Tomatoes were the first vegetable that I ever tried to grow, and I’ve always been amazed at how resilient they are. They’re surprisingly easy to grow and with a little T.L.C. and regular watering, you can end up with a lovely little crop of jewel-red (or yellow) beauties.

This summer has been great for my 4 tomato plants as the weather has been so hot and sunny, and I have also been around to water them regularly in that time. I’ve loved being able to nip out to be garden to grab a couple of ripe tomatoes to have with dinner. It’s really tough to beat the flavour and sweetness of home-grown tomatoes. They’re delicious enough on their own, in a little tomato salad or salsa, or chopped/grated and served Catalan-style on some crusty bread with garlic.

This is a perfect lunch, snack or starter and has a lot of delicious flavour without overwhelming the tomato – the tomato really is the hero here. Pan Catalan takes me back Barcelona where most tapas restaurants serve it at the start of a meal. It’s a taste of summer as we hang on to the last of the warm weather here in London.

Ingredients

Fresh tomato

Fresh garlic

Crusty bread

Salt & pepper

Method

Toast the bread and rub with the fresh garlic. Load on the grated/diced tomatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.