Thursday 9 August 2012

No , Not "The Christmas Carol". This Is About Tiny Tom .



Sonata:

I'm so proud ! My backyard pots , full of wavering sun-starved tomato plants , have finally yielded a red-ish cherry tomato !!

So I may still not need a giant canning kettle like this one in Lehman's catalogue




nor can I bring armfuls of pomodori into the kitchen like Larissa Bertonasco's nonna , but I can dream




And meanwhile , I'll just go to the market tomorrow and buy a big bag of Roma tomatoes from the paprika man instead . Then I'll cook the chicken with green peppers and tomatoes from her lovely book "La Nonna La Cucina La Vita " about summers in Liguria with her Italian grandmother ... to cook : chop a small chicken in 8 pieces , brown it in olive oil , add garlic and rosemary , followed by 4 green peppers and 4 big , peeled tomatoes cut in chunks and splash with white wine . Then simmer for 30 minutes . I haven't tried it yet but it sounds , like many of the simplest recipes , certain to succeed and I'm already looking forward to mopping the sauce up with a chunk of ciabatta .


P.S. The Lehman's catalogue is full of ingenious gadgets and must-haves ... a sort of Amish version of the Lakelands Plastics catalogue . While I was looking for their Canning and Preserving section , I came across their Humane Mousetrap that could trap up to 20 mice at one time ! In what hellish circumstances could one ever need it ??

11 comments:

Lucille said...

My plants have not yielded one edible tomato. All diseased. All hopeless. Will have to go to the market like you.

colleen said...

You have a paprika man? Marvelous! Blessings to be counted!

There will be more tomatoes.

Marcheline said...

There's a guy where I work that has a huge garden (apparently). He's always bringing baskets of green beans, tomatoes, hot peppers, and basil and leaving them for us to take home.

I asked him to bring me some green tomatoes (so I could make fried green tomatoes) but, as he's not a Southerner, he brought me tiny green Roma tomatoes and not green beefsteaks, which is what you really need. So... I left them in a bowl near the window, and as they ripen I'm eating them with olive oil and salt and pepper and basil leaves from my own garden.

Too, too delicious!

love those cupcakes said...

Now you've named him, you can't eat him. Can you?

Rattling On said...

I like the look of that catalogue, I prefer industrial to fancy on the whole. My mouse is still living in the greenhouse, I'm happy for him to be out there...

Friko said...

Those mice would have a wonderful time in the mousetrap, they'd be breeding like billy-o.

Tomatoes? Outdoor tomatoes? Not here.

Liz Hinds said...

We have loads of tomatoes!! Husband's one success veg wise.

I always tend to use red peppers now when cooking, although I used to use a Katie stewart recipe for chicken and green peppers. Must dig it out again. Let us know how it turns out, please.

Pam said...

We don't like tomatoes very much which saves us the bother of trying to grow them. Congrats on your retirement. Mine has so far been a touch on the exhausting and emotionally draining side, but I hope yours is better.

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Liz , I really liked the chicken cooked like this , lovely mop-up-able sauce ... Husband didn't . But it does depend very much on the tomatoes you can get hold of. Next time I'm going to try using about 10-12 cherry tomatoes halved and stirred in about 5 minutes before it's served , instead .

Planet Penny said...

That Mouse trap is SERIOUSLY worrying!

rachel said...

As a soppy mouse-releaser, I would worry about just where to take them to give them their freedom!