When it is hot outside, the last thing we want is to stand over the stove. That is why summer calls for dishes that are more assembling than cooking - and the Mediterranean salad with octopus is exactly that: few ingredients, lots of flavour, almost no heat.

The secret is not in complexity, but in contrast - soft octopus, cold tomato, sharp onion and juicy courgette. This is a meal that looks like you put in far more effort than you actually did.

You need: 3 cooked octopus tentacles, 1 courgette, 2 tomatoes, 1 red onion, 100 grams of black olives, a handful of lamb's lettuce (mâche), 4 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and salt.

Preparation: Wash and dry the courgette, cut it into rounds, salt them and fry them in a pan with a little oil. Cut the tomato into half-moons, and the onion into strips. In a salad bowl, place the chopped octopus, the olives and the courgette, then add the tomato, onion and lamb's lettuce. For the dressing, mix olive oil, lemon juice and salt, pour it over the salad and serve.

No oven is needed, nor long standing. The only thing worth paying attention to is the octopus - if it is already well cooked and soft, the rest is a ten-minute job. And for a summer lunch on the terrace, that is exactly as much effort as the day allows.