The Tumbet Pilgrimage

Tumbet is Mallorca in layers: sliced potatoes, aubergines and red peppers, each fried separately in olive oil until just tender, then stacked in a dish and covered with a slow-cooked tomato sauce, sometimes topped with a fried egg. It's simple, it's ancient, and it tastes entirely of the Mediterranean summer that produced it. Think of it as ratatouille's better-dressed Balearic cousin - structured rather than stewed, each vegetable holding its own.

Palma is a city most people fly over on the way to a resort, which is a mistake. The old town is a maze of honey-stone lanes, Gothic churches and hidden courtyards, with the vast cathedral rising above the harbour. The food scene runs deep - traditional cellers (cellar restaurants) serve dishes that haven't changed in centuries alongside a new wave of Mallorcan cooking. A plate of tumbet with a glass of local wine in a quiet courtyard, the stonework warm to the touch, is one of the Mediterranean's simplest and most perfect lunches.