What is not to love about some of the weirdly specific cookbooks out there?
You're going to hear about one that Yumi found that is so weird, and so niche, she will obviously never cook from it! Lol.
THEN, there is the wonderful 'Tomato' by Claire Thompson. The book is a celebration of this wonderful ingredient and all that it can do, and from the book a recipe that is now officially Yumi's Summer Fling / Crush, and yes, we will be having it over and over. (I even dehydrated a version of this without the fresh mint and took it hiking. It slapped.)
PEEL 1kg of fresh tomatoes.
(Do this by marking criss-cross in the bum of the tomato with a sharp knife, dunking the tomato for about 30 seconds in a pot of boiling water, then dunking the tomato into an ice bath. The skin should come off easily after this,)
Fry up 2 cloves of garlic in 2tbs of oil. (I skip the garlic.)
Add in a chopped fresh red banana chilli or 2.
Add in the peeled, loosely chopped tomato.
Season well with salt and pepper.
Cook down for 12 minutes. In the last 30 seconds, add 1/2 tsp mint.
TO SERVE: Spoon the tomato mixture onto a lipped platter. Fry up 2 more tbs of good olive oil with 2 more cloves of chopped garlic, add in 2 tbs (I add a lot more: 1/3 cup) of pine nuts. Drizzle this mix over the top, adding in as much freshly torn mint as you want.
PS. I discovered this dish exists in Sami Tamimi's wonderful cookbook 'Falastin' as a dish called Galayet Banadoura that is pretty much exactly the same, including the need to peel the tomatoes!
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