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.
