Category: tomato

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bacon food lettuce salad tomato turkey

caesar salad

caesar salad with turkey and bacon

One of my absolute favourites. Regular readers may have twigged that I adore dishes that totally celebrate their ingredients, and allow each one to stand up and be tasted whilst adding to each other simultaneously. This is my take on a classic Caesar salad.

I hope Mr. Cardini will excuse me altering his recipe, but his core flavours are still there. As our house is veering away from raw egg at the moment, I can’t get the oil / egg emulsion so instead the sauce is a blend of garlic, good olive oil, white wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and white wine vinegar. I add a few flakes of parmesan to help give the sauce some thickness, where the egg usually would help. I whizz all this up in a blender.

I’ve used turkey here, simply because it was on offer, which is griddled alongside some bacon until those pretty brown stripes appear. When done I whip those off to one side and then lay some thinly sliced bread drizzled with oil on the pan, soaking up meat juices and charring slightly. I then chop some cos lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes and toss this with the Caesar sauce. The rest of the ingredients go in, then top with parmesan. Crunchy, satisfying and tasty.

Categories
food mince tomato wine

spaghetti bolognese

I’ve two versions of a spaghetti bolognese; a workaday version or this, my I’ve-got-a-whole-day-to-spare version. It’s heartily lifted from Antonio Carluccio who claims it’s the way they do it in Bologna.

It’s simple to the point of absurd and a very short ingredient list. I start by browning mince; an equal combo of pork and beef. The pork lends wonderful fat to the dish, and the beef gutsy red meat. Once it’s browned I remove it and fry a chopped onion until translucent. Then the mince goes back in the pan and I add half a bottle of white wine and let it bubble away for a minute or two, then in with tomato puree and a jar of passata.

Ingredient-wise, that’s it. I’ll then raise it to a simmer and leave it on the lowest possible heat for as long as I can – perhaps 3, 4 or 5 hours. I need to taste it at some point – you can never tell how your tomatoes are, so I may add sugar – and season as required. The flavours will be intense, rich, tomatoey and the mince will have a loose, tender mouthfeel.

I then boil spaghetti til tender, then put some of the mince mix in a hot frying pan. The pasta is then added to this with a splash of cooking water. This helps the sauce cling to the spaghetti. Serve in massive piles with freshly-grated parmesan. Even better, pass round the microplane and the block of cheese and DIY.

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broccoli food mozzarella pastry sausages tomato

sausage and broccoli tart

This wonderful little creation is a result of a supplement from olive magazine, courtesy of cathyella’s generous subscription present 🙂

There are a number of elements to it, all made separately and then brought together on the tart. Purple sprouting broccoli is blanched for 2 mins and refreshed in cold water to arrest the cooking. Good quality Italian sausages are deskinned and torn into pieces, then fried in crushed fennel seeds until browned. And then a puff pastry square, ready made. I chucked on some cherry tomatoes (Tesco do an amazingly flavourful tin of them), some of the broccoli, some sausage pieces, then a little parmesan and torn-up mozzarella. After 15 or so minutes in the oven for the pastry to brown and rise, I topped it with basil and dressed with balsamic vinegar. Really tasty, and looked the part too.

Categories
balsamic vinegar food sausages tomato

sausages and tomatoes


Sorry about the rubbish name for it, but that’s almost all it is! It’s a Jamie Oliver recipe that’s a marvel for taking on the leftovers and gluts from the garden. My tomato plants have been kind to me this year; now I have the remainders to use up and this is just the thing.

Any tomatoes to hand get chucked in a nice deep roasting tray in a hot oven with a splash of oil, a nice sprig of rosemary (thank you window box), and a healthy swig of cheap balsamic vinegar – about half a bottle. It stays in the oven, filling the house with the slightly accrid whiff of boiling vinegar. It’s worth it though, as the flavour mellows, sweetens and starts to break the tomatoes down. After about half an hour the skins will blister and burst, and you can remove them. It’s a bit fiddly, and I find using some tongs can help to yank them off.
Once the skins are off sausages can go in. Any that you like will do the job. After another 20 mins the sausages should’ve browned, so give ’em a turn. When they’re browned, we’re good to go. Try the broth – you might want to add some seasoning or even a pinch of sugar.
Dish it up, and serve with some bread to mop up all the juice. One day I mean to make this, but then sieve and reheat the sauce to serve with perhaps some lamb leg steaks.
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