Whip It Up - Mozzarella with Tomatoes and Basil

The suggested theme for this week's Whip It Up is fresh produce, which gave me a chance to give my new cookbook a test-run. Actually I think I probably would have found an excuse to use the book whatever the theme. We have a glut of tomatoes at the moment - all ripe, juicy and plump, so I decided on a tomato dish. I was after something simple, without much effort, that would be versatile enough for me to give it my own spin. I'm not very obedient and I'm not very good at sticking to a recipe - I always have to fiddle with it. The dish that fit the criteria was Nigel Slater's Saint-Marcellin with Tomatoes and Basil. Here is the recipe as in the book (although I've paraphrased some of the instructions)

Ingredients (serves 2)

• tomatoes - 4 medium
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• a couple of bush sprigs of basil
• 2 small easy melting-cheeses such as Saint-Marcellin

Set the oven at 200C. Cut the tomatoes in half horizontally and lay them cut side up in a dish. Sprinkle with olive oil. The oil should not completely cover the bottom of the dish, just lie in puddles on and around the tomatoes. Crumble over a little sea salt and grind some black pepper over.
Bake for about thirty to forty minutes, until the tomatoes have softened and are lightly browned here and there. Tear the leaves from the basil and scatter them over the tomatoes and place on top of the tomatoes.
Return to the oven for five minutes or so until the cheese melts and some of it runs into the oil. Serve, immediately with hunks of crusty bread to spread the molten cheese and tomatoes on.

One of the changes I made is pretty obvious, or at least it is if you read the subject of this post. I couldn't find Saint-Marcellin (in fact, I have never even heard of it) but thought mozzarella would work. Also, I wanted to serve this as a starter, so instead of using regular tomatoes I used plum tomatoes - enough to cover the bottom of a baking dish when sliced in half. I also have a deep abiding love of balsamic vinegar, so sprinkled some over the tomatoes just before adding the basil and cheese. I served the dish by simply placing the baking dish straight on the table with a couple of spoons, and a fresh loaf of ciabatta, letting everyone help themselves. And it was delicious. We particularly enjoyed using the bread to soak up all the delicious juices left in the dish once all the tomatoes had been scoffed.

This is definitely a dish I'll add to my repetoire. Simple and delicious it made good use of the tomatoes which are in abundance this time of year. While making it with plum tomatoes made a perfect starter, next time I think I'll make it with regular tomatoes and toasted french bread and serve it for lunch.

Comments

[RA]

Lovely! Like a dip-able caprese salad.