T is for Tomato and Pancetta Tart

This is a tale of two tarts. Up until now all our tomato recipes have been smooth, the unsettling texture of the tomato removed to cause less anxiety to Freddie...But for our final tomato recipes I decided to flirt with danger and allow the tomato to flash a little flesh.
The creation above is a Tomato and Pancetta Tart. Freddie came back from school saying he was really hungry. In fact he looked at the tart with the thin slices of tomato and only saw the pancetta.There is a Latin saying, "Rabidus fame, ceu canis" as hungry as a dog. He attacked the tart like a puppy.
"So you do like tomatoes then?"
"No" muttered Freddie, ferociously biting into the tart.
"Well that's what you're eating."
He stopped mid-bite and looked down. With slightly less energy he carried on eating.
"Do you want another slice?"
"No thanks. I liked it but its not good enough to have seconds."

So I offered him the other tart - tart number two which we adapted from this recipe, adding sliced courgettes. Out of respect for the effort I had put into this meal, Freddie tried a little. Recently someone left a rather stark comment on the blog - all they wrote were five words. "Hunger is the best sauce." I could imagine the author of this comment, looking rather sternly at us. Trouble is the saying is completely right. Which is why tart number two got a pathetic four out of 10, against the first which did rather well, scoring 8.

Tomato and Pancetta Tart

250g of Ready rolled Puff Pastry

3 ripe tomatoes, sliced thinly

6-8 slices of pancetta

A handful of chopped black olives

2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese, a teaspoon of dried oregano

a drizzle of olive oil and handful of fresh basil

Roll the pastry shaping it into a rectangle. We find it is better if it is rolled quite thin. To create a raised margin around the tart, score it lightly with a knife an inch in all the way around. Place on a siloconised baking parchment paper. Place a line of thin tomato, then a line of pancetta rashes until the tart is covered, leaving your margin clear. Scatter the finely grated parmesan or parmegiano cheese evenly over the tart with the oregano. Drizzle over the olive oil, scatter the chopped black olives. Place in the preheated oven at around 200C (400F) and bake for about 20 minutes, until the pastry is risen but not burnt. Serve hot or cold to HUNGRY children.

Do you know another saying out about hunger increasing appetite? If so let us know - oh and our next stop is going to be the slightly less glamourous turnip. If you have any favourite turnip recipes you can recommend let us know!

T is for Tomato Lipsmackers

 

You know that your work-life balance is completely awry when you only see your child asleep. Alex sleeps facing upwards with her arms and legs akimbo whilst Freddie sleeps on his stomach, his head under the pillow and his limbs tucked underneath him, looking as if he was hibernating in the arctic. Which is strange because it has been very warm in London this week. I have been working in Dubai where it was over 40 C. When I came back to London yesterday the thermometer in the garden claimed that it had been 29C. So I revisted a previous success of the Great Big Veg Challenge and made Veggie Lipsmackers. This time we used tomato juice combined with purple grape juice and orange juice. The children teemed and ladled, tasted and then froze their creations. Freddie awarded his Tomato Lipsmacker a refreshing 8 out of 10.

T is for Tomato Risotto

 

Last night I made a tomato risotto. The recipe came from the BBC Good Food Site and advertises itself as a quick risotto which you make in a microwave. Risotto has been a successful way of getting Freddie to try things he doesnt like so much. So I bought a punnet of cherry tomatoes and followed their instructions.These tomatoes were nothing like as sweet as the ones we bought last summer for the Pan con Tomate but we know that things in season taste best. Still this risotto tasted delicious and it is an impressively lazy way to make a risotto. And did Freddie like it? Well, this isn't something he will be begging me to make again but he did eat it and seemed to like the taste....his score was 8 out of 10.
"Even though not many children like the texture of tomatoes, I have made myself like tomatoes with this recipe... and it is worth trying if you have children ( especially children like me!!)" says Freddie.

THIS IS A LINK PROVIDED BY FREDDIE TO ALL OF YOU WHO HATE TOMATOES....ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES!

T is for Tomato Tasting - Pan con Tomate

I read a comment by someone who said that tomatoes have the texture of the inside of an eyeball. Freddie shares this dislike for the texture of tomatoes. So following on from the success of our League of Lettuce I thought that we needed a similar tasting challenge with tomatoes. And late last summer Amanda, who blogs at Figs,Bay,Wine, came to our rescue.
She told us about Spanish Tomato Toast or Pan Con Tomate which is a traditional and very simple Catalan dish. Up until that time, Freddie would not eat raw tomatoes, only consuming them puréed in tomato soups or pasta sauces.
We went at the height of the tomato season to the supermarket. I thought I knew that tomatoes were red, unless of course they were unripe in which case they are green. But the tomatoes were competing with the lettuces in the variety stakes. Next to the conventional red ones were crates of yellow, purple, black and green tomatoes. And they boasted their own sign: ‘Heirloom Tomatoes'. Now when I think of heirlooms I imagine grandfather clocks or boxes of old photographs. But these jewels of the tomato world have exquisite names: the glamorous Eva Purple Ball, the exotic Green and Red Zebras, the esoteric Dr Wyche’s Yellow and the voluptuous French Marmande. It was a cast of tomatoes that boast good old-fashioned breeding. I politely invited them home to take part in a tomato tasting session.

And as we learnt, Pan Con Tomate has a great trick up its sleeve: it allows children to take charge of the meal. You simply give them huge tranches of toasted country bread, a little dish of olive oil, halved cloves of garlic, a little sea-salt and a selection of ripe tomatoes cut in half. Freddie and Alexandra squeezed, squelched and drizzled their way through plates of well-bred tomatoes. Freddie was creative with his scoring. “Its 10 out of 10 as a way of getting people interested in eating raw tomatoes and about 7 out of 10 for taste.” He didn't mention eyeballs at all!

T is for a Tomato Soup Memory

This is my brother and I, circa 1975. We are standing in front of my Aunt and Uncle's pale blue Volkswagen Camper Van. It is probably mid-summer which is why we are wearing the essential English holiday attire of a thick arran sweater, shorts and wellington boots. In the background my Aunt is stirring a tin of tomato soup over the VW gas stove. Everyone should have a tomato soup memory. My aunt and uncle were responsible for providing me with a whole album full. I would visit them during the school holidays. Maybe children remember things in a different way to adults but I can recall the smell of my aunt's house; a combination of cooking gas and Imperial Leather soap. They had exciting things that we didn't have at home. Things like an Edwardian Pianola, variety packs of breakfast cereals but best of all, the VW Camper Van. When I wasn’t clinging onto the sides of the piano stool, frantically pedaling my way through “The Toreador”, my Aunt and Uncle would drive us round Britain sightseeing in this van. And wherever we were, the routine was the same. I loved the fact that it was the same every time.

Inside the van there were secret shelves and drawers. The formica top in front of my seat would lift up to reveal a little chrome sink with a tap that you pumped up and down to make the water flow. Even more exciting was the Calor Gas Stove. Wherever we were, my Aunt would unpack marmite sandwiches and heat up a tin of tomato soup. We would park in country lanes, on hard shoulders and at stately homes. One day my Aunt drove us into the centre of London to visit the Science Museum. The camper van was parked up right in front of the museum in Exhibition Road. The little gas stove was ignired, the obligatory tin of tomato soup opened. We sat in a row, my brother, my Aunt and me, the slide doors of the van wide open as all the tourists filed past into the museum.

I have passed on this love of creamy tomato soup to my own children. I don’t yet have a camper van but on holiday in Cornwall I bought a small gas camping stove. I bought the tomatoes from an honesty box with a difference. On the front door of a house in Lostwithiel, someone had pinned bags of vegetables grown in their garden with an instruction to put the money through the letter box. I brought the tomatoes home and made my own creamy tomato soup. To make it really smooth, I pushed the soup through a sieve, smoothing the tomatoes and potatoes through the metal mesh with a wooden spoon. And late that evening we all walked up to the top of a hill by the cottage where there is beautiful view of Lantic Bay. We lit up the gas stove and heated up the tomato soup which we sipped from mugs, looking out over the sea as the sun went down. One of many tomato soup memories that I hope my children will have forever.

Creamy Tomato Soup

900g ripe tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp of tomato paste
1 medium sized potato, peeled
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 small onion, sliced
1 teaspoon of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of ground paprika
725 ml of chicken or vegetable stock
200ml single cream or half-fat cream
Salt and pepper to season

Boil a large pan of water. Add the whole tomatoes. Turn off the heat and allow to sit for a few minutes. The skins of the tomatoes will split. Drain them and peel off the skins. Chop the skinned tomatoes. Heat the olive oil in a large pan on a medium-low heat. Peel and finely dice the potato. Add the finely chopped onion, potato and crushed garlic and sauté for 3 minutes until the onion and potato is softened. Don’t allow it to burn. Add the ground paprika, tomatoes, tomato purée, caster sugar and stock. Bring to the boil, stirring well. Then lower the heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and using a wooden spoon, smooth the soup through a sieve. If you prefer, puree in a food processor. Return to the pan and add the cream, stirring over a low heat. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Do you have a tomato soup memory?

What is your favourite way to enjoy tomatoes....