Main ingredients
Tomatoes recipes
Fresh in summer, tinned the rest of the year.
22 recipes
Pasta alla Norma
Fried aubergine folded through a simple tomato sauce with torn basil and salted ricotta, which is the ingredient the dish stands or falls on.
Borscht
Beetroot and cabbage soup built on beef broth, with the grated beetroot added late and with acid so it stays red.
Roast Tomato Soup
Tomatoes roasted hard with garlic until the edges blacken, then blitzed, so the flavour concentrates instead of thinning out in a pan of stock.
Slow-Braised Beef Shin
Beef shin browned hard then cooked for hours at a bare simmer, until the collagen melts and the meat falls apart under a fork.
Shakshuka
Eggs poached directly in a spiced tomato and pepper stew, cooked and served in the one pan so the yolks stay hot to the table.
Slow-Cooked Beef Ragu
Coarse beef mince browned in batches then held at a bare simmer for three hours, finished in the pan with the pasta.
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
A store-cupboard sauce of anchovies, olives, capers and chilli melted into tomato, salty enough that it needs no cheese and barely any salt.
Zharkoye
Beef, potato and root vegetables braised slowly in one pot until the meat pulls apart under a fork.
Minestrone
A chunky vegetable soup built on a slow soffritto, with beans and small pasta simmered in the broth so it thickens as it stands.
Simple Tomato Sauce
Tinned tomatoes crushed by hand and cooked slowly with garlic until the oil splits back out, which is when the sauce is done.
Chickpea and Spinach Stew
Dried chickpeas cooked from scratch and thickened with fried bread pounded to a paste, which is how Seville gets body without cream.
Golubtsy
Cabbage leaves rolled around seasoned mince and rice, then braised slowly in tomato and soured cream.
Gazpacho
A chilled Andalusian soup of raw tomatoes, cucumber and pepper blended with bread and olive oil, which is what turns it creamy rather than watery.
Pork and Fennel Meatballs
Pork mince bound with a milk and bread panade and toasted fennel seed, browned in a pan and finished in tomato sauce.
Shchi
Cabbage soup simmered in meat broth, made sour with sauerkraut in winter and with fresh cabbage in summer.
Slow-Cooked Black Dal
Whole urad soaked overnight and simmered for hours until it turns black and glossy, then finished with butter and a little cream.
Chicken and Prawn Paella
Bomba rice cooked flat and never stirred in a wide pan, which keeps the grains separate and toasts a crust onto the base.
Salted Tomato Salad
Ripe tomatoes salted twenty minutes ahead, then dressed with the juice that draws out of them rather than plain oil.
Beef and Ale Stew with Herb Dumplings
Chuck steak simmered in dark ale until it gives, with suet dumplings steamed on the surface of the pot for the last half hour.
Solyanka
A thick sour-salty soup of mixed cured meats, brined cucumbers, olives and lemon, built on their brine as much as stock.
Classic Margherita Pizza
Three toppings, nothing hidden — this is the pizza that shows whether your dough is any good.
Sausage and Bacon Breakfast Bap
Sausages cooked slowly from a cold pan, bacon crisped in their fat, and the roll toasted on its cut face so it holds together.