Semi-roasted tomatoes

I like Roma tomatoes. Use ripe but not too mushy ones.

Warm the oven at 200˚C Cut your tomatoes in half lengthwise, for the larger flat section (cross section is smaller)

Arrange them on one of those wire racks - you'll need something to catch any drips, like a baking dish.

Give the open tomatoes a pinch each of salt (draws liquid out) and sugar (slightly caramelises). Not too much - you want the strong tomato flavour. Add a pinch of dried herbs, parsley, sage, marjoram, whatever is in the cupboard.

Put them in the pre-warmed oven! turn the temperature to 150˚C. Let them roast slowly, two or more hours is fine, your taste, and depending how dry you want them. I like them juicy.

Pack the finished tomatoes with dressing, just EV olive oil, lemon, touch of balsamic (not too much) or your combination. Adjust salt and pepper.

Variation March 2020

Dust lightly with sugar, balsamic and olive oil. Salt and pepper.

Gnocchi di Patate

What a terrific little thing is fresh gnocchi!
Somewhere in my travels I heard that "Wednesday is Gnocchi Day". I think they are fantastic any day of any week. Orvieto or Lake Como maybe.
And they freeze well too so you can make a batch for now and enough for later.


Ingredients

• 4 medium sized Potatoes - either Kennebeck or Pontiacs work fine
• Plain flour - 200grams to start, but you'll definitely need more
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg

For the potatoes a ricer is good or you can coarsely mash them, but don't make a paste.
You'll need something to make the ridges on the outside of the gnocchi - one of those butter molds, or gnocchi paddle or even the back of a long-prong fork is fine.
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Method
Boil the potatoes in their skins for 15-20 minutes, then while they are still hot [but cool enough to handle] peel them. Pass them through a ricer, or coarsely mash them.

Make a well in the initial batch of flour, and break the egg into it, add the pinch of salt.
Combine the ingredients - use your hands or a spoon, but don't overwork the dough.
It needs to be combined and not too wet to the feel - keep adding flour until you have a nice combined ball of dough.
Let it rest for 10 mins.

Then, break the dough into more manageable pieces and roll a piece of he dough into a 1.5cm diameter sausage. cut the sausage into 1cm chunks. With more flour on your work surface, rub the pieces between your floured hands into little balls about 1.5cm - 2cm in diameter.

You'll get a feel here of how dry the dough is - you dont want it to stick to your hands, or the moulding device [in the next step]. Again dont overwork it - add the flour to your hands while rolling.

Once you have a little collection of dough balls, the fun starts!
Take a ball, and with your thumb, run the ball along the back of the fork to form the ridges. Set that piece aside, on a floured piece of kitchen paper or tea towel.

If they're sticking to your thumb or the ridging tool, they are too wet - use more flour!
Repeat until you use up the set of dough balls.
Then repeat the process of making the dough balls and rolling them out.

Cooking
Have your sauce ready - I like simple Tomato and Basil with garlic. But you could try Pesto [basil, pinenuts], Alfredo [cream, parmesan, parsley] or Bolognese [beef, tomato]. I think Bolognese is too heavy. Get creative!
So
In plenty of boiling salted water add a handful of gnocchi or so. Maybe just enough for two people at a time. Dont overcrowd the water. They cook very quickly and you dont want them to overcook - they can go tough or break up! They are ready when they rise to the surface of the water - scoop them out with a slotted spoon. Repeat for more batches.

Place into individual plates with your sauce, herbs and cheese. Beautiful!



EAT!!

Storage
Gnocchi can be stored between sheets of floured kitchen paper. Don't crowd them or they'll squash together.

Photos by TokMonsta

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More gnocchi from 2014 below