Tomatoes
Whether you grow your own, pilfer them from next door or simply buy them in the shops – UK tomatoes are at their very best this month, they are also at their most abundant so you should be able to grab a bargain – but whatever are you to do with them?
“The gentle warmth the ESSE range cookers emanate into the kitchen is a comfort as the days shorten rapidly up here in north east Scotland, and as the light withers the temperature variation extremes prompt a final pulse of effort in the garden and polytunnel, plums hang heavy on the tree and the apples won’t be very far behind.”
ESSE slow roasted tomatoes, cream cheese and herby breadcrumbs
This warming and intensely indulgent dish suits the time of year perfectly, basically we have three things to do. Fling a few super ripe toms into a pan with some olive oil, sling them into the ESSE top oven on 160 after a brief encounter with the stove top to get things going, and finally, after an hour or so, a little faffing with cheese and herby crumbs and a brief return to the firey furnace will result in a lunch not-to-be-missed. You might even wish to spice things up with a little chilli, but I have to say on this occasion I wont be, preferring to let the tomatoes power the play list of flavours, rather than relegate them to a secondary position of sweetness and softly melting texture.
Ingredients
- A medium sized oven proof frying pan
- A little fresh marjoram or thyme, or both
- 2 large cloves of garlic
- Salt and pepper
- 50g full fat cream cheese
- A handful of breadcrumbs and a sprig of parsley
- 500g ripe tomatoes, ideally larger ones – I’m showing off and using my homegrown “Marmande” and “Green Zebra” but any really good and properly ripe tomatoes will work really well
- 75 ml good extra virgin olive oil
Method
- To start, ensure you nudge the ESSE controller for the top oven up to 160, with the steam vent open and the stove top onto about 50%
- Rinse and de-stem your tomatoes, slice them horizontally so you expose maximum surface area on the cut side, if your tomatoes are oddly shaped you will just have to work it out as best you can.
- Place the pan on the stove top, to start getting it warmed up, and arrange your tomatoes into the pan, give them a slosh of olive oil. Finely slice 1 clove of garlic and place a sliver on top of each cut surface of tomatoes, these will be facing up so the majority of the juice stays inside the tomatoes, it’s not the end of the world though if a few go topsy turvy.
- Scatter over some sea salt flakes, some freshly ground pepper and either some thyme or fresh marjoram or at a pinch a little “mixed dried herb” from the larder – but don’t overdo it, we want to add backing vocals to the tomatoes not drown them out.
- Fling the whole show in the oven and – let’s get some herby breadcrumbs prepped whilst they do their thing. Place 1 roughly chopped clove of garlic in the food processor with some roughly chopped parsley, a little salt and pepper and a touch of olive oil. Add the breadcrumbs too and pulse the machine until the crumbs look a little green and everything is well mixed. Tip these out onto a baking sheet and pop then in the oven too, but just for 5 or ten minutes to toast them up a little.
- Fast forward to the end of the hour, carefully remove the tomato pan from the oven – things should be looking relaxed bordering on collapsed and smelling reasonably epic by this point. If they are swimming in juice, carefully drain some off and set it aside to add to your next soup, sauce or dressing, of just eat it like a broth whilst you wait for the next bit to happen.
- Place a little cream cheese onto the tomatoes with a teaspoon and then scatter over all the herby crumbs, and return the pan to the oven for another 10 minutes whilst you make sure the phone is on do not disturb, the door is closed and no one is about to interrupt your lunch.
- Plonk the pan on the table with a spoon, and dive on into a serious seasonal treat, remembering to return your ESSE cooker to its slumber mode, or set it to the correct level for whatever you plan to do next.
Tim Maddams is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.
Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.
