You Say Potato, I Say Tomato by Gregor Law

I created this thinking it would make a good side dish, but in fact it makes a great lunch dish or even a simple midweek supper. It looks really appetising because of the roasted overlapping tomatoes, which taste great because their wonderful ripe flavour has been concentrated in the oven, while the potatoes have naturally absorbed the combined elements of the dish, creating a real comforting texture. As foodies would say, this eats well. 

Recipe taken from Cooking for the Senses by Gregor Law and Jennifer Peace Rhind.

Cooking for the Senses, Jennifer Peace Rhind and Gregor Law, presents a new way of looking at food and flavour. Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Cooking for the Senses is on sale now for £25. 

For more information visit www.jkp.com/uk/cooking-for-the-senses-1.html/

INGREDIENTS: Serves 2
7 medium-sized waxy potatoes, approximately 800g
5 best-quality medium-sized tomatoes, fairly ripe 
4 tbsp rapeseed oil plus more to finish 
Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped 
Pinch of crushed chilli seeds 
1 garlic clove, crushed 
Squeeze of lemon juice
Sea salt 
Freshly ground pepper 
2 sprigs of rosemary 

For the red pepper paste: 
3 roasted red peppers from a jar 
2 tsp tomato purée 
1⁄2 tsp salt 
1 tsp pul biber 
150ml olive oil 

METHOD
1 Make the red pepper paste by blending the roasted red peppers with the tomato purée, salt, pul biber and olive oil. 
2 Preheat the oven to 220°C. Halve the potatoes and then boil them, skin on, in lightly salted water for 10 to 15 minutes. You don’t want them to cook fully as you’re going to cook them a little further with the tomatoes. Slice them into roughly 5mm-thick discs and layer them in a lightly oiled dish such as a cazuela.
3 You ideally want three layers of the potato, and the tomatoes need to overlap and cover the top. 
4 Mix the oil, parsley, crushed chilli and garlic together and season with a little lemon juice and sea salt to create a dressing. 
5 Layer the potato, spreading 1 tbsp of the red pepper paste and 1 tbsp of dressing over each potato layer as you go, together with a brief grind of black pepper. 
6 Slice the tomatoes widthways approximately 5mm thick and layer them, overlapping, on top of the potatoes. Place the rosemary sprigson top, followed by a good grind of fresh black pepper and a final sprinkle of sea salt. 
7 Pour the remaining dressing over the tomatoes and rosemary. 
8 Cover and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake for a further 20 minutes until the tomatoes are beginning to darken around their roasted edges. Serve with some warm crusty bread and perhaps a glass of chilled good white wine. 

In association with Taste Communications, Scotland’s food and drink communications company www.tastecommunications.co.uk