoes and finely chopped onion, cauliflower vinaigrette, carrots grated almost to a puree, herring fillets - a skilful blend of sober colours. The pale rose-pink of the prawns, the differing browns of the anchovies and herrings, the silver of the sardines, the muted greens of the cucumber and the cauliflower, the creams and greys of clams and mushrooms all contrasting with the red of the tomatoes and the orange of the carrots. A yellow mayonnaise glistening in a separate bowl. Everything with its own texture and taste. With the exception of the duck pate, nothing is in the least complicated.

As you can see, hors d’œuvre need have nothing to do with pretension or extravagance rather, as Elizabeth David wrote, they demand imagination and taste and a sense of moderation in the acquisition, management and service of ingredients - ‘one must be able to resist the temptation to overdo it’. In practical terms a well composed mixed hors d’oeuvres consists of something raw, something salt, something dry or meaty, something gentle and smooth and possibly something in the way of fresh fish. There is nothing difficult in the thoughtful construction and serving of vegetables, eggs, and simple sauces and fresh or cured seafood and meats. Demanding of only the most elementary knowledge of cooking, revival of the hors d’oeuvres would be good news for many.

Some of the most successful culinary achievements in European cooking are found in Italian antipasto dishes. Proscuitto di Parma and Proscuitto di San Danielle, are amongst the best hams in the world and combine brilliantly with fresh figs. Have the meat carved into translucent, rosy pink, paper thin slices, carefully cover a large platter with these and arrange fresh, halved figs on top. Figs that have a deep purple flesh provide an appetising contrast to the rosiness of the proscuitto. This dish can be accompanied by salami, a selection of olives and piles of excellent bread and butter. If you are serving salami, serve the best you can get your hands on. Ideally a locally made casalinga from a speciality store rather than one mass produced out of Milan or elsewhere - and be sure to have plenty of it.

One of the loveliest of all country hors d’œuvre may be the Genovese one of broad beans, rough salami sausage and salty Sardo cheese. Each of these ingredients is served in a separate dish and each person peels his own broad beans and cuts his own cheese. ‘If the same ingredients were all mixed up together in a bowl the point would be quite lost’, David succinctly points out. Much is to be learnt from the construction and service of this simple and satisfying combination of contrasting yet compatible textures and flavours. Likewise, anchovies garnishing a salad of raw mushrooms, tuna with cooked French beans, mushrooms and prawns in a tomato flavoured mayonnaise - It is the unexpected that provides the charm of these dishes. To the enterprising and careful, there is no limit to successful combinations.

Olives are fundamental to many hors d’œuvre dishes. The skill in serving them though, comes foremost from their selection. In ‘Prospero’s Cell’, Lawrence Durrell wrote evocatively of the sour pungent taste of olives - the ingredient that defines the whole of the Mediterranean. Durrell wrote of a ‘taste older than meat. A taste as cold as water.‘ His language renders a timely reminder to how olives are meant to taste. Like all hors d’œuvre ingredients, they must be absolutely first class. Do not rely on the greasy selection at the supermarket delicatessen counter to furnish your obligations. Think of that taste we are looking for - ‘older than meat… as cold as water.’ When did you last eat an olive like that? This is the quality of food demanded of the hors d’oeuvres table. Likewise, fundamental to the making of hors d’œuvre dishes and salads, is extra virgin olive oil. The excellence of the oil can transform a primitive dish of boiled haricot beans. Not tricked up, not expensive - food tasting of what it food is meant to taste of and someone taking the care to source and serve the ingredients accordingly.

A Summer Hors D’œuvre

While not particularly original this is an example of a perfectly balanced, fresh and uncomplicated hors d’œuvres.

Ingredients

A dish of long red radishes, cleaned with a little of the green leaves left on

A dish of mixed green and black olives

A plate of raw, round, small, whole tomatoes

A dish of hard (not too hard) boiled eggs, cut lengthways and garnished with chopped parsley

Some salted anchovies — rinsed, cleaned and filleted under running water

To Serve

Have on the table a pepper mill and a dish of sea salt, lemons and olive oil, butter and fresh bread.

This article is a brief summary of Elizabeth David’s chapters on Cold Food, Hors d’œuvres and Salads appearing in Mediterranean Food (1950), Italian Food (1954), Summer Cooking (1955) and French Provincial Cooking (1960).

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Elizabeth Peddey (aka Sunday Relish) has been the Tribune’s food expert since 2009. She also consults in Meal and Pantry Planning, Food Shopping and Entertaining and offers Cooking Classes. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Ph: 0419 505 438.

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