New Year Tomatoes and Dahlias

Wishing you all a Happy Healthy and wonderful New Year.  

It's been an exciting Christmas holiday with everyone home for the first time in 3 years. 

 Aged from 24 - 85 after an amazing Christmas lunch we spent the afternoon playing cards.  

Good, quality time together.

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So much that it was time for bottling passata  and also making yummy bruschetta for New Years Day. Bottling tomato passtata is enjoyable, it is a satisfying yet primordial task.  Luckily with a thermomix it is a quicker process than in days gone by when all tomatoes where churned through a mouli before cooking and bottling.  So far there have been 15 bottles of 750ml passata bottled for use through winter.

There were some tomatoes left over for delicious bruschetta with toasted, crusty bread 

and some much needed energy.

For bruschetta, toast slices of white, crusty bread under the grill for about 3 minutes per side at 180C

until they are dry but not browned.

Pour a little virgin olive oil over the bread and in a small bowl dice 2 tomatoes, 1 clove garlic, 1/2 red chilli, a few basil leaves, salt and pepper plus more extra virgin oil.

Place spoonfuls of tomato mixture on top of the crusty bread.  Serve immediately.

In the meantime my first Dahlia flowered from a dry bulb planted in September.  A welcome for the New Year ahead.  One of my New Years pledges is to blog consistently; a request from a few people who are inspired by my recipes.  

Wishing you and your family a wonderful New Year.  Did you make any New Year promises?

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Buon appetito, enjoy Merryn xx