Perfect pairing: tomates Provençales

Sometimes the simplest combinations of ingredients and flavours are the most effective – as with this easy-to-prepare and delicious Mediterranean classic, a perfect match for the local wines

A masterclass in simplicity and flavour, by Caroline Rimbert Craig

Many French recipe books exist, but outside France few are imbued with the whole cultural context around living and eating, and even fewer are authored by local people. My family have been fruit farmers in Provence for hundreds of years, but as times change, I could sense an intangible, precious part of Provençal culture slipping away, as the older generation passed.

My book Provence: The Cookbook was a way of providing a snapshot of how farming families truly live and eat in Provence: moving with the rhythms of the seasons, preserving surplus (coulis de tomates, compotes, vin de noix) and celebrating single ingredients when they come into season.

Tomates Provençales is one of my favourite recipes in the book. It turns something inexpensive – even the most uninspiring-looking tomatoes in the dead of winter – into something magical.

In Provence, you would often have this dish as part of a main meal, but I think the tomatoes work beautifully for an aperitif, too. In fact, I’ll often serve them as a party nibble: as a topping on small slices of toasted sourdough spread with soft goat’s cheese (pictured left). This is my favourite way to eat them. Any leftovers the next day can also be blitzed and used as a pasta sauce. Delicious.

Oven temperatures vary, so you’ll really want to cook these tomatoes until they are oozing, dark in places, skin wrinkled, but acting like a vessel for the delicious sauce they spontaneously make. They should be lovely and bursting with juices, but on their way to looking like sundried tomatoes. Caroline Rimbert Craig