It’s about the time of the year when we pack the kids into the Range Rover and head out to Romsey, where Tana’s sister and her husband live, right next to the river Test.

The particular stretch of chalk stream behind their house is considered to be one of the best in the country for trout. You can see the fish gleaming in the crystal-clear water, so it’s ideal for fly-fishing and a trout barbecue straight after. Or at least one would think so.

However, no such luck for the Ramsay clan. We’ve come here several years in a row now, each time armed with the latest fishing gear and lots of enthusiasm, but not a single trout has given us the courtesy of a nibble.

This time around, Tana and I have decided to play it safe and pack a full Mediterranean-style picnic basket for the day.

The dishes are simple but easy to transport: a Greek salad in bread bowls to start with, followed by pork tonnato, a take on the traditional Italian veal dish, and, for pud, a sweet and tangy lemon polenta cake spiked with limoncello. (We’re planning to bring along a bottle of limoncello to drizzle over the lemon squares before serving – a sure way to get the kids to sleep through the drive home.)

The key thing to remember when preparing a picnic lunch is to keep the food properly chilled in cooler bags and pack the salad dressing and garnishes separately. People always seem to worry too much about presentation and not enough about food safety.

My secret weapons this year are the bread “bowls” with which we’ll serve the Greek salad. For lunch, they do double-duty as both serving dishes and crisp croutons.

Any leftovers I’ll use as a cunning bait for the fish. Well, one can only hope that the “posh” trout would be tempted by a little gourmet bread since wriggly worms don’t seem to do too much for their appetite. If that fails, the kids can at least feed the crumbs to the ducks.

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