today is mother's day here in norway. as i was thinking of what recipe to make featuring tomatoes i recalled from my distant childhood a dish my late mother often made when my parents were entertaining- scalloped tomatoes.
we were 7 kids so my mother was always wishing she had more hours in a day. one the sayings we heard most often was i only have two hands! she tended to make uncomplicated dishes. her favorite cookbook was i hate to cookbook by peg bracken, first published in 1960, the year i entered kindergarten. the theme was how to make good food quickly and easily. i don't know if she got her scalloped tomatoes recipe from that book but the tomato side dish was a favorite with us children and the guests alike.
i am making this from my memory of how she did it about 50 years ago so it may not be particularly accurate.
she used canned plum tomatoes but i prefer making food from scratch. therefore i decided to make two versions, one with fresh tomatoes and one with canned. she used ready made croutons but i am using 'old' bread.
recipe for both versions:
3 ripe medium tomatoes cut in half and then sliced
and
1 can of plum tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1 bowl of mixed bread- white and whole grain, cut into cubes
100 g / 4 oz cheddar chhese
75 g / 3 oz butter (no substitutes)
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp dry thyme
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp kashmiri chili powder (my mother never used it.
kashmiri chili is only mildly pungent but adds a wonderful flavor and color. if you can't get it then just omit. i wouldn't recommend using a hot chili type here.)
first melt 1/3 of the butter in a frying pan over medium heat. stir in the chili, pepper, basil and thyme and cook for a minute. add the bread cubes stirring regularly to coat them with the spiced butter. cook until lightly toasted
preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F
remove the bread and in the same pan melt the remaining butter. stir in the chopped onion and sautee until glassy. stirring occasionally. meanwhile slice the fresh tomatoes.
since i am making two versions of this, when the onions started to become transparent i removed half of them and set them aside. stir in the sliced tomatoes to the onions left in the pan and cook until much of the liquid evaporates as in the photo below
add half of the bread cubes, cheese and brown sugar.
in a separate bowl i mixed the canned tomatoes with the remaining cheese, bread cubes, onions and brown sugar.
i then placed the two versions on separate sides of the same baking dish and sprinkled a little more chili powder on the fresh tomato side. bake for 30 minutes
enjoy!
the canned tomato version was closer to how i remember the taste of my mother making it but i think she might have put some of the bread cubes on top to make it a little crunchy.
@hindavi and i both agreed the version with the fresh tomatoes was best. half the sugar would have sufficed.