Easy Family Recipes Using Piccolo Tomatoes
As the children head back to school, and the summer of special treats and indulgence is behind us, it’s important to ensure we provide healthy nutritious meals, snacks and more for our children. Piccolo tomatoes are a great option with their sweet flavour, bright colours and child-friendly size. We love to use them in ham salad sandwiches, as snacks for picnics, summer friendly tomato and mozzarella salads and so much more. Read on to discover two tried and tested piccolo tomato recipes my family love.
Did you know? Piccolo tomatoes grow in a variety of shapes and colours, which make them a fun and exciting addition to your children's diet.
Hidden veggies tomato sauce
Encouraging children to eat vegetables can have a mix of results. The easiest way to achieve their five-a-day is creating meals with “hidden” vegetables. This super easy piccolo tomato sauce is great for topping pasta, adding to mince for spaghetti bolognese. It's versatile enough to use for whatever you want; and best of all you can add whatever veggies you like and your children will never know. This recipe create enough sauce for two meals for my girls.
What you need:
1 tsp olive oil
1 garlic clove
30 piccolo tomatoes
4 carrots
½ red onion
1 crumbled stock cube
1 ½ tbsp tomato purée
10 basil leaves OR 4 tsp dried basil
How to make your hidden veggies tomato sauce:
To make the process easier, start by prepping all your ingredients ready to use.
Crush and finely chop the garlic clove.
Finely chop your piccolo tomatoes, make sure you keep all the juices and seeds for adding to your sauce.
Peel your carrots then finely chop them.
Halve an onion and finely chop one half.
Finely chop the basil leaves.
Add olive oil to a pan. I used a frying pan but depending on how much sauce you're making a wok is a great choice!
Add the garlic clove and chopped onion and fry for around a minute.
Crumble in the stock cube.
Now it's time to add the tomatoes. Some people like to peel them (boil them to make this easier!) however I simply chop them finely and chuck the whole lot in the pan!
Next, add the chopped carrots, and tomato puree. At this point you can also add any seasoning (such as salt and pepper!)
Stir well and bring the mixture to a boil.
Turn down the heat, and allow it to simmer (uncovered) for around 5 mins. Don't forget to stir it to keep it from burning!
Add your basil. I prefer to use finely chopped fresh leaves but for speed you may prefer dried. Stir it in!
Finally, blend your sauce! For truly hidden vegetable put the sauce into a blender (or use a hand blender if you have one!) and blend until smooth. Now your sauce is ready for pasta, bolognese or any other dish you want to use it for!
This recipe can be adapted to your own tastes and choices! Why not try adding some other seasonal veg to your sauce? This seasonal veg guide from the Vegetarian Society will help you choose seasonal UK produce. Simply make sure you add it to the pan, mix well and blend to perfection before serving!
Tomato and basil bruschetta
Children aren’t the only members of your family you have to feed. Italian style bruschetta is one of my favourite starters and so I whipped up a quick and easy recipe using piccolo tomatoes to create my own at home. This recipe is enough to feed 4 adults, and is great for when you're hosting a dinner party.
What you need:
½ small red onion
12 piccolo tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
8 basil leaves
30ml balsamic vinegar
40ml extra virgin olive oil
1 loaf of French bread (a.k.a. Baguette!)
How to make your bruschetta:
To start, prep all your ingredients ready to use.
Crush and finely chop the garlic clove.
Finely chop your piccolo tomatoes. For the best results it's worth draining them too.
Halve an onion (or use one half for this and one half for your sauce!) and finely chop one half.
Finely chop the basil leaves.
Pick out a large bowl, I like to use my mixing bowl (usually reserved for baking!)
Mix the onions, piccolo tomatoes, garlic and basil in the bowl.
Add balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.
Don't forget to season it! Once you've added salt and pepper mix it again.
Cover the bowl and pop it into the fridge. About an hour should be enough for the flavours to blend perfectly!
For the perfect bruschetta, slice the baguette diagonally.
Toast them (I did ours under the grill!) until they are lightly brown.
Don’t forget to flip them and brown them on both sides.
Finally, it's time to serve! I love to serve the tomato mix cold out of the fridge on my warm toasted baguette slice. However, if you prefer, take the mix out of the fridge around half an hour before serving to serve it at room temperature.
So there you go. Two super easy, healthy, family-friendly recipes for you to create using piccolo tomatoes! Why not give them a go yourself?
For more family friendly recipes, check out the category here. If you have any questions about my piccolo tomato recipes, feel free to ask in the comments section below.
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