Tomato & cheese muffins

There’s something strange about my relationship with tomatoes. They’re one of the items I cook with most often. Chopped, diced or pureed, they find their way into so much of what I make. I’ll happily hunt out cans of San Marzano, tinned tomatoes so good you can use them as a sauce  without really needing to add anything else. But offer me a raw tomato to eat, something ever more likely to happen as we move into the summer months, and I really won’t thank you for it.

It’s probably more the texture than the taste, but on the relatively short list of food items I don’t like, raw tomato comes top. If I don’t want to offend someone who’s included them in something they’ve made for me, I’ll slice and swallow without chewing. If I’m feeling more relaxed you’ll find a little pile at the side of my plate when I’m finished.

All of this leads me to a muffin recipe where tomatoes play a central role. I made these last week and after posting some photos I’ve been asked to share the recipe.

It’s one of those recipes where you can easily use what you have to hand. The cheese, flour and dried herbs are all variable options.

Ingredients

• 80ml Olive oil
• 20g Parmesan or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese..finely grated
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 eggs
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 100g plain yoghurt
• 125g cheese..75g crumbled & 50g cubed..The suggested cheese is Feta, but any hard cheese you have to hand will work
• 80g cherry tomatoes, quartered..plus another 6 halved
• 180g flour..I used Spelt flour but plain white would work perfectly well
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 0.5tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200c gas, 180c fan or gas mark 6.
• Grease and line a six-hole muffin tin.
• Mix the oil, parmesan, tomato puree, oregano, eggs, salt, yoghurt, crumbled cheese, quartered tomatoes and a little ground pepper. Then add the flour, baking powder and bicarb. Use a wooden spoon to mix until everything is combined.
• Divide the mixture between the six muffin holes. Top each with two tomato halves and two chunks of cheese.
• Bake for 15 minutes, then leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes. After that transfer the muffins to a cooling rack.
• The muffins keep well for a couple of days in an airtight container. They can also be frozen if you want to keep them for longer.