Roasted Tomato Recaudo

I remember being very small and watching the little tele that my granny had at the time, there was really not much to watch or do and for some reason that day there were no cousins around to play with, then I remember I started smelling the aromas coming out of the kitchen.

I went in there and asked my granny what she was doing, she would reply in a very loving way as she always did and invited me to come and look, and to me it was like well there is nothing else to do so why not! I continued to do the same every time I was at her house ever since, and I loved all the rituals and preparations that involved making lunch for the family.

But there was one thing she made almost daily if not daily that strike me the most, and it was her recaudo, that concoction of skinless tomatoes, garlic and onion blended really smooth looked so simple and yet it seemed to go on everything.

She would use this to enrich the flavour of her soups, or as a part of a more complex sauce, or to make red Mexican rice, or a spicy salsa that would be served on the table alongside everything else, sometimes the recaudo was the sauce itself that she would use to serve over stuffed poblano peppers or lightly battered and fried cauliflower.

I immediately fell in love with the simplicity and all the flavour this “recaudo” was bringing to so many dishes, my Mum knew this very well too since she would follow the same steps as my granny to cook for us.

This very simple recipe is very dear to me as it not only holds so many memories but has also become part of my everyday cooking, and I must say that now I can’t live without it either!.

You will be finding this in so many of my recipes, now what I like to do it’s to make a big batch of this and then keep a big jar in the fridge, in this way I can use it during the week in my cooking. Optionally you can also freeze this in portions so you know there is recaudo at home when you need it, and let me tell you this not only makes preparing your meals much quicker but it adds a lot of flavour as well.

To make my recaudo I like to use different varieties of tomatoes for extra tomatoey flavour and I roast them with rapeseed oil and Maldon salt, I add a few garlic cloves and onion or spring onions. The tomato flavour concentrates and gives this recaudo a special touch, also there is no need to remove the skin it’s al blended really smooth and it saves you much needed precious time.

Makes 3-4 cups approx.

Ingredients:

2 beefsteak tomatoes.

5 vine tomatoes.

300 grams of cherry tomatoes.

5 garlic cloves.

1/2 white onion

1 tbsp rapeseed oil.

1 tsp maldon salt.

Method

Preheat your oven at 200 C

Cut your big tomatoes in half or quarters, peel your garlic cloves and chop your white onion roughly.

Get a medium size baking dish and add your cut tomatoes and whole tomato cherries, garlic cloves and onion, drizzle the rapeseed oil on top and add a good pinch of Maldon salt, bake this for about 50 minutes until your tomatoes, garlic, onions are cooked through and soft, remove from the oven and let it cool down.

Place your tomato, garlic, and onion mixture into a blender, then add 1 cup pf hot water into the baking dish where you baked your tomatoes, scrape all the flavour from the Botton and add that water and tray juices to the blender.

Blend smooth and pour your recaudo into a jar with a sealed lid, you can reserve this on your fridge for up to 1 week, alternately you can freeze for up to 1 month.