Here’s a magnificent way to cook the large, heirloom tomatoes that are plentiful and (relatively) cheap in the Northern Hemisphere from now into September. These handsome fellows are obviously inspired by various Greek, Italian and French etc. ways with rice-filled, slow-baked tomatoes, but I’ve included gentle hints of saffron and chopped artichokes to the base of wholegrain rice, bolstered with generous amounts of herbs (N.B. dill and oregano are the stars of the herbs here, but you could definitely replace the latter with dried and add or swap in mint or basil for the parsley).
This, frankly obscene, brownie recipe has taken many recipe-testing sessions to perfect; it’s rich, salty (a good thing) and decadent and consequently, I’ve been wheeling it out at every celebration for well over fifteen years. Little quirks such as scattering some of the added chocolate across the base of the tin, so that it caramelises upon baking, make all the difference.
… The amaretti base – so much easier than faffing with pastry - is essentially a crumble mixture, and can be used as such, if you don’t fancy slicing or arranging apples. It works well with rhubarb and raspberries too, in crumble form. The alchemy here lies in slicing the apples finely enough that they soften and part-caramelise in the oven, as the buttered-almond base firms up…
A fritter for making use of that high-summer bounty, homegrown or not, and a good strategy for getting more, colourful vegetables on the plate generally – veg fritters go so well with chopped salsas (such as the lightly-pickled cucumber one, below) and leafy/tomato/lentil/wholegrain/potato salads. Swap in any plain flour for the chickpea flour, as needed, but I do like the chickpea flour option for flavour, higher protein and gluten-free credentials (useful, when cooking for others who might require that option).