Gloriously delicious Two Fat Ladies’ Tomato summer pudding

This is originally from one of the Two Fat Ladies cook books but is now completely owned by Miss Laura Venning and should really only be enjoyed on a sunny Glyndebourne lawn while glugging champagne (the half empty bottles fall over, don’t you know)  before roast fillet of beef then profiteroles….

 

Fresh plum or vine tomatoes: enough to overfull the pudding basin you will use
Salt and pepper

Sugar
Tomato passata
Lemon juice
Worcester and Tabasco sauces
Good stale Italian bread, decrusted and sliced
Garlic
Good olive oil
Large bunch fresh basil Dip tomatoes in boiling water and peel. Chop roughly with salt, pepper and tiny bit of sugar. Pour some passata into soup plate and season with lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and touch of Tabasco. Soak bread slices in this mixture and line bowl with them, leaving no cracks or crannies. To tomatoes, add crushed garlic, good measure olive oil and lots of basil leaves. Pour into bread-lined bowl. Seal top with more soaked bread. Place receptacle on top with weights and leave overnight in fridge.Serve with quails’ eggs, olives, peppers, capers, and sour cream or good home-made mayonnaise.

Thomas’s tomato and red pepper soup

8 plum tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
4 v large red peppers
50ml groundnut oil
200ml water
100ml extra virgin olivec oil

Heat large pan, add tomato and red pepper and cook until they caramelise (1/2 hour), blend with water, add olive oil, serve with chopped basil

Pizza topping + base

Slow cook tin of chopped plum tomatoes with handful of basil, chopped garlic, splash of white wine vinegar and 1tbsp of sugar until you have paste consistency. Then spread on pizza bases and add mozzarella.

Base (makes two pizzas):

500g plain flour
2 heaped teaspoon of easy-blend dry yeast
Tsp salt
300mL warm water
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Gazpacho

2 tins tomato
6-8 spring onions
1/2 cucumber
2 green peppers
1 small clove garlic
thick slice white bread
4 tbsp olive oil
11/2 pts chicken stock/water
1 tsp caster sugar
3 tbsp wine vinegar
2 tbsp parsley garnish
seasoning

Large bowl. Tomatoes, onion, cucumber, peppers, garlic, oil in. Soak bread in 2 tbsp water for two minutes; squeeze and in. Blend to a coarse purée. Then stock, sugar, vinegar etc. Chill very well.