Tag Archives: Tomato

Terrible Tomato Sauce

 

Food is big big business. The realm of the TV chef is infiltrating our society at every turn, you can switch on the telly any time of day and find a cooking programme, and we lap it up. I for one, rarely miss Saturday Kitchen, I’ve really enjoyed Simon Hopkinson’s recent series and I can’t get enough of Heston. It’s the aspirational nature of the shows, that appeals to me, the dishes I hope to make or the ingredients I want to buy, its promoting a lifestyle as much as its promoting a particular recipe. I think, and I may not be right, that I probably make more dishes I’ve seen on telly then the average man/woman on the street, but I don’t do it that often, maybe once a week. Thats not to say I don’t cook fresh food, I do all the time, but I don’t necessarily do exactly what Delia, the Hairy Bikers or Jamie tell me.

With all the gastronomical delights being beamed into our brains every day, our eating habits should be getting better and better. However, if you listen the Hugh during his big fish fight, Gordon hunting down seasonal produce or Rick Stein lording up the delights of Spanish food heros you’d think that we’d completely lost our way. I also feel that we’re getting worse and a quick glimpse at the supermarket shelves seems to confirm this, with a vast array of frozen meals and pre packaged food.

Firstly I feel what is shown on our TV channels, is exactly what it is supposed to be, good TV, and that’s all. It’s promoting a lifestyle thats fun to watch, but is it achievable for the majority of our society? I say no, its too big a jump to make, why is it too big? Because we are becoming more and more deskilled. We as a society are becoming less and less able to cook food for ourselves, and there is one item on the supermarket shelves that demonstrates this more than any other. It’s not the frozen pizza or the microwave chicken diner, its not the re-heatable lamb pasanda or pre-made lasagne. Its the stir-in tomato and basil sauce, these jars and packets of slimy gloop highlight all that’s bad about supermarket culture. If we can’t make a simple pasta sauce, how can we be expected to whip up James Martin’s latest creation? The solution to this problem, also shows all thats so very good about our favourite Tesco, Asda, Aldi or Waitrose. Supermarkets are great, they are the answer to our deskilled cooking, the offer decent produce at a good price and open the door to easily making our own fresh food.

I hate stir-in tomato and basil sauce because; it tastes horrible, it’s over priced, and a far superior home made version is very easy. Thus, I decided to do a little comparison taking 5 supermarket tomato sauces and making my own, and the results where quite interesting.


I tasted all these sauces and I would describe every one as unpleasent, they don’t taste of tomato, they taste of dried herbs and seasoning. So I’m urging you, next time your in the supermarket reaching for one of theses, or the many other tomatoe sauaces on the shelf, pick up a few simple ingredients and try this cheeper, tastier sauces. You will need

  • 4 table spoons of olive oil (17p)
  • 1 clove of garlic sliced (5p this is generous estimation)
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatos (33p)
  • 1 small packet of basil (65p)
  • Salt and Pepper (1p another estimation)

Thats a total cost of £1.21 for 485 grams of sauce, enough for 4 servings of pasta. All of these ingredients were bought and priced up at my local ASDA, I used the cheepest available, such as a value tin of tomatoes. Most supermarkets will stock theses items at similar prices, this shows that it is more important what you buy not where you buy it, more on that in this very good article.

  1. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan
  2. Add the garlic to the oil, allow the fry until it starts to turn golden
  3. Add the tin of tomatoes, and bring to a gentle boil
  4. Boil for 2 minutes (No more cooking is needed, you want a fresh vibrant tomato taste not a sweet heavily reduced sauce)
  5. Tear or chop up basil and stir into sauce, then season with salt and pepper.
  6. Stir into 5oog of your favourite cooked pasta and serve immediately.
This sauce is also really versatile so you can experiment with it, ad some cooked bacon, or peas or maybe use parsley instead of basil. Its open to invention so try different things if you feel like it. I will guarentee one thing, it will take no more time than it takes to boil the pasta and it will taste better than enything you can get in a jar or packet.

Spanish Bruschetta

I was watching Rick Stein’s Spain last night on BBC 2,  and among the abundance of delights he talked briefly about bread, showing but not talking about a simple Spanish style burschetta. So for breakfast this morning, with a left over cob loaf I baked yesterday, I began making what I hoped would be an excellent morning treat.

The original cob loaf

So I gut a couple of thick slices from the bread and threw them onto a hot griddle pan, I didn’t oil them or the pan I just wanted them to lightly toasted. The pad had to be has hot as I could get it, this helped with making nice criss cross patterns as I rotated the bread through 90 degrees once while cooking.

I nice criss cross starting to show

Once toasted I rubbed thoroughly with half a large tomato, so that the flesh disintegrates and soaks into the bread, then I drizzled on some good olive oil and sprinkled a few flakes of sea salt. I could also have rubed on a clove of garlic but didn’t fancy it this time. This was lovely, a real treat for breakfast and something a bit different. In my opinion some the best food in the world is the simplest, and this is very simple and very good.

The finished article with the remains of the tomato

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The Arrogance of Pasta and the Joys of Polenta

Look at it preening itself, tossed in some tempting sauce, drizzled with olive oil or sprinkled with parmesan. This precocious food goes with anything, meat, fish, ham, seafood, vegetables, oil, butter, cream, tomatoes, you name it and Pasta’s been with it. It doesn’t even have the dignity to stick to one simple shape, linguine, pappardelle, penne, casarecce and orecchiette are just a few, we haven’t even got onto the stuffed varieties like tortellini or ravioli. Everywhere you go from the finest Michelin stared establishments to cheapest chain restaurants, you’ll find it sitting on the menu flirting with us with its Italian sounding names. And I must confess, I love it. At its best it is the most beautiful and tasty simple rustic food or a complex and delicate dish deserving of high praise. However to call it the quintessential Italian food, the dish that defines national identity, may be doing a disservice to another Italian staple, Polenta.

Polenta is course ground corn meal, cooked in boiling water in a similar way to porridge or risotto. Not long ago, in certain Italian regions, polenta was the staple food and pasta was a little thought of dish. Cooked in giant copper pots over the fire, the slow ritual of continually stirring for 40 mins or so, was almost as important as eating the finished product. It is a dish that anyone with a vague interest in Italian food should try, with the simple addition of butter and parmesan, its a match to anything its flashy little brother can offer. Indeed, as many pasta cooks forget, its simplicity that makes the greatest Italian food. So put the spaghetti down, grab yourself a saucepan and large wooden spoon and try something a bit different.

Polenta can be served in two ways, firstly cooked and served immediately on a large , it will be thick and soft and moorish, real comfort food especially on a cold winters day. Polenta can not be cooked and left standing around, so only cook it when you are ready for it, if you want it this way. Secondly, it can be cooked much in advance poured into a deep try and chilled in the fridge, it will produce a block almost like a heavy set jelly. This can be sliced and recooked, on a griddle pan or fried in olive oil, and makes a nice accompaniment with roast meats. For this recipe I want the soft straight from the pan version.

Italian Pork Stew with Polenta and Courgette Fries

This soft stew and polenta, works well with the crispy courgettes which can be served on the side or on top. This is great comfort food, warm and heavy and full of flavour, having the sausages stewed and not fried gives them a very different feel to how you may normally have them. For the polenta, its available in most supermarkets or delis, I use normal polenta that will take at least 30mins to cook, however quick cook polenta is available that only takes a few minutes. Its up to you which you use, one of my favourite cook books deems it an acceptable but inferior product, thus I stick to the normal kind. I get mine from my local eastern food store, you’ll also find it in most supermarkets and delis. This recipe should serve 4 people.

For the stew.

  • 500g plain pork sausages (You don’t need to do to a fancy italian deli for these just good quality sausages from you butcher or supermarket)
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 Sticks of celery
  • One large carrot
  • Tblspoon of tomato puree
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 2 glasses of good red wine
  • 100ml of water
  • 1 Sprig of thyme
  • 1 Sprig of Rosemary
  • Salt and pepper

For the Courgetts

  • 3 medium courgettes cut into small strips
  • 4 teaspoons of salt
  • 100g plain flour
  • 5 tablespoons of olive oil

For the Polenta

  • 255g of polenta
  • 3 pints of water
  • Salt
  • 50g butter
  • Grated parmesan

Method For Stew

  • Dice the onion, carrots and celery, fry gently in olive oil in a deep sauce pan until the onion is golden.
  • Add the tomato puree, tomatoes, water and wine and bring back to a simmer.
  • Cut the sausages into small chunks and add to stew, there is no need to fry them.
  • Add the thyme, rosemary and cover on a very gentle simmer, leave this for at least one hour. Although its doesn’t matter how long it simmers for, thus you can make it well in advance and leave it sitting on your stove, but a minimum of one hour is essential.
  • Half an hour before its served remove the lid and reduce to desired consistency, I like it quite thick, then season with salt and pepper.

Method For courgettes.

  • Cover the sliced courgettes with the salt and place in a colander over a bowl, do this about 1 hour before you need them, as the salt will need time to draw out the water.
  • After, at least 30 mins, place courgette on kitchen towel and pat dry.
  • Put courgette sticks into flour and make sure they are all well covered.

Method For the Polenta

  • Bring water to high boil in saucepan and add a light pinch of salt.
  • With one hand continually stir with the other gently sprinkle polenta into water (I like to pour it from a jug).
  • Keep the water boiling, you have to continually stir until its done, which will take 30 to 40 minutes for normal polenta or 5 or 6 for quick cook. While stirring make sure your spoon is scraping the bottom of the pan to stop it sticking.
  • The polenta is done when it has a very thick porridge like consistency and will start to come away from the edge of the pan. Remove from the heat and add the butter and parmesan and stir in. This can sit covered in a pan for no more than ten mintues, but enough time to fry the courgettes.
  • Finish the courgettes, by frying them in hot oil, which should at least 5mm deep in pan.

To serve

Pour out the polenta onto a large plate or board and allow it to spread out slightly. Spoon the stew on top of polenta, and place courgettes on top of stew (if you like). Sever dish in centre of the table, its a great sharing dish, allow everyone to dig in a help themselves.

 

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