TERIFFIC TOMATOES!

After a wonderful lunch in Dublin on Friday, we popped into town to our favourite shops.  I headed to Fallon and Byrne - and loaded up on lovely things.  Their tomatoes were like those  I imagine all you lucky Australian, American and Continental European readers take for granted - but which are unusual on these shores, even in the summertime!  (unless you grow your own)  I bought loads and had some on toast for supper - but I felt that something more was needed in homage to their wonderfulness!!!

I decided upon filo bundles - I painted my sheets of filo pastry with a good extra virgin olive oil (think I'll try melted butter next time), layered them up  and cut them to size.  I spread some Carluccio's black olive tapenade (the best thing ever to come in a jar) on each.  I then chopped up some tomato and placed it on the tapenade and finally adorned this with a teaspoon of mascarpone and two teaspoons of grated parmesan cheese (although I didn't bother with grating the cheese!), salt and pepper.

I then gathered up the edges of the filo to make money bag type bundles, painted with some more of the olive oil, sprinkled with some maldon salt and hey presto:

I was really delighted with the way this dish turned out, there was a lovely contrast between the crunch of the pastry and the soft meldingness (!) of the cheesy tomatoes.  The deeply flavoured juices flowed onto the salad when the pastry bundle was cut into, making the best dressing ever!

This dish is definitely a keeper, next time I might make them a bit smaller - I made four bundles from a packet of filo - six would have been perfect.  I think that pesto would be a good replacement if there were no tapenade to hand, and maybe some caramelised onion would be good too.


Tomato Filo Bundles

1 packet filo pastry (270g)
2 tbsp (heaped) black olive tapenade
6 medium sized tomatoes or equivalent
6 tsp  mascarpone cheese
12 tsp grated parmesan cheese
extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 180 C


Cover the pastry you are not working on with a tea towel.
Prepare the pastry by painting  a sheet with oil or melted butter and covering with another sheet and repeating the process.  I used my pastry three sheets deep.  Cut to size - mine were 25x25cm - but  25x15cm might be better.
Spread the center of each pastry with the tapenade (or pesto) and then one chopped tomato and one tsp mascarpone and two tsp parmesan, and a grind of pepper.
Pull up the pastry around the tomato mixture to make bundles.
Paint with some olive oil and sprinkle with some maldon salt.
Bake for about 15 - 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.
Serve on a very lightly dressed salad bed.

Enjoy.