Tomatoes, olive oil, oven
"Remember, there is no such thing as “past their prime” tomatoes, only tomatoes looking forward to getting absolutely roasted." Alison Roman
I'm getting close to finalising my menu for Monday's lunch which doesn't need to be summery - even though we are well on the way to summer. Not Monday however, it's going to be wet and cold - well cool for us Australians.
I currently think I am going to make this dish as my starter which is constructed from Alison Roman's Perfect oil-roasted tomatoes added to garlic rubbed toast with anchovies on the side for those that want them. A kind of Spanish pan con tomate I suppose. Well I have now accumulated quite a few tomatoes because of their relative cheapness, so why not? Even if they aren't squashy. I'm sure you can do the same thing with firm tomatoes. It might just take longer.
I'm writing about squashy tomatoes today, largely because of this recipe and the quote at the top of the page which appealed to me - especially the 'no such thing as past their prime tomatoes'. Which is not quite true because there does come a point when they start to smell and go liquid which is a signal to throw them away. My tomatoes are not squashy but of course they can be used in the same way as in Alison Roman's recipe - shown below in a kind of before and after mode.
I suppose her recipe is not that original. It's also rather confit tomatoes than roast tomatoes. I have been roasting tomatoes to lesser and greater degrees of dryness for several years now. But always with just a sprinkling of flavour and oil. This recipe demands quite a bit of extra flavour in the way of garlic, shallots or onions, herbs and chilli (there will not be much chilli in mine - just a touch). Fundamentally you cut the tomatoes into pieces - the bigger ones that is - cherry tomatoes left whole - mix with your flavour boosters and cover - yes cover - with olive oil. Then leave in the oven to cook for several hours. In fact I think I shall go and do that now.
Done - that's a lot of tomatoes and a lot of oil, although actually you didn't have to quite cover them - just enough for them to swim in them. But I know it will all shrink, so I hope I have enough for seven people at the end. Below is a photograph of somebody else's (Cooking with Clay) attempt at Alison Roman's tomatoes and it is does look as if there are enough, and Alaina's Kitchen had some left over and stored them in a jar in the fridge ready to use in all manner of inspired ways. Alison suggests stirring them into a bowl of beans, scattered over browned chicken, chopped amd mixed with herbs to spoon over roasted vegetables sliced steak, or stirred into soft cheese as a dip. I'm sure you can think of many more ways. You could just eat them.
There will be further reports on the tomatoes after Monday.
In the meantime some other ideas for what you can do with squashy tomatoes - not that mine were very squashy. Gone are the days it seems that you could go to the market and buy squashy tomatoes for $1.00 a kilo or even a tray of them for less. Perhaps if you are good at growing your own you might end up with squashy ones. These days, because of the cost we only buy them in small quanitites and consume them almost immediately.
Of course the obvious things to do with them are sauce, soup - Gazpacho being the favourite here - and chutney. 'When in doubt make chutney' applies to all manner of gluts. The example below of Tomato chutney is from Coles and is pretty basic, but there are lots of other recipes out there. You can make jam too - the most interesting one of these that I found was Lindsey Harrad's Tomato, tamarind and chilli jam which Tom Hunt featured in his Waste Not column in The Guardian. Which is maybe related to the Indian Tomato kasaundi which I made once upon a time.
Being the waste not guru he also had a recipe for Lacto-fermented harissa ketchup which was not as complicated as it sounds. My other waste not man - Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall suggested a snack of Slightly squashy tomato and egg toast on the Vegpower website from his book Love Your Leftovers
The next three are also in some ways pretty ordinary and just one example in each case for which you can find many variations online and everywhere - but also pretty good looking: Classic tomato salsa - Jamie Oliver; 5-minute blistered tomatoes and capers Tamie Weiser/The Kitchn and Fresh tomato and basil tart - Woolworths
My last examples are perhaps more unexpected - particularly this Shaved ice tomato and burrata salad from, of all places, Woolworths. And yet it's not complicated. Indeed ridiculously simple which is why it was a TikTok sensation I gather. Put a tomato in your freezer. When you are ready to serve, put your burrata on a plate, grate your frozen tomato over the top, drizzle with a balsamic glaze - you've probably got one in the pantry that you were given as a gift, decorate with basil and serve. I almost changed my mind about my appetiser, but it's a bit difficult to serve seven separate burratas - I think they only come in large sizes, and besides it would not suit my slightly lactose intolerant guest. I also suspect that by the time I got them to the table the tomato would have melted and not looked nearly as impressive.
Still on chilled things - two sorbets. I confess I did try, a long time ago, Jill Dupleix's Gazpacho sorbet with cucumber and basil, but was not that enamoured, but maybe Woolworths beautiful looking Tomato and pepper sorbet with caramelised wafers might be better.
And if you could find some smoked tomato - Frank Camorra says you can get it in specialty stores - you could try his impressive looking Smoked tomato sorbet on anchovy - on the SBS website. Or you could just use the Woolworth's sorbet instead - perhaps dusted with smoky paprika if you wanted the smoky touch.
Finally from a nineteenth century cook much admired by Elizabeth David - Edouard de Pomiane, Henry Harris, on The Guardian website presented his Tomatoes crème fraïche and herbs. De Pomiane apparently said it could be made in six minutes - Henry Harris said 15. You simply fry your tomatoes in butter, put them on the toast, cook the crème fraïche for a bit in the pan and then pour it over the tomatoes. Voilà - dinner. Well a light dinner, or maybe lunch.
Jamie et al. were not the first to present dinner made in 15 minutes it seems. Well obviously not. An omelette and a glass of wine doesn't take long either - accompanied by a fried squashy tomato.
YEARS GONE BY
October 31 - Halloween
2024 - David's kitchen
2023 - Grey food
2022 - Nothing
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Nothing
2018 - Ginger - I don't like it
2017 - Nothing
2016 - Crumpets
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