Tomato Tonnato

Few recipes are truly original but this twist on the classic vitello tonnato from Ed Smith of Rocket and Squash, using tomatoes as the base instead of roast veal is just inspired.

It comes from his brilliant book On the Side which, as the title suggests, is all about side dishes.

Ed writes: This might seem a surprising combination, but a fishy, umami-rich tonnato balances tomato’s natural acidity beautifully, punctuated by a sprinkling of salty and sour capers. I’ve enjoyed this with veal chops, pork belly, monkfish and cod, and I’m sure there are many other fine matches.

You’re likely to have some tonnato sauce left over, but it’s not efficient to make it in a smaller quantity. Happily, it keeps well for 2–3 days if covered and refrigerated. Use it to lubricate cold meats or roast lamb or as a flavoured mayonnaise in sandwiches. The tomatoes must be at room temperature and sliced thinly so that there’s plenty of cut surface area for the sauce to cling to.

Time needed: 30 minutes to an hour

Serves 6

6 medium (about 500g) tomatoes

2 tablespoons capers

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Tonnato sauce

50g tinned anchovies in oil

160g tinned tuna, drained (120g drained weight)

2 teaspoons fish sauce

1 garlic clove, chopped

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

3 egg yolks

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

100g light olive oil

First, make the tonnato sauce. Put the anchovies with their oil, along with all the other sauce ingredients except the olive oil, in a blender or small food processor. Pulse, then blitz for about 1 minute, or until smooth. Add the olive oil in a steady drizzle until the mixture has completely emulsified and is smooth and glossy. Transfer it to a bowl and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour. It will firm up a little in that time – not essential, but nice.

Spoon 4–5 tablespoons of the tonnato sauce over a large serving plate. Slice the tomatoes thinly and layer them on top of the sauce. Add a good grind or three of black pepper, and just a little salt (the sauce and capers are themselves quite salty). Sprinkle the capers over the top and serve.

What to drink

I drank an albarino with this on one occasion and a dry rosé on another. Both worked really well, as would most unoaked Italian white wines.

Extract taken from On the Side: A Sourcebook of Inspiring Side Dishes by Ed Smith (Bloomsbury, £20)

Photography © Joe Woodhouse

Raw cauliflower, mushroom and feta salad

This delicious salad is inspired by one I ate in a brilliant fast food restaurant called Food Chain in Montreal last year. They shred the vegetables to order then serve them in bowls with an accompanying dressing and topping (mixed seeds in this case).

You pour over the dressing when you’re ready to eat which keeps the salad crunchy and fresh.

I thought it would be easy to recreate at home and it is. You just need to slice your vegetables really thinly. For two I’d suggest using a mandolin - for larger numbers a food processor with a slicing attachment. Needless to say your ingredients need to be super-fresh. This is not a salad to make with the fridge leftovers!

Serves 2 as a main meal, 4 as a side

1 small or half a medium red or sweet onion* (about 50g)
Half a medium-sized cauliflower (about 250g)
A good big handful of flat leaf parsley
125g button mushrooms
100g feta cheese, crumbled
Mixed seeds (optional)

For the dressing

2 tbsp lemon juice
Grated rind half a lemon (about 1 tsp)
5 tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

First make the dressing. Put the lemon juice and rind into a bowl with a little salt and plenty of black pepper and whisk in the olive oil. (Or shake all the ingredients together in a screw top jar

Peel the onion and slice finely on a mandolin. Discard any chunkier pieces. Soak the onion slices in cold water for 10 minutes then drain and pat dry.

Break the cauliflower into large florets removing the thicker parts of the stalk and mandolin them too

Chop the parsley coarsely removing any tougher stems

Wipe and finely slice the mushrooms

Put all the ingredients in a large bowl together with the crumbled feta. Whisk the dressing again and pour it over then toss all the ingredients together. Sprinkle with seeds, if using. Eat immediately.

What to drink: I see this as a healthy post-weekend option so I personally would drink sparkling water with it but you could serve a glass of crisp dry white wine like a Picpoul de Pinet or an albarino.

Seamus Mullen's kale salad with apple, toasted pecans and yoghurt and dill vinaigrette

I've never really 'got' kale but this delicious salad would convert anybody. AND it's healthy too!

I've added some notes about how they've adapted the recipe at Mullen's restaurant Sea Containers. Given that fresh herbs are scarce and expensive at this time of year you might also want to cut back on the number you use (apart from the dill).

Kale salad, apple, toasted pecans and yogurt and dill vinaigrette

Serves 4

1 bunch Cavalo Nero, Dinosaur kale or Tuscan kale

A handful of dandelion leaves if available

1 oz spiced, caramelized pecans*

1 apple, thinly sliced (they used Golden Delicious, apparently)

1 small serrano chile, sliced as thinly as possible

1/2 an avocado, cut into 1/2” pieces

2 oz yogurt and dill vinaigrette (see below)

a good handful of fresh herbs - Mullen recommends cilantro (coriander), basil, dill and mint. Gus, his sous chef, used chives, parsley and chervil

For the yogurt and dill vinaigrette:

1/2 cup (4 fl oz) full fat yogurt or kefir

1 clove garlic, grated

6 tbsp fresh dill

zest and juice 1 lemon

1 tbsp champagne or moscatel vinegar

1 tsp honey

1 cup (8 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil

salt

fresh ground pepper

Combine all ingredients except oil, whisk together, then drizzle in oil until emulsified.

Process

Strip the leaves off the stalks and cut the kale into a paper thin chiffonade. Combine all the ingredients, season with salt and pepper and plate in a small bowl (see above. (I suspect you need to let it rest for half an hour or so to soften as you do a slaw.) Garnish with fresh herbs and fresh cracked pepper.

* in the recipe Mullen says "toasted in brown butter, tossed in sugar, cayenne, ground coriander and sea salt" but his chef Gus says he dips the nuts in whisked egg white, rolls them in a mixture of onion and garlic powder, cayenne, curry powder, salt and turmeric then roasts them briefly at 165°C. Or use any spiced nuts recipe you like. Or buy them ready made.

What to drink: I found an Austrian grüner veltliner paired very well with this but so would an apple juice. (See my pairings for kale).

Obviously the picture at the top of the page looks more stylish but yours - and mine - will look more like the dressed salad in the bowl.