Simple Black Russian Tomato Pasta

What is this?  A recipe!?  I actually LOVE cooking, but barely have time to do it.  Normally I love to cook curries and rich sauces the most and play with the balance of flavours and nuances.  So this recipe is incredibly simple, because I was dying to use my Black Russian tomatoes that I had ripening in the boiler cupboard.

Depending on your screen you might not be able to see the full, gorgeous colouring of a Black Russian tomato.  It is not simply red but a deep, rich pink, with a dark brown, almost black pattern on the top.  Interestingly, as you will have seen previous posts, they grow with a darker green section on top prior to ripening, rather than being all the same and changing post ripen.  (see below)

Oh look its Triplette!

So, you can obviously change this around and add more into it if you like, but I found the flavour of these tomatoes was so strong and perfectly complimented the onions.

Ingredients: (Serves 2 as a small portion accompanying pasta, feel free to adjust levels to suit the number you are catering for)

- 3 Large Black Russian Tomatoes - Make sure they are fully ripened as the top ripens later than the bottom

- 1 medium or large onion (I used a brown onion, and we only use large ones because we love onion)

- Fresh or frozen peas (or sweetcorn if you have any, I sadly had run out!) - I use a large amount, approx. 2 cupped handfuls, but it depends how much you like them, and I also used frozen ones in this particular case

- Ground cumin

- Ground tumeric

- 1 generous teaspoon Garlic, ginger & chilli paste (we always have a ton of this made up for curries, but basically chop equal amounts of these 3 ingredients finely and blend into a near-puree state.  You can keep this in the fridge in an airtight container for around a month, but its best used fresher if possible).

- Fresh coriander leaves and stems, torn into smaller pieces

Instructions:

- Chop up tomatoes into small pieces (I like the skins so I never take them off, but some people don't, so feel free to skin them at this point)

- Heat oil in a pan on a medium-low heat and chop onion

- Add the tomatoes first so that they sear slightly

- Add the ground spices, garlic, ginger & chilli paste and stir to mix into and coat the tomatoes

- Add the chopped onion (as I said, if you're not a big onion fan, add less/a smaller onion)

- Stir in onion so this is also coated with spices.  If you are looking to go spicier this is the time to add any optional extra chopped chillis or powders, so that they mix well with the oil and the other spices
- Boil some water in a separate pot, add a vegetable stock cube and cook some pasta (appropriate amount for however many you are serving).  Typically I like mine served somewhere between al dente and mush, but you can obviously adjust according to how you like yours

- Add peas - I used frozen, so as they heat up, they provide water to the sauce.  If you are using fresh, you will need to add some water to thicken into a sauce

- After adding the peas cook for a minimum of 5 further minutes, add fresh coriander torn up until wilted, and serve on top of the pasta.  You can also add basil but I didn't have any ready because I'd harvested much of it the night before for a different meal. 

If you want a more sauce-like sauce, cook for longer and add more water.  I served with the onions still a little on the more crunchy side, because I feel it better compliments the flavour of this particular tomato.

My tomatoes were very high in flavour, so I only needed three to get a big impact, and they balanced nicely with the strong onion flavours.  I highly recommend growing this variety to anyone who hasn't tried them before.  They are a delight to grow and even more delicious than they look.  They have a rich, tangy flavour and go far in terms of flavour strength.  I haven't tried them raw yet, but I imagine their colouring would add interest to a salad dish.  I fed the plants weekly while growing fruits.

Peas

So this pea planting and string cage idea worked out really well!  Even the ones which are growing away outside of the string can either be tucked back in or they use their tendrils to cling on.  The peas are producing really well and I'm harvesting every few days.

My latest harvest, which joined courgettes, tomatoes, cashews, chillis, spinach and home-grown coriander leaves in a stir-fry with some delicious chilli noodles (The Sharwoods ones that actually have chillis inside the noodles).  I admit, some may have just made the pea skins in...as I scoffed the peas out of the fattest ones before I started cooking ;)

Also just realised this placemat is really gorgeous as a background!

Yummy Peas

Well, I recently planted some new peas (Variety Avola).  Peas are the one thing that I've already had a decent harvest out of this year so far.  I had germinated them in cell trays and then re-potted into smallish pots of around 15cm diameter, placing around 3 plants in each (some were mixed in with broad beans instead)  They grew well and produced well too, but the heat really got to them (and the slugs got to the broad beans) so I lost them all.

But around a week ago, I planted some new pea seeds, but I don't plan to re-pot at all, I've just planted them in block form in a huge pot (almost a foot diameter), and they're growing incredibly well (and fast) together.  I've also constructed this net to give them some support, its designed to be looser at the top so that it can expand when they get higher.  I'm hoping to get some production out of them before it gets too cold, but I'm hopeful because Avola in my experience is a quick grower and producer.  If this works well I think I'll continue to plant them in this block style format, because it seems so far that they're doing better than the 3-to-a-pot strategy.