Hello lovely subscribers!
Summer looks to be over in a flash, but thankfully we’ve still got a couple of weeks of summer produce left to sink our teeth into whilst we mourn the loss of sunshine.
This week’s newsletter is dedicated to probably the Queen of Summer Produce - the tomato! You’ve got a tomato butter spaghetti, as well as a really lovely tomato and walnut tart for the paid subscribers. Paid subscribers will also get my recommendations for a gripping TV show, an excellent restaurant and my favourite cosy winter candles. If you’d like access to the paid stuff, why not give your subscription an upgrade?
Grateful for you all, as always.
Sophie x
The Recipes
Tomato Butter Pasta
Some pretty timeless flavours are going on in this speedy dish. You use cold, cubed butter to emulsify the tomato juices, and create a luscious, creamy sauce. Emulsification is just a fancy pants work for binding oil and water together to create something creamy and silky - think mayo, hollandaise or a vinegarette. Or indeed, a tomato butter pasta sauce.
A perfect midweek dinner when you need a bit of comfort.
Serves 2
2 cloves of garlic
250g cherry tomatoes
1 tsp Aleppo chilli flakes
60g cold butter
200g fusili bucata lunghi or spaghetti
handful of fresh basil leaves
20g parmesan
salt, pepper and olive oil
Bring a large pan of water up to a boil. Season it with salt as though it were a soup.
Peel and finely slice your garlic. Halve your cherry tomatoes.
Heat a saute pan over a medium-low heat, and add 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add your garlic and Aleppo chilli flakes, and cook it for about 30 seconds, until the garlic is fragrant but not taking on colour.
Tip your tomatoes into the pan, and give them a mix. Let them cook down for 5 minutes, squishing them down with your wooden spoon as they soften to release their juices.
Get your pasta into the salted water, and cook it for 2 minutes less than the packet tells you to.
Cut your butter into cubes, then get these in with the tomatoes. Give it a mix to emulsify it. What will form is a creamy, shiny sauce.
Add your cooked pasta straight into the sauce with tongs, along with a splash of pasta cooking water and your basil leaves. Give it a good mix to bring it all together.
Tong your pasta into bowls, and sprinkle over grated parmesan and a little black pepper. Serve it up.
Tomato and Walnut Tart
I went on holiday to Georgia a few years back, and I am still crazy about the flavours I ate there. Walnuts feature in virtually everything, and the aniseed tang of tarragon and bitter ground fenugreek also take centre stage. Tomatoes get a look in too.
This tart is very much inspired by all the flavours I encountered on that holiday. The umami of slow roasted tomatoes does lots of the heavy lifting here, and the sweetness is a TREAT with the bitter, earthy notes. It also happens to be accidentally plant-based, though any avid carnivores would hardly notice. It packs a lot a flavour, don’t you worry.