My early Summer: Stuffed tomatoes with wild garlic and Poitou Charente

Red ripe tomatoes are the epitome of Summer to me.  The bright red and the fresh taste.  Joy, especially when another colour, or colours, come along to increase the excitement.

In this recipe I'm using large red and yellow varieties, together giving that summertime feel-good factor.  With the wild garlic, nothing goes unused, and if you fine it a little limp on your return to the kitchen, just leave the tips of the stalks in a glass of water for 30 to 40 minutes and it will be just as luscious as when you bought it. 

Any small pasta can also be used for this recipe, I've used orzo because it was readily to hand.  Green lentils or black eyed beans could be used too, but if using the latter, only use half the amount and roughly chop them before they are put in the mix.

This recipe also works particularly well with fresh mint instead of flat leaf parsley and if this is your herb of choice, add the same amount as you would parsley, but also add a half teaspoon of dried as well.  It give this dish a little heat, so great as a dinner dish.

The proportions are just right for a main for two or a starter for four people.

Ingredients:

• 4 good sized tomatoes ("topped" and contents removed)
• Knob of salted butter
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin oil
• 6/7 sprigs of wild garlic, including flowers (stalks and flowers, finely chopped and separated from the leaves, which are chopped more roughly)
• half a medium white onion, finely chopped
• half a yellow courgette, chopped into quarter-inch cubes
• 4 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 6-7 tablespoons of cooked orzo pasta (cold)
• Pinch of salt
• 4oz of good semi-hard sheep or goats' cheese (I've used Poitou Charente) (chopped into quarter-inch cubes

In a frying pan over a medium heat, melt the butter and add the olive oil.  Add the wild garlic stalks and flowers along with the onion.  Heat through and then add the courgette and continue to cook until the mixture is slightly softened, leaving the onion with a little crunch.  Set aside and leave to cool.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade.

Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet lined with kitchen foil, dull side up.

In a large bowl add the cooled vegetables and the remaining ingredients, combine well, ensuring the orzo pasta are still separate rather than clumped together.  Then, using a dessert spoon, add the filling to the tomatoes and place in the oven for approximately 30 minutes.
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Serve with salad and/or with grilled fish.  This time around, I've served with sprouting broccoli and chilli flakes.

My Early Summer: Tomatoes with Caraway seeds

I thought I would start my series of inducing an early Summer with one of my favourites.

There is nothing quite like ripe tomatoes, but around now, when the first flavoursome ones come onto the market, this is the perfect opportunity to bring Summer to your lunchtime or supper time with the minimum of work.

In this recipe I'm using flat leaf parsley that has simply been washed, dried and de-stalked as salad green rather than a herb.  Hopefully, if its young (rather than later in the year when its pretty tough) it will have softer flavour.  However, if you think it tastes too strong, halve the amount and instead rip a few young leaves of spinach.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 large ripe tomatoes, cored and chopped roughly
• half a large bunch of flat leaf parsley, washed, dried
• 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds
• 2 tablespoons of good olive oil or rapeseed oil
• 1 small onion, chopped very finely
• 2 tablespoons of your favourite vinegar, balsamic or otherwise (in my case rosemary infused)
• a pinch of salt

Place tomatoes and parsley in a large bowl.

Heat a small frying pan on medium and dry fry/toast the caraway seeds until they start to change colour.  Keep moving them around in the pan so that they don't burn. 

Add the onion and the oil and heat through, stirring constantly.  This is just to take a little bite out of the onion rather than to soften it as there should be a little crunch left.

Add the vinegar and salt and allow to bubble for just a couple of seconds on the heat and then tip directly over the tomatoes and parsley.  Mix through thoroughly and serve.

A very good accompaniment to some freshly made falafel or served with wholemeal toast as a starter.

Roll on my early Summer, a few suggestions

Roll on my early Summer

Now for some tricks and suggestions to make your fresh ingredients taste a little fresher.

Try buying your fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs from a greengrocer or an independent store that doesn't automatically chill everything.  Although cold preserves the shelf life, it diminishes the flavour and, even if these early harvests have been forced and then travelled in a cool lorry, the fact that they aren't in a chilled isle or in a cold cabinet means that when you buy them, their flavour will approximate fresh.

Tomatoes, herbs and green vegetables will certainly benefit and when you bring them home do not put them into your own fridge.  For example, put your tomatoes in the bowl on the counter along with your lemons, courgettes, peppers, limes and garlic.  You will use them all in a few to four days so there is no need to store them in a fridge.

If you buy olives - marinated or otherwise, taste before you buy if you can.  The disappointment will be avoided when you get them home.  How many times have we all brought them home and they have been too waxy or the lack of flavour has tempted us all to just throw them away?  If you are in this position, a possible way to eek a little flavour out is to marinade them overnight in some extra virgin olive oil and some chopped fresh herbs, but this will only help flavour them, if they are hard and waxy, you may want to soak them in brine with a little added cooking soda for a couple of days, then marinade them over night.  Not perfect, but better than simply throwing them away.

Fresh herbs should be bought in bunches larger than you think you need, especially parsley and mint.  Add them to a shall vase or tumbler out of direct sunlight with fresh water every day (and again, not in the fridge).  You will use them in less than three days and if for any reason not, on the third day chop finely and freeze in small portions or, my personal favourite, mix into softened butter and then place in the fridge.  Use as a simple dressing for hot plain pasta or for that quick baked potato one evening.

Whole spices, dry fry first before you pound them, they smell and taste so much better this way and along with many seeds, this is a sure way of invigorating the taste buds ready for the warmer months.

Roll on Summer!