Italian Tomato Toasts..... {Bruschetta}

I love Italy for so many reasons (I wrote about it here) but one of the main reasons is the food. It's where I first fell in love with cooking, where I learnt to ramp of my cooking, to appreciate flavours and textures and most importantly to respect ingredients. If you have a piece of fish fresh from the boat cook it simply with the gentlest of seasoning, if you have a piece of fresh bread rub it with a juicy fresh garlic and a drizzle of local olive oil, ripe peaches are amazing if you grill them and serve with a drizzle of honey... you catch my drift. Simplicity is the key to beautiful Italian cooking and having a glut of tomatoes growing in the garden I used them to make this simple, traditional Italian starter which is done so badly throughout the UK in fake Italian restaurants. This is how it should be done. 

 Italian Bruschetta

400g cherry tomatoes, roughly diced - I used red and yellow

1/4 red onion, very finely diced

balsamic vinegar

good quality olive oil

Ciabatta loaf (or any other stone baked white loaf), cut into thin slices and toasted

clove of garlic

S&P

basil

take the tomatoes and onion and mix together with a small dash of balsamic vinegar and a good glug of olive oil. season well and then leave to rest at room temperature for at least half an hour so flavours can develop. Take the toasted bread and rub one side of each piece with the garlic and a drizzle of olive oil. when ready to serve, add a spoonful of bruschetta onto each toast and a couple of the really small leaves of basil for decoration. This is a great canape or starter and goes very well with a chilled glass of prosecco

Linking up with Honest Mum 

And with Delcious Dish Tuesday with  Full Time Mama 

So I remembered I have a blog; A nourishing recipe of fish, chorizo and beans

Relationships can be hard work. They can. I feel like my relationship with this blog is hard work most of the time and I have felt like just deleting the whole thing.... I have next to no followers and my readership is pretty low. But then I stopped to think - I am consistently telling people how much work relationships are; with boyfriends, with friends, family etc and that they take time and commitment. So I guess I'm trying to make a promise that I am going to commit more effort into this blog because I love cooking well and writing badly - and it's for me really, a little piece of me in the large world wide web. 

This dish was an experiment with flavours I believe work very well together. Its a great dish so I guess it’s a fancy apology or my nourishing love on a plate. Either way I recommend it.

A bit blurry, but you see what I was trying to achieve!

Pan fried cod on a chorizo, tomato and butter bean medley

2 pieces Skin on cod – I got this from the fishmongers and simply asked them to cut the size that I wanted – easy!  

1 x tin Butter Beans, drained

4 Shallots, thinly sliced

2 stalks Celery finely sliced 

125g Chorizo, cut into small cubes

200ml glass white wine

1 x tin chopped Tomatoes

100g cherry / baby plum Tomatoes, halved or quartered (i did a bit of both) 

Lemon Thyme

Start by frying the chorizo and shallots in a pan with a bit of olive oil. Once the shallots are soft and the chorizo slightly crispy add in the celery and half the cherry tomatoes, cook for a further 5 mins until the celery is softened. Add in the wine and allow to reduce by half. Add the tomatoes (tinned and fresh) , a sprinkle of sugar, lemon thyme and seasoning. allow to bubble away for 10 minutes. Add the beans and continue you to Cook for around 15 minutes. you can throw in some more lemon thyme if you think it needs it. 

Season you fish and flour the skin. Melt butter and oil in a pan and then cook the fish so the skin is crispy. You could always oven roast or grill if you prefer. Serve the fish on top of the medley and garnish with lemon slice an a sprig of lemon thyme.

After eating this we decided that you definitely need another element to the dish..... maybe some grilled asparagus or some buttered Samphire. I'll get back to you on that.

The only tomato sauce recipe you will ever need or want

I used to swear by ole' Nigel's tomato sauce and while it I will still continue to use it on occasion, I have switched my fickle affections to Marcella Hazan - sorry Nige you'll have to make do with being my bit on the side.

This sauce was a revelation. All intensely tomatoey, rich, melt in the mouth consistency, it also clings to the pasta in a most satisfying way. I can see now why this sauce kind of has cult status across the tinternet! I have never come across Marcella's cooking before and I'm pleased that I found this recipe (thanks Instagram, follow me @girlinthekentishkitchen), her book is now in my amazon basket ready to purchase at the end of frugal month. Or maybe if someone wants to purchase it for me (HINT)?!

The best thing about it is that it is so frugal. You need next to nothing to make it and everything in the recipe are ingredients that I had in the fridge or my cupboard. But it tastes so special and spaghetti and sauce is always a good thing. Always.

Marcella's Tomato, Butter and Onion sauce

adapted from recipe here

1 tin (400g) tomatoes, use good quality ones
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
4tbsp butter
1tsp sugar
S&P
Pasta - cooked according to instructions (I used spaghetti)
Parmesan

Put the tomatoes in a pan and the fill up the tin halfway with water and add that in as well. Place the onion halves, the butter, sugar and season in the pan.

Warm on a low heat for as long as it takes for the fat to separate from the tomatoes and for it to go an intensely red colour.

 As it cooked I stirred it quite a bit and squashed down any chunks of tomatoes. Cook your spaghetti and then mix it into the sauce.

 And you are done - eat with Parmesan sprinkled on, a glass of wine and a napkin tucked in to your white shirt!