Tomato, cheese and polenta cake.

In my last post, I was extolling the virtues of the wonderful types of tomatoes on offer at this time of year. Multiple sizes, multiple colours, it’s hard to know which ones to go for when you have such an array in front of you. What I didn’t mention is that raw tomato is one of the very few things  I don’t like to eat.

Ever since childhood, there’s been something about the texture and feel of raw tomato in the mouth I really can’t take to. If finely chopped I can just about manage them. But if you ever make me a salad please don’t be offended if I move them to one side.

Other childhood dislikes have long since become favourites. Broad beans used to be the devils own vegetable as far as I was concerned. They tasted horrible and the texture was pretty unpleasant as well. Now they’re the highlight of any plate I find them on. Even better if they’ve been freshly dug from my dad’s allotment. Coffee was another thing that for years I just couldn’t understand. A strange and bitter taste seemed to linger in the mouth after just a sip. It changed at some point in my teens and ever since I’ve been happily sliding into caffeine addiction. 

Thankfully it’s only raw tomatoes I have the problem with, once they’re cooked, skins softened and juices released, I love them. They’re a kitchen staple and if I’m cooking from scratch invariably one of the first things in the pan.

Last weekend a new way of using them opened up to me, as I discovered tomato cake. 

The Feast supplement in Saturday’s Guardian is always one of the highlights of my weekend. Most issues contain at least one recipe that shoots straight to the top of my ‘must bake’ list and this week was no different. The recipe in question being a heritage tomato, goat’s cheese and polenta cake by Ravinder Bhogal.

I made a slight tweak, changing the goat’s cheese for feta, as I had some in the fridge I wanted to use up. In general, I think this is a recipe you can play around with to your heart’s  content and I’m already planning a version with some sweet Romano peppers added to the tomatoes. This does make quite a moist cake, so probably best to keep it in the fridge if you’re going to be eating it over a few days.

Ingredients

• 75g unsalted butter – softened
• 450g tomatoes – you’ll get the best look and flavour to the cake if you use an array of different types.
• Sea salt & black pepper
• 125g plain flour
• 75g polenta
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• Zest of a lemon
• 100g cheese – finely grated. Ravinder uses a hard goat’s cheese. I used feta
• 100ml olive oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 heaped tsp of sesame seeds.

Method

• Heat the oven to gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.
• Cut the tomatoes in half, sprinkle with sea salt and leave them in a colander to drain
• In a bowl mix all of the dry ingredients together
• In a mixer cream together the butter, tahini, cheese and oil until pale. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until smooth. Then fold in the dry ingredients.
• Spoon half the batter into the tin then add half of the tomatoes. Add the rest of the batter then the remaining tomatoes, pressing them down slightly. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds.
• Bake for 45 minutes. A skewer inserted into the cake should come out clean.
• Let the cake cool before removing it from the tin.