This is just one of many, many tomato salads I make over the course the summer.  I love them.  It probably has something to do with the Sunday afternoon trips down my Grandad Dowton’s crazy paved garden path to pick tomatoes from his greenhouse.  Always supervised.  (It wasn’t, you must know, the kind of garden you were allowed to play in.  Wide flower beds were planted, Victorian style, with high maintenance bedding plants all lovingly raised from seed.)

I loved that strong, sweet smell of summer as you opened the greenhouse door.  Then, my brother and I would giggle over the irregular shaped ones before being given a warm tomato each to eat on the way back to the kitchen.

This Greek-Style Tomato Salad isn’t anything my grandparents would have served.  I’m not sure if they ever tasted feta cheese and I’m certain they didn’t eat olives.

When you think about it they wouldn’t have been brought up on tomatoes.  The Victorians thought they caused illness unless you boiled them into submission.  Tomatoes only became a regular part of the British diet during the food rationing of the Second World War when any source of vitamin C was a good thing.

For all we think we’re so much more sophisticated with our food choices now, supermarkets sell some tasteless tomatoes.  On the vine or off it, they’re picked green and left to ripen.  I’m not convinced it’s worth paying the extra money charged for the on-the-vine sort and am absolutely certain there’s no point buying anything that has been transported miles in refrigerated storage units.

Mine came from a local farmers’ market, but the best tomatoes of all are the ones you grow yourself.  Second best, are the excess garden produce you sometimes see placed on tables by front gates.

Here’s the entire cast of characters of my salad, minus the feta which is still tucked in the fridge.  I made this on 1 July and that was a record breaking warm day and my kitchen is South facing.  It was hot.

The round salad tomato is fine.  Don’t put them in the fridge and store root end down.  I have absolutely no idea why that works, but stem end down keeps them better.  When you come to use them, if there’s any decay you should throw the entire tomato away.  No just cutting off the rotten bit.

For a salad like this, I like the skins off.  Put a saucepan of water on to the boil and cut a shallow cross in the base end of the tomato. You’ll find it easier if you use a serrated knife – a bread knife is fine!

When the water is boiling, pop the tomatoes in for 30 seconds.  1 minute, tops.

Drain, then put the tomatoes into a bowl of cold water.

The skins peel off.

There they are.

Cut into quarters and slice out the core.

Then into bite sized crescents.

Season with sea salt and crushed black peppercorns.  A little sugar will help sweeten if you’re not entirely convinced they’re sufficiently sun-kissed.

Then, cover and leave to ‘settle’ for an hour.  I had a fly in the kitchen and spent the next ten minutes or so darting about the kitchen with a dampened tea towel in my hand.  I got the blighter.

Wash, trim any straggly green bits and chop off the roots.

And slice.

Roughly chop a bunch of flat-leaf parsley.

Some fresh oregano, if you have it.  Just the leaves and roughly chop.

I love olives.  Like Globe Artichokes, I met them in my twenties and thought they were so sophisticated.  Yes, I hated my first olive – but I worked at it.  Now I pop them like sweets.

These are Kalamata olives and I buy them stone in.  You don’t need a fancy olive stoner.  I just cut mine in half and ease any stubborn stones out with the tip of my knife.

When it’s time to serve, start layering everything up.  Add the spring onions.

Parsley, oregano and olives.

Not all feta is equal.  I look for barrel-aged feta made from sheep or goat milk and buy in a block which I store in brine.  (The best feta I’ve ever eaten was made at home by a Greek lady living in London, so under EU rules I’m not even sure she could call it feta.)

If you want to tone down the salty edge, you can soak your feta block in a half milk/half water for an hour.

Crumble in the feta and dried oregano.

Add olive oil, lemon zest and the juice of a lemon.

Give everything a mix.  Eat.

Greek-Style Greek Salad

Serves 8

• 12 ripe tomatoes, skinned
• Sea salt and cracked black peppercorns
• 1 tsp of sugar, optional
• 8 spring onions, including the green ends, finely sliced
• Bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons of fresh oregano, leaves only, roughly chopped
• 20 Kalamata Olives, stoned
• 150g/5oz feta cheese
• 4 tablespoons dried oregano
• 12 tablespoons of cold-pressed Greek olive oil
• Grated zest and juice of one unwaxed lemon

Core the tomatoes and cut into bite-sized crescents.  Arrange on a serving plate and sprinkle over sea salt and crushed black peppercorns.  Sugar, if needed.  Cover and leave for 45 minutes – 1 hour.

When you are ready to serve, sprinkle over the chopped spring onions, chopped parsley, chopped oregano, stoned olive and dried oregano.  Crumble over the feta.  Add the lemon zest, olive oil and lemon juice.

Eat.

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I bought myself a present.  There is no justification for that other than I saw, I wanted .. and I bought.

I like to think I economised because I bought the smaller of the two sizes available which was cheaper, but it was probably a false economy because I now know I need the bigger one.  (We can pause here and discuss how irritating the sizing of bakeware is.  I’m happy to go metric or imperial but it would be really helpful if we’d make a decision …!)

Coincidentally, I also bought a bumper box of tomatoes at the market and immediately set about playing.

As a child, grilled tomatoes on toast was one of my favourite breakfasts – and my love for it made it just a short step to putting them on flaky puff pastry for lunch.  There was a short hiatus after an unfortunate .. incident whilst pregnant with Dominic.  Probably too much information to share on a foodie blog, b-but … tomatoes are quite acidic.  The Duchess of Cambridge and I have both experienced hyperemesis gravidarum.  I’ll let you google that.

I’m over it now.

Cut the tomatoes in half through the core.  If you cut the other way you’ll end up with half your tomatoes having a dot in the centre when you flip your  finished tart out.  It will taste exactly the same, but it won’t be as pretty.  And, yes, pretty matters.

For my 8″ tin, I used 9 medium sized tomatoes.

50ml of olive oil (that’s about 4 tablespoons).  Add 1 tablespoon of dried oregano.  Marjoram is also lovely.

Microplane 2 cloves of garlic (or chop finely) and add to the oil and dried oregano.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Lay the tomato halves cut side up on a baking sheet.  Then pour and dab the garlicky/herby/oil between the tomato halves.

Mine went into the Roasting Oven fourth set of runners for 1 hour until they were soft, slightly shrunk but not coloured.  In a conventional oven I would bake at 160ºC/325ºF/Gas Mark 3 for about an hour and half.  It will depend on how big your tomatoes are.

Lightly brush your tarte tatin dish with olive oil and arrange the tomato halves.  Make sure the cut side is facing upwards.  It’s the same principal as the pineapple upside-down-cake you probably made at school.

Squeeze them in closely.  Any gaps will spoil the effect.  Then set aside to cool.  That bit’s important.  If the tomatoes are warm when you add the puff pastry the butter will start to melt and you’ll have much less puff.

If you are using bought puff pastry – use an all-butter one.  You can  console yourself with the thought it has far less butter in it than if you use home-made ..

Roll out to something between 3mm and 5mm.  Cut around the rim of the tarte tatin tin.

While the tomatoes are chilling, place the pastry circle back into the fridge.  I use the base of a flan tin.  (Don’t waste any of the off-cuts, but don’t scrunch them up as you would shortcrust.  Fold the pieces on top of each other so you don’t interfere with all the layers and use it to make cheese straws.)

Now would be the time to increase the oven temperature to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6.

Place the pastry circle on top of the cold tomatoes.  Carefully tuck the pastry down the sides so it hugs the tomatoes.

Mine went in to the Roasting Oven fourth set of runners for 20 minutes.

At 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6 it will also take 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Just loosen the edges if it has caught anywhere.

Place a cooling rack over the tarte tatin tin and flip it over.  I have a baking sheet underneath to catch any escaping juices.

Then allow it to cool.

It can be served warm or at room temperature.  Grind over some black pepper.  Decorate with basil leaves.

Eat.

Tomato Tarte Tatin

Serves 4

• 9 medium sized tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, microplaned or chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
• 50g/4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 250g home-made or all-butter puff pastry
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• To serve:  fresh basil leaves and a lightly dressed baby-leaf salad

Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF/Gas Mark 3 and lightly grease an 8″ tarte tatin tin.

Cut the tomatoes in half through the core.  Lay them on a baking sheet, cut side facing upwards.

Add the microplaned garlic and the dried oregano to the olive oil.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Drizzle the mixture over the cut surface of the tomatoes.  Bake for about 1½ hours.  Aga:  Roasting Oven, fourth set of runners, for 1 hour.

Roll out the puff pastry to a 5mm thickness and cut around the rim of the tarte tatin dish.  Arrange the tomatoes, cut side facing upwards, in the tarte tatin tin.  Chill both the tomatoes and the pastry.

Increase the oven temperature to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6.

Lay the pastry over the tomatoes and tuck the edges down the sides.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Allow to settle for 5 minutes before flipping over on to a cooling rack.

Serve warm or at room temperature with a grinding of black pepper, some basil leaves and a lightly dressed baby-leaf salad.

Eat.

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