Five Minute Lasagne

We have only had baby tomatoes ripen so far this year but we have millions of them. So when I spotted a bargain box of BIG juicy ripe tomatoes on a visit to the Sunday markets, I couldn’t resist.  A week later, I have fused my trusty food dryer, made  barbecue sauce, hands off chutney, raw tomato sauce, ratatouille and ratatouille flan, smoked and dried tomatoes and there are still some of them  awaiting my attention.

There is nothing like a glut to bring out some creative cooking. I have a very strong memory of the first time my Italian friend Luana, cooked lasagne for me many years. I have never asked her for the recipe - we always have so much else to talk about – but here is my version of what I remember.

It will take you less than five minutes to assemble and about forty minutes to cook. There are no amounts for ingredients, decide what size dish you want to make and keep on layering.

Deceptively simple, this is a light, fresh, elegant way to serve lasagne. The juices in the bottom had me sucking at the baking dish (á la Nigella!) before I did the dishes... Luscious!

Lasagne sheets

Large fresh tomatoes, sliced thickly

Fresh basil, whole leaves or torn

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

White wine

Begin by putting a very thin layer of white wine into the bottom of a dish.

Add lasagne sheets to cover.

Layer by covering with fresh tomato slices sprinkled with basil, drizzled with a little olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. Only use a couple of leaves for each layer or the taste will be overpowering.

Continue for at least three layers of pasta, more of you like, ending with a layer of tomatoes.

Cover with foil, making sure that the foil does not touch the tomatoes as it will dissolve the aluminium. (Yuk!)

Bake 180C for 40 minutes. Remove foil and check pasta for doneness by piercing with a skewer. Allow to rest for ten minutes before cutting.

If desired, grill for a couple of minutes to brown the top.

Serve with freshly grated parmesan.

Scarlet - a bean for all seasons

A bee enjoying the nectar

An arbor of Scarlet Runners

The whole month’s rain falling in half an hour heralded the first day of autumn here, leaving everything refreshed and sparkling. The season of ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness’ is my favourite and often one of the busiest as I squirrel food away by drying, bottling, preserving and freezing the summer’s crops.

The cooler nights have seen the end of the zucchinis, the tomatoes are now past their best and the peacharine, the very last of the stone fruits, is ready for picking. As most of the garden retreats from the cold and shortening days, the scarlet runners have perked up no end. Washed by the rain they are a bright spot of colour on these gloomy days.

Scarlet Runner Beans originated in South America, in Guatemala and Mexico. These rapid climbers were popular in England until the late 19th century when people began to choose the dwarf varieties of beans to grow in their smaller garden plots.

In frost free areas Scarlet Runners will develop tuberous roots much like a dahlia and will reshoot every year. This gives them their other popular name: Seven Year Beans. They grow vigorously when they receive regular watering. This year in my garden they have excelled themselves, traveling beyond their seven foot high (sorry, I’ve never got metric measurements right and Nerys will probably edit this when she sees it!) chicken wire trellis and have climbed into the plum tree where I need a ladder to harvest them!

They are best picked every day but don’t fret if you miss a day. They are delicious eaten young, raw or steamed, whole or sliced. Once they reach 10- 12 inches (!) they develop a tough ‘string’ as the beans inside start to form. These can be stripped out of their pods and cooked as fresh whole beans. The surprise is their colour. My 1905 vegetable book describes it as ‘liver overlaid with red wine’ – mine are much nicer and more modern every shade from a sassy hot pink to lilac streaked with a deep purple. Unfortunately, the colour fades with cooking. They can be used to make fabulous minestrone soup.

Once they stop flowering and begin to die back, you will discover fat, mouldy looking pods hanging everywhere. Bring them in, pod the beans and spread them on a paper covered tray in a single layer and leave them in a warm spot until they are hard and dry. You now have a supply of dried beans for the winter similar in taste and texture to borlotti beans that are fabulous in Mexican and Italian dishes.

My permaculture mates tell me that the tuber is also edible but I couldn’t bear to dig mine up to try. Has anyone tried this?

Our 12 bean plants feed us for nearly six months of the year and are a visual delight too. Next year we are planning to build them an arbor to climb upon from the trellis to the shed. With a little training we should be able to have beans hanging down like wisteria so we can pick at head height in a green bean tunnel.

I am happy to share seed if people in W.A. would like some. Seed Savers should be able to provide it for Eastern staters.

Wishing rain to all of you who need it, happy gardening.

The Pleasures of Summertime Farm

Do you like our new banner? It's the view down the lane leading to Summertime Farm where we have been staying for the past two months and is the home of my daughter and her partner.

The joy of living as gypsies (as we do) is that you have the benefit and pleasure but none of the responsibilities of sharing other peoples gardens and animals for a while--although we agreed to look after the chickens during our stay.

What a joy that has been! One of the Featherfoot Bantams was broody when we arrived and she hatched five of her eight eggs to disclose these little beauties. It's been such fun watching them grow and learn...she is the most fantastic mother although I just went to turf them out of the tractor shed where machinery was being moved around them!

Another pleasure is the vegetable garden. I picked these little beauties yesterday, smoothed and gently rolled them in a luscious blend of olive oil, basil, oregano and garlic. I placed the in a baking tray, sprinkled them with salt flakes and coarsely ground black pepper and ....

took them out of the oven when they were beginning to split and turn colour.

I also cooked mushrooms over a fierce heat and when they were brown I gave them a good slurp (technical term!) of soya sauce and sizzled them for a minute or two.

These, with grilled beef patties (tell me if you want the recipe), and homemade tomato sauce, were both part of my now-almost-famous Turkish Burgers that we had for dinner. The blokes here weren't used to being offered burgers for dinner and looked dismayed but minutes later, with sauce and mayonnaise running down their chins, they were moaning gently with pleasure and checking up if there would be 'seconds'. very pleasing for the cook :-)

There was one beef patty and a few of the tomatoes and mushrooms left over so today I fried a chopped onion, added a healthy slurp (that word again!) of red wine and the toms and mushies with their rich juices. I chopped up the beef pattie and added this with some spicy tomato sauce, simmered for a minute or two and...dinner for tonight with pasta.