Tuesday 15 July 2008

Moonblush Tomatoes


I love tomatoes, ever since I was a child and was given the task of nipping out the side shoots on our plants in the greenhouse, although I was not keen on the smell left on my hand I knew that soon I would be rewarded with a juicy, ripe red tomato sprinkled with a little salt, Oh the delight when you tasted the sweet flesh of a tomato just taken from the vine.
Sometimes when we travelled to see relatives my Dad would drive through Lanark, where they grew wonderful tomatoes and we would get a brown paper bag full of them to take with us, some would be eaten and the rest would be given to my Aunt.
Now the supermarkets are laden with many different types of tomato, but few taste as good as home grown, even the ones classed as vine ripened are sometimes tasteless. We have a good greengrocer in a town nearby and when I was outside the shop last week they had the most wonderful selection of tomatoes outside, they had orange, beef, plum, cherry ,cherry plum and juicy fat Scottish ones. I bought some scotch and orange and was not disappointed. The beef ones were the most unusual shape, all grooved and bumpy, not perfect, thank goodness the EU have not spotted them or they would be relegated to a tin somewhere.
I used the vine cherry tomatoes I got at the market to make these moonblush tomatoes from Nigella Express. The name itself is beautiful and the recipe, well instructions are simplicity itself.




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Moonblush Tomatoes



500g or 24 on the vine cherry tomatoes
1 tsp salt or 2 tsp maldon salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tbs olive oil


Heat oven to highest setting for at least 20 minutes.
Slice the tomatoes in half and place cut side up in an oven proof dish.
sprinkle evenly with salt, sugar, herbs and oil.
Place in oven and immediately turn the oven off.
Leave for at least 12 hours, Or overnight - hence the name moonblush.
Simple, tasty tomatoes for you to use in salads, sauces pizza, or whatever you fancy.

6 comments:

Beth (jamandcream) said...

i've been meaning to make this Nigella recipe for a while - they look so good. Will have to get some toms from the market on Sat!

Raquel said...

yum, yum, yum! I made some oven-dried tomatoes last year and they are fab! Great post. I can remember we always grew tomatoes and canned them and how I hated cutting them up, the juice runs all down your arm. Much love - Raquel XO

chris said...

Hi there Angela, that looks like a great recipe. I have a ton of tomatoes coming out of the garden, so Im glad to get some new recipes. Wish you lived closer, I cold supply with a bunch of them.

Chris.

Jan said...

Funnily enough, I've just been posting about homegrown tomatoes on my blog. Some of ours look rather gruesome but taste delish.

We have so many at the moment, I will have to give your recipe a try, sounds great.

Marie Rayner said...

You can't beat home roasted tomatoes! Those look delicious! One of my favourite sauces is a oven roasted tomato sauce. Heavenly on pasta!

Anonymous said...

Moonblush, love that name. I'm sure these are so good. I imagine them on my toast or salad.