Tomato recipes for high summer soup, pudding and croquettes

It seems that at long last, growers are beginning to hear our plea for tomatoes that taste like tomatoes.

For many years that seemed to be the least important attribute. People wanted tomatoes to look good, which meant they had to be ripe at the same time as their neighbours. Fortunately, things are changing.

Now you can find the sweet little cherry red or yellow tomatoes which still have a hint of that glorious tomato fragrance that you get when you brush past a plant in the greenhouse. Decades later, not just "sweet little cherry red or yellow", but green, orange, pink, purple, tiger striped, plum and pear-shaped and every possible size are on offer year-round. 

But thinking of home-grown rather than imported produce, tomatoes say July, in the same way that asparagus says April, strawberries say June, and sweet corn says August.

There is now a huge range of home grown English tomatoes (Image: Frances Bissell)

What could be more summery than tomatoes at their best? The 'green', pungent scent as they are snapped from the vine, the tight, satiny skin, and the warm, sharp-sweet juice which bursts out as you bite into the fruit, are, for me, evocative sensations. 

This is the time for making tomato ices, chilled tomato and fruit soups, gazpacho, herb and tomato sauces for pasta, baked tomatoes with exotic stuffing, tomato juice for breakfast and Bloody Marys, tomato jam and chutney.

Best of all slice them, sprinkle with sea salt and  olive oil and cover with shredded basil or mint for one of the most perfect summer dishes ever. Or for breakfast with an Andalucian flavour, rub half a tomato over lightly toasted sourdough, which you have first flavoured with a garlic clove rasped over it, be generous with olive oil and add a few shards of sea salt.

Tomatoes and bread has always been one of my favourite combinations, from the sliced tomatoes I would request on top of the cheese on toast as a child, to the 'dip bread' I would always prefer to fried bread when my father would cook a full English for Sunday breakfast.

Even today, my lunch sandwich is just as likely to be full of thinly sliced tomatoes as ham or tuna salad.     

Inexpensive, refreshing, good to eat at any time of day, variations on a theme are to be found all over the Mediterranean, from the pan bagnat of Provence, to the pa amb oli of Mallorca and Catalunya, and the Maltese hobz biz zeit.

I have collected many bread and tomato recipes on my travels, but my favourite comes from much closer to home. The late, great Jennifer Patterson borrowed it from a friend and I, in turn borrowed it from her. 

Unusual, delicious and eye-catching, for greatest effect, make  it in a traditional pudding basin. It turns out as a savoury summer pudding, and works for the same reason. Tomatoes contain pectin, like red currants, and this allows the pudding to hold its shape. It's a messy dish to prepare, but well worth it.

The combination of bread and tomatoes is a classic that goes well in this pudding (Image: Frances Bissell)

Tomato pudding (serves 6-8)

1 kg sweet ripe tomatoes
12 - 15 slices, medium cut,  firm white bread with the crusts removed
coarse sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
sherry vinegar
                   
Method:

Peel the tomatoes, and cut them in half. Scoop out the seeds, juice and pulp and process with the skins, adding two or three whole tomatoes. Chop the remaining tomato flesh, and put it in a bowl.

Rub the mixed pulp and skins through the sieve to extract maximum juice and flavour. Pour half the resulting liquid on to the tomatoes. Taste the mixture, and then add just enough salt and pepper to season. Season the remaining tomato liquid with salt and pepper to taste. 

Cut the bread into wedges, dip into the tomato liquid, and line small moulds as if making individual summer puddings, or a large pudding basin.

Spoon in the chopped tomato, and cover with a round of bread. Cover the pudding/s, weight them, and refrigerate for six to eight hours or overnight.

To serve, turn out on to a chilled plate, decorate with herbs, and serve with the remaining tomato liquid mixed with olive oil and sherry vinegar. Accompany with a salad of leafy greens, baby spinach or steamed summer vegetables.

Tomatoes make the base of chilled soups like gazpacho (Image: Frances Bissell)

Bread and tomato soup (serves 4)

500 g ripe tomatoes
1 large green pepper
1 small onion, peeled
1 garlic clove, peeled
150 ml extra virgin olive oil
850 ml water
about 400 g day-old sourdough bread, broken into chunks
coarse sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
fresh mint leaves

Method:

Thinly slice the vegetables, and cook them in the olive oil in a large pan, over a gentle heat until the vegetables are tender. Add the water and the bread, broken into chunks.

Mix well, cover, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes until tomato and bread are amalgamated. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in some shredded mint leaves before serving. You can also divide the mixture between 4 ovenproof bowls, crack an egg into each, and finish cooking in the oven.

Tomato croquettes Santorini-style (Image: Frances Bissell)

Tomato Croquettes Santorini-style

Large juicy tomatoes - of the Marmande, beef-heart or similar.
Seasoning – to taste
Plain flour - see recipe
Bunch of fresh mint - see recipe
Extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Using nothing more than the sweetest, juiciest tomatoes, some fresh mint and flour, I cook these in a frying pan in a little olive oil.

I first tasted them in a restaurant where they were deep-fried - a different taste and texture. I recommend them either as a first course, or in miniature as snacks to accompany an aperitif. 

Put a sieve over a bowl. Halve the tomatoes and scoop the seeds into the sieve. Rub the liquid into the bowl and discard the seeds. Chop the tomatoes quite small and add them to the bowl.

Season lightly and then gradually add flour. You want to add enough to bind the tomatoes, but the mixture should remain fairly wet. Add finely chopped mint. 

Heat the oil in a frying pan, enough to generously cover the base. Take up a spoonful of the tomato mixture and place it in the hot oil. You can probably fit three in a pan. Cook for about 4 to 5 minutes, ensuring that the oil is not too hot, as you want to cook the fritters through, not burn them.

Turn the fritters over with a spatula, and gently press to flatten them slightly. The second side will cook more quickly. Once done, remove them and drain on paper towels. Serve immediately. As with all fritters, once they begin to cool, they harden.

Cook's notes: When a recipe calls for the addition of lemon juice, I have occasionally used the juice which runs from tomatoes, but not the pulp from around the seeds.

It has a very agreeable acidity which makes it particularly use for marinating raw fish. Roughly chop tomatoes and place in a sieve set over a bowl. Leave for an hour or two. Use the pulp residue in soups or, well-seasoned and with the addition of garlic, piled on a bruschetta.

Plum tomatoes have the best flavour for sauces and soups, and have a denser, less watery flesh than the round varieties.

Not-quite-ripe tomatoes need a flavour boost. Rather than sugar,  a drop of maple syrup is even better. The sharp fruitiness is not masked by sugar, and there are flavour compounds in maple syrup which complement those of savoury foods in truly umami fashion.

One would not, generally, think of cooking tomatoes in summer, but staying in Marrakech once, we enjoyed a salad where the tomatoes were cooked very slowly. The traditional recipe recommends adding a little sugar for seasoning, but maple syrup worked even better. 

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