There’s no such thing as a walk that’s not improved by a snack. I took an apple with me to the post box this morn­ing and a piece of cheese to the Polling Sta­tion on Thursday. The best kind of walk­ing snack is one that can fit in your pocket — none of that rucksack/bag/basket palava. The finest pocket food I know is a cor­rup­tion of a tart I learned how to make in Paris.

When I was four­teen I was sent on a French exchange. I learned two things and they’ve both stuck to me like vel­cro. One, very weirdly, is the sub­junct­ive form of the verb ‘pouvoir’. The other is the recipe for ‘tarte aux tomates’. I loved that tart. It was a beguil­ing com­bin­a­tion of the light­est short­crust pastry, a hint of creamy French mus­tard, gruy­ere cheese and toma­toes that had never even seen a fridge, let alone been inside one.

Trans­form­ing that tart into a walk­ing com­pan­ion has made it even better.

Use soft white rolls — any­thing more chewy will be trans­formed into poly­styrene ceil­ing tiles once they’re cooked. I’ve aban­doned the French mus­tard in the ori­ginal recipe and always use fiery Eng­lish mus­tard. The heat of the oven quells its rage, but it will still make your nose tingle happily.

Spread a thin­nish layer of mus­tard on each side of the roll — trust me. Layer on chunks of mature ched­dar, sliced toma­toes and a few basil leaves. Wrap your roll tightly in two lay­ers of sil­ver paper and heat in the oven for half an hour at 175 degrees C.

Remove from the oven and stick it straight in your pocket in its sil­ver wrap­ping. If you can fit in a flask of cof­fee too, so much the better.

It doesn’t mat­ter how many or how few miles you walk before you eat it. The French tart sand­wich will never let you down.

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