The Food Diaries

Pugliese pasta with chard, tomatoes and mozzarella

I used the little cavatelli pasta shape in this recipe, but other short pasta shapes will do nicely.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. In the meantime, slice up the leaves of a few stalks of swiss chard (finely chop the stalks). Add a good glug of olive oil to a pan and drop in the leaves and stir fry. Add 3 finely chopped garlic cloves and continue frying till the leaves have wilted nicely.

Meanwhile, drop 300g cavatelli pasta into the boiling water and cook according to package instructions (around 8 minutes). Meanwhile, deseed and chop 3 ripe tomatoes and tear apart a buffalo mozzarella ball into chunks. Set aside.

To assemble, drain the cooked past of most (but not all) of its pasta water and add the swiss chard, tomatoes and mozzarella. Add 2 tbs fresh pesto (optional) and stir till well-combined.

Serve with a sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan.

Serve 2-3.

Spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and prawns

Take advantage of the last of the summer tomatoes with this super fresh pasta sauce.

Bring a bot of water to a boil and drop in 100g spaghetti, referring to package instructions for cooking time.

Meanwhile, chop up 2 garlic cloves and 1 spring onion and warm in a pan with a glug of olive oil. Add 1 medium-sized tomato (yellow if possible) seeded and finely chopped and a glug of white wine. Add 125g cooked prawns and stir till the wine reduces down. Season with sea salt and pepper and add a small handful of finely chopped parsley.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the pasta sauce. Stir till well incorporate and serve up straight away.

Serves 1.

Panzanella salad

(AKA what to do with a stale loaf of bread)

Tear up some leftover, stale ciabatta bread (1/2 loaf) into bite-sized pieces and place in a large, shallow salad bowl. Add 4 medium-sized tomatoes cut into wedges, 1/2 cucumber peeled and cut into chunks, and 1 small red onion, sliced thinly. Mix all together with your hands.

Whisk together 3tb olive oil with 1tb red wine vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the salad, cover and refrigerate (at least 1 hour but even overnight will work).

Stir again before serving. Drizzle a little more olive oil over top and sprinkle with 12 basil leaves, torn into pieces.

Canary Mary

A nice alternative to the ubiquitous Bloody Mary - slightly sweeter and milder too. You may be lucky enough to find some yellow tomato juice in the shops, though I think fresh tomatoes taste exactly like summer.

Place 4 medium yellow tomatoes, peeled and deseeded in a blender along with 1 tsp horseradish cream, a few drops Worcestershire sauce, a few drops Tabasco (I prefer Sriracha), a pinch of Japanese pepper (Sansyo), a squeeze of lemon, and a few drops of celery bitters (you could try Bitter Truth). Process till smooth.

Pour into two tumblers 3/4 filled with ice. Top with 40ml vodka in each glass. Stir well, till nicely chilled. Garnish with a half yellow cherry tomato.

Stuffed tomatoes with mozzarella

Slice off the tops of 4 medium-sized tomatoes (try to keep the stems intact) and set aside. Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes and chop up the pulp. Place in a bowl along with shreds of mozzarella from a 125g buffalo mozzarella ball. Sprinkle in around 125ml/1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (I like Japanese panko for its crispy consistency), along with some chopped basil and 1tbs olive oil. Mix well and then stuff back into the tomatoes. Put the “hats” back on, place in a roasting dish and drizzle with a little olive oil. Place in a hot oven (200c) and bake for around 25 minutes.

Sprinkle some more basil inside the tomatoes shells before serving. Serves 4.

BLT salad

Slice up a head of romain lettuce and place in a shallow dish. Cut up 3-4 small tomatoes into small wedges and dot around the lettuce. Fry up five slices of streaky bacon, cut in half till crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen towel. To make the dressing mix together 2 heaping tablespoons good-quality mayonnaise with 1 tsp creamy dijon mustard and whisk in 2 tsp sherry vinegar. Drizzle over the vegetables and season with sea salt and pepper. Distribute the bacon slices evenly overtop and serve.

Serves 3-4.

Insalata Tre Colori - Tomato & Mozzarella

This colourful salad really benefits from using the best quality ingredients - sun-ripened tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil, buffalo milk mozzarella.

Slice up 1lb of tomatoes quite thinly (a mix between yellow and red or other varieties) and fan out the slices on a serving platter in 2 rows. Take a large buffalo mozzarella ball (or replace with smaller bocconcino-sized balls), slice and place alongside the tomatoes. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, sprinkle on sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Dot with a small handful of miniature basil leaves just before serving.

Stuffed tomatoes with tuna

Here’s another fab summer recipe which makes the best use of ripe tomatoes in season. You can serve these as appetizers or as part of a light lunch.

In a bowl, mix together a can of good-quality tuna, 1 tbs mayonnaise, a dash of olive oil (unless the tuna was already packed in olive oil), a large squeeze of lemon juice, a small handful of chopped gherkins or capers, 1 mashed white anchovy fillet (optional), and some sea salt and pepper. Take a few smallish tomatoes (but not cherry variety unless you want extra work), and split in half (lengthwise for the long tomatoes, across the width if round). Gut them of their seeds and juices and fill with the tuna mixture. Garnish with small basil leaves.

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Bloody Gazpacho

In a small pitcher stir together the following (ingredients are per person): 40ml vodka, 100ml gazpacho, 1 tsp horseradish cream, a few drops Worcestershire sauce, a few drops Tabasco (I prefer Sriracha), a pinch of Japanese pepper (Sansyo), a squeeze of lemon, and a few drops of celery bitters (for instance Bitter Truth). Pour into a tumbler filled with ice and garnish with a slice of tomato and a pimiento olive.

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Pink risotto with ripe summer tomatoes

This recipe works brilliantly when summer tomatoes are at their ripest (and most abundant). The key to maintaining the fresh flavours is to add the raw tomatoes right at the end of the cooking - and try not to scrounge too much on the quantity of tomatoes!

(the ingredients below are per person)

Peel and deseed 450g/1lb ripe tomatoes, straining the seeds and juice through a sieve into a bowl. Dice the tomatoes, sprinkle with sea salt and place in the sieve over the same bowl. Let the juices drip through (this will take about an hour), occasionally delicately stir the diced tomatoes to release more juice.

Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a pan, add a quarter peeled red onion, finely chopped and stir till softened. Add 1 small finely chopped garlic clove and stir again. Now add around 1/3 cup (70g) carnaroli or arborio rice and stir for a couple of minutes. Add a 1/4 cup white wine and let reduce completely. Now start adding some of the tomato juice, little by little till the liquid gets absorbed. When you have run out of the juice start adding vegetable or chicken stock which has been kept simmering on the stove (you will need about 1/2 cup).

When the rice is nearly done (i.e. al dente - so with still a bite to the grains of rice), turn off the heat, add the chopped tomatoes, and a handful of grated parmesan. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes.

Serve sprinkled with a handful of small basil leaves and some freshly ground pepper.

Optional: a few flakes of chilli pepper and/or 1 tbs of thick cream or marscapone can be added with the tomatoes.

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Tomato and mozzarella pennette

I like creamy tasting pasta, but without the heaviness of cream so I quite like this recipe which marries the tartness of the tomatoes with the creaminess of the mozzarella (and these days it is quite easy to find low-fat versions).

Bring a pot of water to the boil. In the meantime, heat 1 tbs olive oil in a largish pan (large enough to hold the pasta) with 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped. Add 400g of either fresh or canned tomatoes (if using fresh peel and de-seed them first*) and a small handful of basil leaves. Cook until the tomatoes thicken into a sauce. If using fresh tomatoes you can stir in 1 tbs tomato concentrate at this point. While the sauce is cooking cook 250g pennette (or penne) pasta in the boiling water till al dente.

Just before the pasta has finished cooking, finish up with the sauce by seasoning with some salt and pepper and adding 60g chopped fresh mozzarella, stirring till it melts into the sauce. Turn off the heat.

Drain the pasta and transfer to the sauce pan. Toss over low heat till well combined. Sprinkle with some freshly grated Parmesan. Add some more basil leaves and serve immediately.

Serves 2.

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*These days it is quite easy to find peelers which make easy work of soft fruit and vegetables such as this one from Lakeland or this one made especially for tomatoes by Zyliss.

Goat’s cheese tarts

Here’s a variation on a theme. Once again, Jus Rol ready to bake puff pastry vol au vent comes to the rescue. I keep these little flat pastry disks in the freezer, and when ready to use pop them straight into the oven (220c) on a baking sheet (I first brush the edges with egg yolk).

When they start to puff up (about 5-7 minutes) take them out and fill with some marinated goats cheese pieces*, quartered cherry tomatoes, and a little salt and pepper. Now put them back in the oven till golden (another 7 minutes or so). To serve: garnish with little basil leaves.

* In a shallow dish I place slices of goat’s cheese, to which I sprinkle on a small handful of crushed dry roasted fennel and coriander seeds, some dried thyme and a drizzle of olive oil. Marinate between 30 minutes and 24hrs.

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