In Season Right Now: Tomatoes
The most joyful time of year! Ten delicious recipes to savour the best of the season. Plus Rose's recommendations for Melbourne — yum cha, wine bars, and pubs galore.
Nothing says summer quite like a perfectly ripe, juicy tomato. Whilst arguably the best way to enjoy peak summer tomatoes is on toast with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of flaky salt, here are some more fabulous ideas to keep your palate entertained.
One of our best-loved recipes is for this gorgeous Tomatoes, Burrata & Lemon Oil from Summer at Home. It looks absolutely stunning and is so easy to throw together. An aromatic lemon oil is an elegant way to elevate the humble Caprese salad. Try to find a variety of different coloured (and sized) tomatoes to take this to the next level. The components are also excellent when piled into a baguette.
We can’t get enough of this Sicilian Tomato Pasta — a fresh tomato sauce marries wonderfully with al dente pasta, pecorino, and a handful of basil. This is a great recipe to riff off, too. We will often add grilled or roasted eggplant, and substitute the pecorino for torn mozzarella or burrata. It also eats well at room temperature, making it perfect for summer picnics and potlucks.
We will always advocate for including bread in a salad, and this humble Italian Panzanella does just that. This staple of the southern Italian kitchen makes a brilliant lunch and is equally good served as a barbecue side dish with grilled steak or fish. It’s traditionally made with stale bread, but this recipe uses crispy crostini for extra crunch.
One of Rose’s favourite things to eat in the summertime is Pan Con Tomate. This simple Catalonian classic relies on the quality of its ingredients — use the best tomatoes, olive oil, and bread you can find. The anchovies are optional but recommended.
Knowing how to make a quick and easy salsa is a great way to save money and eat well (with no hidden additives or nasties). This zippy Pico de Gallo is excellent with chips and guacamole, or alongside grilled chicken, lamb, or steak. Bonus points if you make our Spicy Cucumber Margaritas too.
Hearty and satisfying, our Turkish Eggs are a great way to feed a crowd, and the perfect summer brunch. You can scale this recipe up or down as required. We love serving them with thick Greek yoghurt and warmed pita, Turkish bread, or Flour Tortillas.
The bounty of summer’s produce is perfectly encapsulated in this Tray-Roasted Ratatouille. We love serving this tossed through hot pasta, atop a bowl of creamy polenta, or alongside your summer barbecue. This also freezes well if you want to treat your future self.
When you cook tomatoes at a low temperature for a long time you condense and intensify their flavour, giving them a melt-in-the-mouth juiciness. These Slow-Roasted Tomatoes are fantastic on crostini with ricotta or creamy goat cheese, added to a salad, or to accompany your picnics and potlucks.
If you are yet to discover our Warm Greek Lamb Salad, now is your moment. Dishes like this — where you barbecue some meat or other protein, and then toss it with salad ingredients and a yummy dressing, are such a simple, satisfying formula for effortless summer dining.
When tomatoes are abundant (and affordable) we love making a big batch of Harvest Tomato Sauce to bottle and whip out in the cold winter months. This incredibly useful sauce tastes like sunshine in a jar, and is great as a base for soup, stirred through pasta, added to casseroles and pan sauces, and spread onto bread with cheese for a simple lunch.
What to Cook Tonight
For our paid subscribers, you might like to revisit this stunning Mediterranean Salmon with Roasted Tomatoes — a one-tray wonder that looks fabulously impressive but is so easy to throw together. We also adore this Tomato Galette which is dangerously decadent and delicious thanks to a short, buttery pastry and some yummy cheese.
There are also lots of fab ideas for easy, fresh, summery salads to make the most of peak tomato season, like this heavenly Tonnato Salad with Tomatoes & Cucumbers — a protein-packed salad that’s wonderfully refreshing and satisfying.
We also love this gorgeous Sunshine Salad with juicy tomatoes, tender zucchini ribbons, a flavourful green olive salsa, and creamy mozzarella. Other faves are our Mediterranean Tuna Salad with beautiful seared tuna and a vibrant herb pesto, as well as a Mexican Corn & Quinoa Salad — fresh juicy tomatoes, creamy avocado, sweet corn, crunchy spinach, nutty quinoa, and a zippy little chilli and lime dressing are all you need to create the perfect balance of flavours and textures. Endless inspiration for fresh and easy summer eating! We have shared over 270 recipes already (most of them you won’t find anywhere else). Here’s our Index to give you a preview of the the recipes.
Rose’s Melbourne Recommendations
Rose managed to have a few weeks in Melbourne at the end of last year, revisiting her old favourite haunts and discovering lots of new ones, too. Lots of fab cheap eats, neighborhood darlings, and special-occasion standouts. She’s added them all to her AmiGo — for those of you who have yet to discover it, AmiGo is a fabulous little travel app that curates recommendations from tastemakers all over the globe.
One of the hardest (and most exciting) parts of travel is trying to figure out where to go, places to visit, and things to eat. Nothing is worse than a failed meal when you have precious time in a special place, or ending up in a dire industrial town when there is a charming one just over the hill. It’s the only app Rose uses to travel and it has yet to let her down!
It’s invite-only (which saves it from the dreaded TripAdvisor algorithm) and we are excited to share an invite code with you all! You can download AmiGo via this link — use the invite code ROSEGO to gain access.
That’s everything from us for now!
With love,
Annabel & Rose xxx
All looks utterly delicious. So grateful for your Harvest Tomato Sauce recipe and my local PYO market garden, which allow us to enjoy tomatoes all year xx