This is now my favourite way to eat tomatoes, I mean I’m salivating looking at these pictures and I’ve just finished eating them (yes, I licked the plate – there’s no room for judgement here).
I can barely call this a recipe, but as with everything you cook, feel free to put your own spin on it. Don’t fancy adding ground pepper? Then don’t add it. Just taste as you go along, more for the fact that you can appreciate the taste at every stage.
There are hardly any ingredients you need, but quality, quality, quality is key here. Go to a greengrocer and pick the tomatoes that make you groan and close your eyes when you smell them, use your best olive oil and use your favourite sourdough.
I’m aware that living only minutes away from Otis & Belle (best sourdough around), Daylesford and a few miles further for Bruern Farm (which is where I got the tomatoes from and they had literally just been picked), means we have fabulous produce to hand, but it’s worth a trip out to get the best ingredients. A trip to a farm shop is always a lovely way to pass a few hours.
For two hungry people, you’ll need:
– Four medium / large tomatoes (I used two yellow & two red)
– Olive oil (your best one)
– 3 / 4 slices of sourdough
– Clove of garlic (the freshest you can find – this one from Bruern farm was that fresh it was almost milky)
– A small handful of basil leaves
Grab a couple of bowls if you’ve got two types of tomatoes, if not, you’ll just need one. Get your box grater and start grating your tomatoes. You’ll end up with a handful of tomato skin, which I gave to our chickens. At this point, you could push your tomatoes through a sieve, but I didn’t bother.
Have a little slurp (it’ll taste gorgeous), then add a generous pinch of salt (remember this is your recipe, so add a little bit a time if you want, as you can always add more but you can’t take it away), add a slug of olive oil and a grinding of black pepper, only if you want. I didn’t add any to my yellow tomatoes. You can also add some sliced basil to your tomatoes if you want, or just add it at the end.
Toast your sourdough and if it catches and you have some blackened edges, then brilliant. Peel your garlic clove, rub it over the toast a few times, drizzle over a little olive oil and then load on your tomatoes. Pick some of the smaller basil leaves and add those on top.
Then the only thing to do is take a big bite!
A x
Abi in the Garden 