Recipe of the week: roasted tomatoes and labneh 

I made this originally as a snack, and it was so good that I thought it book-worthy, says Hasan Semay. Confit tomatoes last a good while and, if you don’t have any labneh, they’re just great on bread by themselves anyway. Serve as breakfast, lunch or a cheat’s dinner. It goes a long way.

Ingredients: serves 4

• 400g mixed cherry tomatoes on the vine
• 1 peeled garlic bulb
• 100ml good olive oil
• a bunch of basil, plus extra for serving
• a good amount of labneh or strained yoghurt (you can make your own by adding a pinch of salt to full-fat yoghurt and straining it in the fridge through a cheese-cloth or tea towel for around 24 hours)
• 4 slices bread of choice (I went with doughy flatbreads)
• 2 tbsp black sesame seeds, for scattering
• sea salt

Method

• Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/180°C/355°F/gas mark 4.
• Take your cherry tomatoes off the vine and place them in a shallow tray with the garlic and olive oil. Roast in the oven for 35-45 minutes, until the skins just start to blister.
• Turn the oven off and add in the entire bunch of basil, stalks and all. I let the tray sit in the warm oven for a good couple of hours.
• Once it has cooled, you can then transfer the tomatoes to a jam jar and, as long they’re under oil, they’ll keep in the fridge for at least a month.
• The rest is an assembly job really. Smear a good spoonful of labneh across a nice piece of warm bread. Add your tomatoes over the top and give them a squish.
• Additionally, I like to drizzle over a little bit of the oil that the tomato has cooked in.
• Hit it with some fresh basil for vibrancy, a pinch of salt and a little scattering of black sesame seeds to add a little contrast.

Taken from Big Has – Home: Recipes From North London to North Cyprus by Hasan Semay, published by Pavilion at £20. Photography by Haarala Hamilton. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £15.99, call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up