Welcoming Tomato Season with ZZ2

Words: Crush

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Summer is nearly upon us in South Africa and with it the promise of long summery days and big, juicy, sweet tomatoes. Bliss! Tomatoes are such an adaptable, versatile fruit. Delicious served fresh, roasted, sun-dried, pureed, chopped… you name it!

One of the things we love about a tomato is that it’s perfect at every stage of ripeness — a crisp tomato is perfect for a salad or sandwich and a delicious, sun-ripened juicy tomato is the best for oven roasting or preparing in sauce. If you haven’t got round to using all your tomatoes, the last thing you want to do is throw them away. They’re still absolutely perfect, you just have to know how to use them properly.

Welcoming Tomato Season with ZZ2

While we prepare for peak tomato season, we’ve developed these four recipes to show you just how many ways there are to prepare a tomato. From a classic marinara sauce, to a fresh salsa, to scrumptiously charred and served on toast, the tomato’s deliciousness knows no bounds.

Charred Tomato & Lemon Cottage Cheese Tartines with Fried Basil

These tartines (stacked toasts) are so easy to make and are the perfect brekkie or brunch. We’ve opted for a creamed cottage cheese as this is more budget friendly and is lovely and light. To extend the cottage cheese even further you could opt to add in a few tablespoons of double cream yoghurt. The ZZ2 tomatoes add lots of flavour and juiciness to this dish.

Ideal if you’re serving a crowd as the ingredients are simple and last well if prepped ahead of time, making assembly a breeze.

Get the recipe Charred Tomato & Lemon Cottage Cheese Tartines with Fried Basil

Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce

A marinara sauce is a basic staple in most Italian households. It’s extremely versatile as it can be tossed through pasta, spread over a pizza base, used for melanzane or as a base for a meatball dish. It’s a great way to use an excess of tomatoes as it can be jarred and kept in the fridge or frozen for use at a later date.

We recommend… serving this over a bed of linguine with fresh basil leaves or basil pesto and a decent amount of grated Parmesan.

Get the recipe for Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce

Zaalouk with Fried Halloumi and Toasted Pita Bread

Zaalouk is a Moroccan eggplant and tomato salad that is often served as a dip or as part of a spread of small plates or tapas. It’s full of aromatic spices and olive oil and is delicious served with fried halloumi or scooped up with toasted pita bread wedges. A wonderful dish to hero ZZ2 tomatoes.

We’ve added a sprinkle of crushed pistachio nuts over the top for a extra texture.

Get the recipe for Zaalouk with Fried Halloumi and Toasted Pita Bread

Tomato & Black Bean Salsa with Corn Chips

No fiesta would be complete without salsa, it’s the quintessential dip to scoop up with corn chips and also works as an accompaniment or sauce for a variety of different dishes like nachos, burritos and quesadillas. It’s simple to make and goes a long way. We’ve added black beans to up the protein content and add flavour but you can opt to leave those out if preferred.