Henry Harris’ recipe for tomatoes, creme fraiche and herbs
Forty years ago, an antiquarian bookseller recommended to me Edouard de Pomiane’s La cuisine en dix minutes, a selection of recipes that could be cooked at home in less than 10 minutes.
Ingredients · Servings 2
- 1good tbsp unsalted butter
- Salt and black pepper
- 4 ripe plum tomatoes cut in half lengthways
- 200g creme fraiche or more if you like a lot of sauce
- 2thick slices sourdough
- basil leaves or 1 small handful mixed soft herbs
Method · 20 min
- Melt the butter in a medium frying pan until foaming.
- Generously season the tomatoes, then put them cut side down in the hot butter and leave to cook on a medium heat for at least five minutes, until the butter colours to a light nut brown (if at any stage it looks as if it may be going too dark and at risk of burning, turn down the heat and proceed more gently).
- Spoon the creme fraiche into the pan, bring up to a low simmer and cook for another two minutes.
- Turn over the tomatoes, cook for a further minute or two, then taste the tomato-rich cream and adjust the seasoning as required.
- Meanwhile, toast the sourdough.
- Put four tomato halves on each slice of toast, spoon the sauce all over the top and serve topped with torn or roughly chopped basil.
Tomatoes, creme fraiche and herbs
This is a perfect end-of-summer supper that I have never quite managed to do at the speed of de Pomiane – it usually takes me about 15 minutes. Use proper creme fraiche for this, ideally a French one, because there are some very poor British-made equivalents out there that have no natural tang and tend to coagulate when heated.
, or 1 small handful mixed soft herbs A few basil leaves
- Henry Harris is chef/co-owner of Bouchon Racine, London EC1. His book, The Racine Effect, is published by Quadrille at £40. To order a copy for £36, go to guardianbookshop.com.
