Fantastico Tomatoes !

Today’s Saturday Swot Shop was going to be on slugs but as the Celebrity Jungle has been slitheringly full of slimies I thought we’d skip that and instead take a look ‘Fantastico – Modern Italian Cooking’ by newly crowned Jungle King, Gino D’Acampo.

If not beans, rice and the unthinkable what would be Gino’s dream menu?

‘Effortless but sexy dishes’ and the promise that ‘Italian food is like Italian men, minimum effort, maximum satisfaction.’………..

(Just a little pause for old work friends reading this to catch their breath after struggling to recall a polenta’s grain of truth in that particular maxim!)

So how do tomatoes fit in ?

Over 100 recipes, 12 indexed tomato references but more popping up throughout the book especially in sauces and salsas.

Pasta dishes:

• Linguine all’ Aragosta – Luxury pasta with lobster and cherry tomatoes. Linguine, lobster and a sauce made from olive oil, garlic, fresh red chilli, white wine, fresh parsley and halved cherry tomatoes.
• A Moroccan style pasta. Pappardelle, fresh chopped plum tomatoes, onion, cinnamon, cumin, chickpeas, toasted flaked almonds, fresh parsley & coriander.

Tomato Sauce:

• When it comes to tomato sauce Gino’s take is ‘skin and seed included’ (which ticks the effortless half).
• Spicy tomato sauce, cooked up from chopped plum tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, red chilli (fresh or flakes) accompanies both Deep Fried Risotto Balls and Devilled Oysters ( that’ll be the sexy half ).
• Tinned cherry tomatoes also feature as the base for sauce which includes red onion, anchovy, fresh parsley and olive oil.

Salsa:

Fresh from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s salsa declaration (they need an Allium edge from shallots/spring/onion) Gino’s Chicken in Breadcrumbs is accompanied by salsa made from plum tomatoes, pitted black olives, basil leaves and olive oil.

What evero! It seems salsa pairs well with meat or fish in breadcrumbs.

Roasted:

Being a roastie fanatic I can just feel my fork going into the charred component parts of  Patate All’Ortolana. Potatoes, yellow peppers, shallots and cherry tomatoes on the vine roasted with rosemary and thyme. Yum.

Bruschetta:

It wouldn’t be Italy and it wouldn’t be tomatoes without …
Bruschetta – here Bruschetta Classica with olive oil, plum tomatoes, basil and garlic.

Onions and Garlic:

And then, whilst under Jungle conditions, I’m sure he wouldn’t have given a kangaroo’s…..  in his book he shares his rule on the importance of understanding the unique flavours of onions and garlic and not cooking them together in the same dish. A principle passed on by his head teacher when first making tomato sauce at catering school.

I wonder if that’s a general rule applied by Italian chefs ? Something to cross reference in other Italian cookery books.

So that’s Gino’s Fantastico Tomatoes. In addition to which he more than deserves a very large slice of Sticky Banana and Chocolate Tart served with vanilla ice cream. When he describes it as a fantastic way to end a meal, one drooling look at the accompanying photo and it’s difficult to disagree !