Tom foolery
Recipe #155: San Marzano tomatoes with anchovies, capers and oregano
I’m hot
How many calories do you burn putting on a duvet cover in this week’s heat? 800? 8000?
Recognising that you might not wanna be in the kitchen that much this weekend, this month’s dish is San Marzano tomatoes with anchovies, capers and oregano.
10 minutes of prep with a few great ingredients. 2 hours in the oven unattended. 1 great little dish with bags of flavour.
This week’s album: Dragonfly by Ziggy Marley
Named after the David Bowie character, Ziggy is the oldest son of Bob Marley and, although he might forever be in his father’s shadow, he still makes great music. This one’s an alternative reggae album with influences of hip hop, rock , jazz, African music, dub and soul. They all make for a great sound, but it’s Marley’s captivating voice that keeps you locked in.
A nod to our past
There are hints of previous EMW recipes in this week’s dish.
First off, we’re using San Marzano tomatoes - the famous tommy that hails from Campania and is the foundation of pizza sauces in Naples. It has a firm and thick flesh, sweeter taste, fewer seeds, and is perfect for slow cooking as it’ll hold its shape while its sweetness intensifies.
We’ll then add salty anchovies and capers which will contrast the sweet tomatoes, before finishing everything off with copious amounts of extra-virgin olive oil.
Your end result would work really well alongside BBQ'd meat and fish, but also on bruschetta or carefully cut into smaller pieces and served on crostini with an aperitivo.
What you need
The below serves 4. It takes 10 mins to prep and 2 hours to cook (all unattended).
5 San Marzano tomatoes
1 garlic clove
1 small bunch of thyme
6 tbsps extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp sugar
30g anchovies (best quality)
2 tbsps capers
1 tsp dried oregano
Sea salt & black pepper
Ready, steady, cook
1. Preheat your oven to 140°c/120°c fan.
2. Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise and place on a baking tray. Season with a good pinch of salt, some freshly ground black pepper, and half the olive oil. Use your hand to evenly spread the oil and seasoning over each tomato.
3. Lay the tomatoes cut side up and, to each one, add a thin slice of garlic and a small sprig of thyme. Place in the oven and cook for 2 hours. Go watch some Glasto.
4. When done, allow to cool to room temp. Whilst cooling, roughly chop the capers.
5. Transfer the toms to a plate, add an anchovy to each, then sprinkle over the chopped capers and dried oregano. Drizzle over with the remaining olive oil.
NOTE: this final bit might seem like a lot of olive oil but it’s an important part of the dish and the abundance means you really taste it alongside the sweet tomatoes.
Final thought
Vegetarian or not a fan of anchovies? Swap ‘em out for black olives.
Stay cool.
Speak next week.
Fraser