This year is annus tomatus mirabilis. The twenty-odd plants, all growing outside, have yielded incredible amounts of fruit and it is all ripening. In fact we have already eaten up about six whole plants, to the last tomato. Even the beef monsters (the biggest almost a kilo!) ripen without blemish or disease. The Weather Man is happy.
And I cook tomatoes and with tomatoes. So if you fancy something tomatoey this week, look no further.
I’m going to pick fleshy plum tomatoes from our crop and make a proper tomato tarte tatin – with shortcrust pastry and fresh, just skinned tomatoes. Watch this space. If you can’t wait, here’s a shortcut: tomato tatin with puff pastry and sliced confit tomatoes.
A similar tart using the gorgeous fruit is tomato crostata. It’s a savoury take on a fruit crostata (Italian) or galette (French).
If you don’t want to cook them, make this tomato and fig salad – both are equally, seasonally gorgeous at the moment. And with tomatoes in the supporting – but very important – role, prawn and tomato stew. Those flavours are incredible.
Other dishes to cook this week could include the lamb koftas with harissa dip and perhaps lemon potato wedges, Greek flavours. Or make a whole roasted seabass and serve it with fennel and orange salad.
I might make the giant couscous salad one night this week – and guess what, it has tomatoes in it. And since a tomato cake is probably not a recipe for success, I’ll bake the old fashioned apple cake. More apple cake recipes on these pages so check them out – or just subscribe to the weekly newsletter not to miss any new ones!