Tomatoes three ways: a quick and easy pasta sauce

Those of you who don't grow tomatoes may never have had cause to consider what to do with green tomatoes. It's not something I'd ever thought much about in the past. But the tomato plants in our office balcony garden were being chopped down, and were still covered in green tomatoes that had never got the chance to ripen. It seemed a shame to let them get thrown away.

I'd heard of green tomato chutney, and of course the Southern dish of fried green tomatoes (as in the 1991 film of the same name). I'm sure they're lovely, but they're not really a meal in themselves. Often when I think of tomatoes I think of pasta, so I decided to see what a pasta sauce might be like with green tomatoes.

It was really good, and incredibly easy. I combined the green tomatoes with tinned red tomatoes to balance the acidity, with some chilli and garlic for extra flavour. The slices of green tomato looked so beautiful that I didn't want them to get completely lost in the sauce, so I griddled a few separately and served them on top (that's the third way in the title of this post).

The green tomatoes softened quite quickly, and didn't taste as tart as I had feared. Next time, I might add some fresh basil leaves at the end.

Ingredients

1 tin chopped tomatoes
6 medium green tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small dried chilli or a good pinch chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Any pasta you like, enough to serve 2
Grated parmesan, olive oil and/or fresh basil to serve (all optional)

Method

Chop four of the tomatoes roughly and slice the remaining two. Chop the garlic finely. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the garlic, then the chilli two minutes later. Fry for another 30 seconds, then add the chopped green tomatoes, the tinned tomatoes and oregano. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the green tomatoes have softened and the tomato sauce has thickened. Add plenty of black pepper.

Meanwhile, put the pasta on to cook according to packet instructions.

Next, heat a ridged griddle pan and put the sliced green tomatoes on it. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until softened and with blackened stripes on each side.

Serve the pasta topped with the sauce and then the griddled tomatoes. Tastes good just as it is, but feel free to add some grated parmesan, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or some fresh basil leaves as you serve it.