I Say Tomato

It’s been a long time coming but the tomatoes are ripening all at once and the cupboard is filling up fast - 16 at the latest count. The recent warm spell has done the trick. I love Autumn with its mild days and soft light. Time to plan for winter and spring and my wife has already put some Dutch iris and tulip bulbs into the ground. Cineraria will be going in shortly for some winter colour.

Getting back to the tomatoes, I don’t want to waste any of them. I enjoy them served up as bruschetta, on lightly toasted ciabatta bread with shaved parmesan topped with tomato, a little finely chopped raw red onion, salt pepper and some roughly torn fresh basil drizzled with olive oil. So simple and delicious.

A staple pasta dish I cook is a great way to use up tomatoes and the sauce can be made ahead and frozen for future use. Onion, garlic, dry white wine, salt, cracked black pepper, olive oil, chopped tomatoes and some gentle simmering is all you need to make a lovely sauce base for seafood served up with a pasta of your choice.

Adapted from a spaghetti alle vongole (clams) recipe in an Italian cookbook we own, I use prawns instead of the clams and fettuccine instead of spaghetti. Lots of fresh parsley and basil from the garden is added at the end of cooking to finish the dish.

Try it once and you'll soon find this recipe will become a staple of yours too.

Fettuccine with prawns, tomatoes and white wine.

Ingredients

4 tbsp olive oil

1 brown onion, very finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, very finely chopped

400g chopped home-grown tomatoes*

2/3 cup dry white wine

1 cup of water

300g prawns peeled and de-veined (or substitute seafood of your choice, but heck, you can leave it out and go veg if you like)

Fettuccine (or pasta of your choice)

Good hand full of chopped parsley leaves

Good hand full of fresh basil (sweet, lemon or a combination of the two) roughly torn

Salt and cracked pepper to taste

Method

Heat oil in heavy based saucepan, add onion and gently saute stirring frequently for 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute for an extra 2 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, wine and water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, give it a stir and turn the heat low. Cover pan and gently simmer the for 40 minutes stirring occassionally. The original recipe says simmer for 20 minutes but I found the extra time really draws out the flavour of the tomatoes and delicate sweetness of the onion.

In the last 20 minutes of cooking boil water and cook pasta according to packet instructions. Drain pasta when cooked. Raise the heat on the sauce and add prawns, cook until they're done (should only take about 5 minutes).

Stir in parsley and torn basil. Serve with the pasta and a glass of dry white wine.

Some home-grown tomatoes prior to going under the knife.

Cheers.

*This dish works really well with good quality tinned tomatoes too. I prefer Annalisa brand Italian peeled tomatoes.

Spain Garden Special

Some time ago I promised a Spain garden special featuring photos from the trip to Europe in late August/September last year. My desire to show these pictures has been spurred on since reading Dee Nolan's wonderful book A Food Lover's Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (published by Penguin, Lantern). I knew I had I had to have this book after hearing Dee Nolan interviewed last year on the 'Dirty Deeds' gardening program on Melbourne independent FM station 3RRR (102.7). Her pilgrimage route took her from Arles in southern France (which I revisited after twenty years) to Santiago de Compostela in north western Spain, not far from the fishing port of Finisterre, thought in medieval times to be at the edge of the world.

The book takes on a number of themes, one of a personal emotional journey for the author but also looks at the importance of caring about what we eat and how food's produced. I find Nolan's approach to food affirms the importance of growing one's own and that's ultimately about having the freshest seasonal produce at hand, food that satisfies body and soul. An edited extract from the book can be found here, from Qantas The Australian Way magazine, December 2010.

Nolan's book focused on green and wet northern Spain and I may not walk the camino but I would really like to sample some of the places on the route. In contrast, our trip took in the sunnier places many would be more familiar with; the vibrant capital Madrid, Granada with its stunning Moorish architecture and buzzy Barcelona by the Mediterranean.  Whilst it was a short trip we took in the time to look at parks and gardens, and the highlight of the whole trip had to be the Alhambra and to see one of the most beautiful gardens in the world, The Generalife.

Here is just a tiny selection of photos (we took heaps). I hope you enjoy and take inspiration from them as I have.

Rose garden, Parque de el Retiro, Madrid.

View of the magnificent Alhambra from the Albaicin, Granada.

On the walk up to the Alhambra.

Blue spikes of salvia, Patio de la Acequia, The Generalife, Granada.

The narrow pool and water spouts adds sparkle to the Patio de la Acequia.

Water spout, The Generalife.

Water is a key feature in the gardens of the Alhambra and The Generalife and an intricate irrigation system keeps its pools and fountains full. The Escalera de Aqua stair bannister doubles as an aqueduct that carries water down hill water to a lower section of the garden. I think I want one!

Near by the Nasrid Palace of the Alhambra.

Court of the Myrtles, Nasrid Palace.

Court of the Myrtles - simply stunning.

A Nasrid Palace courtyard, so cool and inviting on a hot summers day.

I love the incorporation of the greenery in the Font Monumental, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona. Apparently Antonio Gaudi worked on it as an architecture student. He's the man behind the ambitious and yet to be complete Sagrada Familia. Love him - or hate him as George Orwell did - he's left a mark on the city in more ways than one.

You would be forgiven for mistaking this for the entrance of a surrealist's theme park. Not quite, but the entrance to Guadi's Parc Guell, Barcelona. Interestingly, I see elements of the Font Monumental here.

Parc Guell. Love the use of bold strappy plants.

Palms complement the terraces.

Ok, perhaps it is a surrealist's theme park after all.

Cheers.