baked meatball with tomato sauce

Despite its simple form and style, there are considerably some efforts needed to prepare this. First off, prepare the meatball. Here’s how.

Then prepare the tomato sauce. Here’s how.

Finally, pre-cook the meatballs halfway on a pan (by pre-cook I mean half-way or ¾ way since they will be baked inside the oven later). Prepare a square baking dish, pour the tomato sauce into the dish, place the meatballs in, top with some sliced cheddar or grated parmesan or shredded mozzarella and bake until the cheese has melted, about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with bread.

Perfect for a lazy night of cooking. (provided the meatballs are prepared earlier and making the tomato sauce is no longer considered as troublesome chore)

roasted tomato soup

There are many variations on how to prepare tomato soup, and by far, this is my most favourite and the easiest with the least ingredients. I love serving this with baguette, the crunchy outer texture compliments the rustic taste of the soup.

Serves 4

1kg ripe cherry tomatoes

4 large tomatoes

4 cloves of garlic

4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 small red onions

a small bunch of fresh basil

extra virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Prepare a medium roasting tray. Preheat oven to 220 degree C. Quarter the large tomatoes and together with the cherry tomatoes, put all into the roasting tray. Drizzle over a good lug of olive oil season with salt and pepper. Crush and peeled the garlic and toss into the roasting tray. Put in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

In the meantime, peel and roughly chop the onions and put in a hot saucepan with a few lug of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Sweat the onion for a few minutes without browning over low heat. Stir the balsamic vinegar, turn up the heat to medium and let it cook away and reduce down. Take the tray of tomatoes out of the oven and add everything into the pan of onion.

Carefully pour everything into a blender, add the basil (reserves some for garnishing) and whizz to a fairly rustic consistency. Serve in a bowl, optionally topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and the reserved basil.

spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce

There is nothing more beautiful than the sight of a fresh, fully ripen plum tomatoes. The blessed tropical weather that we have means that having fresh tomatoes is an occassion we savour all year round. The dish has a thick creaminess that you can never duplicate with canned plum tomatoes, no matter how good or expensive the are. There is an ideal instant, a tell-tale sign, for serving this sauce: when the tomatoes soften and all of their juices are in the pan, the sauce will suddenly begins to thicken. At that moment, at its’ peak, another minute or two later will result in the juices evaporating and, although the essence of the sauce is equally intense, it won’t be able to coat the pasta well. Observe the sauce as it cooks, but should it happen, just add a little olive oil or butter to the finished dish.

Serves 4

8 medium-sized fully ripen tomatoes (cored and roughly chopped)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

one shallot, minced

a good slab of butter, about 4 tablespoons

400 grams spaghetti or linguine

a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water. Melt butter in a skillet of a saute pan, add the garlic and shallot and fry for a minute or two over medium heat. Add the tomatoes, cook, stirring occasionally until the tomatoes begin to juice up, then turn the heat to low and continue to stir until the sauce thickens. Season the sauce to taste. Once the pasta is cooked, drain, and toss with the tomatoes and cheese.

Variation:

• Add some shrimp when together when frying the garlic and shallot just before adding the tomatoes
• Add a few branches of basil, remove them just before serving and stir in about half cup of roughly chopped basil leaves into the pasta
• Toss the pasta with about a cup of cubed fresh mozzarella
• Add dried chilli to taste along with the tomatoes to install a bit of heat into the pasta

**A note on preparing fresh tomatoes: Always core fresh tomatoes before being used (remove the cone-shaped wedge from the stem end). Peeling is optional – but if the tomato skin is an issue, simply remove it by blanching (score the bottom end of the tomatoes, drop the tomatoes into hot boiling water for 30 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon into a bowl of cold water and slip the peel right off the score marks). Alternatively, you can also fish out the skin as the sauce simmers; it automatically separates from the flesh.