Aubergines and roast tomatoes for everything

Summer

I don’t usually write recipes without an end, like this one. Generally I’m pretty specific about where you’ll end up, but it’s kind of interesting, for both of us, to leave that part up to you, occasionally. I’ve called the recipe ‘Aubergines and Roast Tomatoes for Everything’ for that reason – there
are infinite possibilities. I like the fact that I’ll never really know where you’ll go with it, what that ‘everything’ might turn out to be. It’s like a recipe in a bottle, floating off into the unknown.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1kg (2lb 4oz) ripe mixed heritage tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on size
2 aubergines, sliced into 2–3cm (¾in–1¼in) rounds
1 garlic bulb, cloves separated and peeled
2 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
Good pinch of chilli flakes
2–3 rosemary sprigs
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
1 small bunch of basil, leaves picked and ribboned
½ small handful of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Heat the oven to 150°C/130°C fan/300°F/gas mark 2.

Place the tomatoes cut sides upwards on a large baking tray. Add the aubergine slices and scatter over the garlic cloves. Sprinkle in the fennel seeds and chilli flakes and tear over the rosemary leaves. Trickle everything with the olive oil and season really well with salt and pepper. Roast the vegetables for 1 hour 20 minutes, carefully stirring once or twice, without breaking up the tomatoes too much, until the tomatoes are soft and blistered and the aubergine is lovely and golden, and crisp around the edges. Scatter the herbs over the roasted vegetables.

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