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Recipes: Fresh, Seasonal & Simple

Celebrated award-winning chef Luca Ciano and Executive Chef for the ‘Longest Tomato Lunch’ has shared two delicious tomato inspired recipes – for our virtual festival this year.

If you want to explore more of Luca’s recipes click here. Stay in touch @cheflucaciano.  

Recipe: Cherry Tomatoes & Burrata Salad with Parmesan Crostini

Serves 4
Prep 10 mins
Cooking time 5 mins
 
Ingredients
2 punnets red cherry tomatoes, cut in half
10 basil leaves, torn
30ml extra virgin olive oil
4 x 80g burrata cheese
100ml ‘Chef Luca Ciano’ White Balsamic + Fig dressing
Salt & pepper
 
Crostini
2 slices of left-over bread cut into 1-2cm dice
2 garlic cloves, crushed
20ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs fresh parsley, finely chopped
30g parmesan cheese, grated
Salt & pepper
 
Method
1. Place tomato into a bowl with 2/3 of the fig dressing, basil and salt, stir well to combine
2. Add olive oil into a frying pan, when hot add garlic and cook for 2 minutes, then add bread and cook on a low heat till golden in color, keep stirring till they are ready.
When ready remove frying pan from heat, add parsley and parmesan and keep stirring till cheese has melted onto the bread, quickly remove ‘crostini’ and place onto a plate. Discard garlic.
3. To serve - place cherry tomatoes onto a plate, burrata cheese on top, garnish with ‘crostini’ and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and more fig dressing.
 
Watch easy to follow video
 

Tagliatelle ‘alla Marinara’ with Pangrattato

Serves 4
Prep 10 mins
Cooking time 10mins
 
Ingredients
1 x 300gr packet ‘Chef Luca Ciano’ Fresh Egg Tagliatelle
1 jar ‘Chef Luca Ciano’ Marinara sauce
250g seafood marina mix (or any of your choice)
3 tbs ‘Luca Ciano’ extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper
 
Pangrattato
100g Panko breadcrumb
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon dry chilli flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon dry oregano
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 lemon, zest grated only
Salt & pepper
 
Method
Pangrattato
 
Step 1. Add tbsp of olive oil to a frying pan, when hot, add garlic and cook for 2 minutes, then add breadcrumb and stir constantly until golden. Remove from heat and add chilli, oregano, fresh parsley, lemon zest, add a little salt and pepper.
 
Pasta
1. Bring plenty of water to the boil, when boiling add salt (about 3-4 litre water and 7g salt per litre)
2.  Add oil into a large frying pan, when hot add seafood and cook for 2-3 minutes, season.
3. Then add Marinara sauce. Simmer for 2-3min.
4. Cook pasta for 1-2min, drain when ready and toss with sauce for 1 minute, serve immediately with a generous sprinkle of pangrattato.
 
Watch easy to follow video
 
 

Preserving Tomatoes: tips from The Diggers Club 

Summer offers an abundance of fruit, vegetables and herbs suitable to preserve and use throughout the rest of the year. Tomatoes are a classic choice, but you can also preserve a wide variety of other garden favourites. Here are a few suggestions to help you make the most of your peak summer harvest.  

Tomato preserving is a time when family and friends come together to celebrate a bountiful harvest. Passata Day is traditionally held in January throughout Australia, although up North this may be closer to the middle of the year. An Italian tradition, it typically involves deseeding, chopping, boiling, and jarring passata for use throughout the year... and it’s followed by a delicious lunch, of course. But don’t be confined to passata as your only means of preserving tomatoes. Tomatoes can be bottled whole, chopped or blended, they can be dehydrated or semi-sundried and preserved in oil, they can be made into tomato sauce (as in ketchup, not pasta sauce), and even reduced to a thick paste. Whatever you choose to do, don’t forget to enjoy a few fresh too! 

Tomato Preserving Tips 

One of the simplest ways to preserve tomatoes using the Fowlers Vacola system is to roughly chop your ripe tomatoes and press them down firmly into a clean dry jar. Fill to about 1.5cm from the top and place a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice on the surface. Place the ring on the jar and firm down the lid with a Vacola clip. Bring to temperature slowly and maintain system at 92 degrees for 45-90 minutes depending on the size of your jars. 

Remove to cool and then store in a cool, dark, dry cupboard. 

For more information from The Diggers Club on preserving other fruits and vegetables click here.