Match made in Heaven

The Italians have got so much right (and arguably so much wrong!) - but when it comes to food combinations, they are certainly masters. We all know the simplicity of a tricolore salad (sliced tomato, mozzarella and basil) which, with the right quality ingredients, can never fail. Ditto the even simpler combination of tomatoes, basil, olive oil and bread. It can come in the form of panzanella (a bread-based salad) or even simpler, as a bruschetta. Panzanella requires a little more time, but a bruschetta can be made in the blink of an eye (or a glug of cold Pinot Grigio!). All you need is some continental style bakery white bread (ciabatta or anything similar), some good cherry tomatoes (essential that they have been grown somewhere hot, despite the food miles argument - with tomatoes they have to have hot sun to get the depth of flavour required) and fully flavoured fresh basil. The other vital ingredient is a  gutsy green-tasting olive oil - and a twist of rock salt.

I found the olive oil in the picture in Tesco. It is 'Il Casolare unfiltered extra virgin olive oil', bottled by Farchioni. Although it is a blend of oils it has a lovely balance of flavour - slightly grassy peppery but smooth too - and comes in an attractively rustic re-usable bottle which helps justify it's slightly higher price. The tomatoes are 'piccolino', widely available in supermarkets. The bread was bought at our local bakery and coffee house, The Bridge Bakery in Whaley Bridge, but similar can be found easily in supermarkets - you need a firm, moist, holey bread but ciabatta can always be your back-stop. Sour dough bread also works well. 

All you have to do is cut a slice about 1cm thick and toast it (on an Aga or Range cooker is ideal), or a griddle, but a toaster will do just fine too. Cut in half and then drizzle the oil generously over it with a twist of ground salt. The oil will drop through the holes onto the plate which is just fine. Take a handful of cherry tomatoes and cut them in half with a serrated knife, then tear a generous handful of fresh basil leaves over them. Eat the toast while forking the tomatoes, washed around in the olive oil on your plate, into your mouth. The yeasty neutrality of the bread, softened and enhanced by the salty, peppery, unctious oil, is the perfect counterpoint to the crisp sweet tanginess of the tomatoes and the green cloviness of the basil. Heaven. 

The frequent addition to this ideal combination is fresh garlic scraped across the toasted bread. But when the basic four ingredients are as good as this, then any such in-your-face enhancement is mere confusion. And anyway, I'm at a concert tonight and don't want to distract the audience from the joys of the music by hideous garlic breath! 

This simple meal was enjoyed with a small glass of water, a (very) small glass of white wine, and topped off with an expresso coffee - all very Italian - while I was equally enjoying the all very English tennis at Wimbledon.

Now I'd better get on and do some work - BUON APPETITO!