Not much to offer this week but this little gem of a soup recipe as I’ve been working my “little” (I wish) a– off!;) Our pizza chef had to return home due to a death in family so I was drafted into the kitchen for the last 2 weeks. I normally tend to work on the counter in La Cucina but it was nice to work in the kitchen for a change. I’ve decided to spend more time in there as I do really enjoy it but it’s pretty hard work, when we change the place around I’ll probably be in there anyway so I might aswell get used to it. The only thing I find is that after cooking all day, the last thing you want to do is cook when you come home so the recipes might be a bit lacking over the next couple of weeks. I have been taking pictures of the daily grind in La Cucina so I’ll probably do a couple of posts on behind the scenes.
Soup is really popular in La Cucina and we can’t keep up with the demand at the moment. During the last week we had, roast pumpkin, potato and Italian sausage, cannellini bean and parma ham and today I made this roasted tomato recipe. I often make this at home and have to say it’s absolutely delicious.
what you need:
- 500g cherry tomatoes cut in half.
- 1 red onion cut into large chunks
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 500ml chicken/veg stock
- 10 basil leaves
- sea salt and black pepper
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- olive oil
what to do:
- pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees.
- place your tomatoes, garlic and onion in an oven dish, season and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
- cook for about an hour and a half until the tomatoes are nice and soft. Add your basil leaves about 5 mins towards the end.
- add your stock and liquidize.
- serve with some crusty bread and a drizzle of chilli oil if you like.
buon appetito!!
p.s. we’ve been listed in this great new comprehensive list of food blogs from around the world, check it out here
I ve been reading along for a while now. I just wanted to drop you a comment to say keep up the good work.
Joan
Tips Beauty
do you grow your own basil? is it possible to have a healthy basil plant indoors during winter? i fail at growing basil every time
I don’t have one at the moment but I think I had one last winter. I normally buy those little plants in the Supermarket and re-pot it. I had a really good one this summer, it lasted for months.
Thanks Joan:)
The last time I bought supermarket basil, I repotted it in excellent compost, but it wilted and died despite me caring for it. IMO it’s best to buy it from a nursery (if you have one near you) because they actually look after the plants until they’re sold instead of just throwing them away when the ‘sell-by’ date comes.
I hate the fact that they come with ‘sell-by’ dates for f’s sake, it’s a plant!!!
I grew basil this summer, some from a nursery and some from seed, in a huge pot in the back garden. Parts of the stalks started to get this brown discoloration, a bit like it was rotting or something – the brown parts would then go really thin, causing the stalk to snap – looked like it got infected with some sort of disease…
I’ll have to give it another go next year, maybe in a mini greenhouse this time…
I’m thinking of buying some strip lights too for indoor growing. I have visions of being grassed up by some do-gooder informer, then the police raiding my house at 3am, discovering an entire room completely full of plants, thinking “yes! result!” then walking out shame-faced when they realise it’s basil and sage
One good thing about supermarket herb ‘sell by’ dates, though, is that the plants sometimes get sold off cheaply after this date. My mum bought about 30 basil plants for 10p each from Tesco in 2006. Planted them in her window box and her bathtub-full-of-soil, amongst a load of cherry tomato plants, and they thrived. That year was a happy year – I must have eaten about a kilo of basil.