Olive drenched, smashed tomatoes

An attention grabbing name for a very satisfying, inexpensive dish. Simply cooking good ingredients usually results in good tasting food of which this is a classic example. Subsistence food for many people, it's great comfort food for me. 

Ingredients

A can of tomatoes

A few good slugs of olive oil

A good pinch of salt

One of the things that I've found out about food is that there is little correlation between cost and quality. Whilst this is especially true of eating out, it is also true of some of the humblest ingredients such as canned tomatoes. In England, you can hardly go wrong with a tin of own brand tomatoes in tomato juice from one of the major supermarkets. 

The situation is much, much different in Malaysia. Supermarkets don't have their own brands with the exception of Tesco (and they have a very small range). There is a choice of American and Italian brands. I find that La Valle, one of the cheapest brands, has the best taste, texture and juice. The only additive is ascorbic acid so they should be pretty healthy.

When La Valle is out of stock, I go for one of the other Italian brands. I try to avoid the American brands. The American brand tomatoes are so stiff it's as if rigor mortis has set in before they were canned. It must be down to all the preservatives in them.

When it comes to olive oil, I always use an extra virgin oil. The price difference in Malaysia between extra virgin oil and plain old olive oil is relatively small. It doesn't seem worth the hassle of buying and storing two different oils.

Equipment

A 15-20cm diameter saucepan

A desert or serving spoon

I use a copper-bottomed stainless steel pan but any old saucepan will do. There's no need for a non-stick pan, the smashed tomato will not stick unless you forget the oil or you actually burn it so badly it turns into charcoal.

Method

1. Make sure the pan is completely dry by placing it over a high heat.
2. When the pan is getting hot, add a couple of good slugs of olive oil so that the bottom of the pan is covered.
3. Whilst the oil is warming, quickly open the tin of tomatoes.
4. When the oil starts to release it's fragrance, plunge the tomatoes into the pan. Leave them whole at this stage. Don't reduce the heat yet.
5. Sprinkle a good pinch of salt over the tomatoes.
6. When the tomato juices are heated, take the spoon and gently cut the tomatoes so that the juice inside them is released.
7. Once the tomatoes are nicely bubbling, turn down the heat so that the contents of the pan are nicely simmering.
8. After five minutes, take the spoon and crush the tomato flesh against the side of the pan until that all the lumps are gone.
9. Continue to simmer until the tomatoes thicken a little and the oil glistens on the surface.
10. The tomatoes can now be served.

Eating

Olive drenched, smashed tomatoes are best enjoyed with a few slices of hearty, crusty bread. 

The loaf pictured is a rye sour dough loaf from a Hiestand franchisee in Malaysia. It's decent bread but doesn't stay crusty for long due to the humidity. (It isn't easy to find good bread in Malaysia).