There is a lady at our local farmer’s market who sells these colourful heirloom tomatoes that she grows herself. Ralph saw a similar recipe in our Italian Cooking Encyclopedia for plum tomatoes using other herbs and modified it for this tomato Auflauf (casserole) recipe. We make it regularly during the summer and early fall.

Ralph cooks this on the BBQ so that we don’t heat up the kitchen. But you can also bake this in the oven.

A few weeks ago we had his colleagues over for dinner and served this along with grilled steak. They all asked for the recipe and only left behind a small portion for a tiny pasta meal! But we didn’t mind. We love it when there are hardly any leftovers after entertaining.

The baguette is a must to mop up the lovey juices. For guests, we give them their own bowl to ladle this in. When it’s just the two of us, we double dip with glee.

Ingredients:

• 3kg mixed fresh tomatoes
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, slivered
• 5-6 twigs of thyme (with stalks)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ½ cup white wine
• salt and paper (QB)
• handful of fresh basil

Instructions:

1. Boil the tomatoes until skins start to blister (not necessary for cherry tomatoes)
2. Cool and peel tomato skins
3. Cut larger tomatoes in half
4. Put all tomatoes in a casserole dish
5. Add the slivered garlic, thyme, olive oil, wine, salt, and pepper and give it a good stir
6. Place dish inside your pre-heated BBQ and cook on low for approx. 2 hours (or you can bake this in your over at 180 degrees Celsius.
7. When finished, remove the thyme stems and throw in a handful of fresh basil leaves
8. Serve with a warmed up baguette

Notes:

Leftovers? Crush it up and use as a tomato sauce over pasta with grated parmesan and a good drizzle of olive oil.