Recipes From My Travels - A starter and main course with tomatoes at the centre of them

Chef Paul James writes for our paper.

Hopefully by the time you read this I would have been in London and competed in the Mutti Pomodoro Golden Tomato Cook, national competition 2022  and been crowned the winner, so many thanks to everyone who voted for me….

If I haven’t been to London…..why didn’t you vote for me? Joking….

Anyway if you had seen last week’s publication or indeed online you would have probably seen the tomato and lemon cheesecake I created for the dessert section of my menu.

So here I’ve given you the remaining two dishes to complete my menu.

I hope you enjoy making them, it really is amazing what you can do with some tomatoes.

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Basil and tomato granita starter course 

Ingredients 

1 400g tin of Mutti chopped tomatoes

1tbsp sugar

1 garlic clove , finely minced

1tbsp non-alcoholic red wine

Salt and pepper to taste

A chiffonade of basil leaves picked gently from the stalks

Pinch of finely chopped parsley for garnish

Method

1. Place a sieve over a bowl and tip in the Mutti Chopped tomatoes.
2. Once the sweet liquid of the tomatoes goes through the sieve, start to gently push the flesh of the tomatoes with the back of a spoon. You can use an electric mixer if you like but i wanted to keep it simple, cooking is about nostalgia and fun….and most importantly the respect of the ingredients that you are using.
3.  Once this is done add the minced garlic, sugar, red wine (use alcoholic if you wish) and the basil leaves. Gently mix and season to taste if you desire.
4. Next get yourself a sided tray, I used a shallow metal tray and placed it into the freezer for half an hour, just to bring the temperature of the metal tray down before the tomato mix is added. Doing this in my experience gives any Granita a little head start once it starts the freezing process.
5. After half an hour take the tray out of the freezer and pour in the tomato mixture which has been taking in all of the flavours while it’s been waiting for tray to go cold.
6. Cover with cling film and place back into the freezer until you can see it freezing around the edges, but still slightly slushy in the centre.
7. Using a fork gently break the ice into into smaller crystals.
8. You then need to repeat this process every half an hour for at least four times until it has frozen and the texture resembles that of finely settled snow.
9. Spoon into a glass and sprinkle with a finely chopped garnish of parsley.

Polpette di papa with Orzo and Parmesan – main course

Ingredients for Polpette 

2 slices bread

200g of milk

500g Steak mince

1 egg

100g Ricotta

1 bunch of chopped parsley

50g grated parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Ingredients for the sauce 

1 tin of 400g Mutti Polpa Finely Chopped Tomatoes

1 brown onion, chopped

1 clove garlic finely minced

2tbsps of extra virgin olive oil

Non alcoholic red wine

2 bay leaves

Water

Salt and pepper to taste

75g orzo pasta

Method

1. Add the milk into a bowl,  break up the bread and drop it into the bowl for ten minutes.
2. Then In another bowl, add the steak mince,  egg, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, parmesan and ricotta.
3. Squeeze the milk out of the bread, then add it to the polpette mixture and gently combine all of the ingredients with your hands.
4. Once you have combined all of the ingredients, in the palm of your hands roll out the polpettes into small marble shaped balls.
5. Place the polpette into the fridge while you are preparing the sauce.
6. Heat a frying pan up with a little olive oil and gently cook the onions until they are soft and translucent. Then add the minced garlic and gently fry for another minute or so.
7. Remove the polpettes from the fridge, add them to the onions and gently fry them until they are golden in colour.
8. Then add the wine and slightly reduce down (if you are using alcoholic red wine reduce down to nothing).
9. Add the bay leaves, the tin of Mutti plum tomatoes and water.
10. Bring to the boil, then simmer on a low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally until the polpettes are thoroughly cooked.
11. In a bowl add the orzo and boiling hot water, after 10 minutes drain and put the orzo in the sauce. This will help thicken the dish. Once thickened, serve in a warm bowl with Parmesan shavings and a sprinkle of fresh basil.