I work with a great team of people in my day job, and one of the things we do quite regularly is swap recipe ideas. This one is a recipe from my friend Donna – she brought this in for her lunch one day and we all did that thing where we no longer wanted to eat our sandwiches after seeing what she had! This is really a summery recipe, but given the glorious weather we’ve been having I thought I’d share it so that you can savour the last of the sun before autumn sets in properly. It takes a bit of time to cook but is SO worth the effort.

Ingredients

Serves 8

900g of tomatoes, halved
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 sprigs thyme
75g fresh breadcrumbs
75g pine nuts
2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp finely chopped chives
100g feta

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 120 degrees Centigrade. Lay the tomatoes cut-side up on a roasting tray. Mix the garlic with 3 tbsp of the oil, brush over the tomatoes and season. Roughly tear the thyme over the top then transfer to the oven for 2 hours until very soft and slightly wrinkled.

2. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in a large, non-stick frying pan and add the breadcrumbs. Cook for 1-2 minutes until golden then add the pine nuts. Cook for a further 1-2 minutes then remove from the heat and stir through the herbs.

3. Spread two-thirds of the breadcrumb mixture over a serving plate and top with the tomatoes. Sprinkle over the remaining mixture then crumble over the feta.

We served this with some chicken, which was delicious! Yum 🙂