Heirloom tomatoes are the greatest joy of the summer months at Can Riero. I love walking the field with my daughter Sofia smelling the pungency of the tomatoes, and tasting them sun warmed from the vine. We grow 28 varieties and add more each year. The seeds are all organic and come from seed banks and farms in Italy, France, the UK and the US.

I had my first real taste of a glorious tomato sandwich when I was a little girl with my Great Aunt Ruth at her summer cabin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We used to pick low bush blueberries in the morning in the field across the road, the white mountains as a back drop. Then for lunch we would have tomato sandwiches and iced tea. It has been a summer staple for me and now my family ever since.

The bread is very important for this. In America we have what is called a sandwich loaf. It’s white, thickly sliced, fairly dense and makes wonderful toast. English Pullman bread is a fine substitute. French bread and chipatta don’t work well as they are too crusty and chewy, the tomatoes get squashed and run out the sides as you bite. And, don’t even think about ‘lite mayonnaise’, the full fat is needed here. Hellman’s works wonders.

Glorious Tomato Sandwich

8 slices of bread toasted

8 tablespoons of mayonnaise

3 or 4 very ripe tomatoes Summer tomatoes

Sea salt and freshly finely ground pepper to taste

Spread the mayonnaise on the toast liberally, slice tomatoes about an inch thick, place on 4 pieces of the bread, salt and pepper, close the sandwich and enjoy.

Note: Please do not hesitate to make use of great lashings of mayonnaise, it is delicious.

Tomato Catalan

Ibiza gets very hot in July and August, making it difficult to eat anything warm. My friend Lottie inspired me to make this a great new family favourite, Tomato Catalan. It is incredibly useful, I make it in 2 kilo batches and leave it in the fridge. For breakfast it can be smeared on toasted pan payes, sprinkled with salt or chopped garlic, manchego cheese melted or not, for lunch on pasta, for cocktails converted into a fantastic dip for fresh sliced vegetables, for dinner combined with an aged sherry vinegar and olive oil for salad dressing or on sliced avocados. The uses are literally endless. Careful with the garlic, a truly great tomato has a delicate flavour and should speak for itself. The garlic needs to be very much in the background here.

2 kilos very ripe tomatoes

2 large cloves of garlic peeled

1 quarter cup olive oil, or more to taste

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Put everything in a bowl and whizz with an electric wand. Alternatively it can be blended. Adjust seasoning.

A note about my whizzing wand, it is without a doubt my most used kitchen appliance. If you don’t have one and like to cook I can highly recommend it. It’s great for pureeing soups (no more hot sloppy liquid in blenders), making pesto, mayonnaise, apple sauce, gazpacho, everything really.

Tomato Basil Pasta

The tomatoes of Can Riero truly shine in this dish. I use as many colours and shapes as I have on hand as well as both purple and green basil. It could not be more beautiful or more delicious. The basic recipe is very simple, 5 ingredients, 20 minutes and the variations are endless. The tomatoes should be very ripe and juicy and the pasta the highest quality you can find. Look for the bronze die cut, it’s stated on the box. When the pasta is cut it is first extruded through a bronze die compacting the pasta dough while leaving a rough surface. In other words, the pasta has a better bite and absorbs sauce far better. Barring that, the super market brand Barilla is perfectly acceptable.

Half kilo pasta

Half kilo tomatoes, rough chopped, juice and seeds included.

Third of a cup of olive oil, plus a bit for correcting the seasoning.

One big bunch of Basil, purple, green, whatever you have to hand.

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, throw in a small hand full of salt followed by the pasta and cook until al dente.

In the meantime, put the olive oil in a large serving bowl and sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Tear rinsed, dried basil and throw into bowl. Drain pasta thoroughly and add to bowl. Toss, season with salt and pepper and if needed more oil.

Unless I have no food in the house, I always add extra bits. Our family favourite is 2 big balls of mozzarella torn and 1 large clove of garlic shaved razor thin. Best done with a small serrated knife, like those used for slicing steak. Add the garlic and the cheese to the oil to steep while preparing pasta.

Or any or all of these; Roasted chicken, solomillo, parma ham sliced into thin strips, rocket, baby spinach, pine nuts, chopped black olives.

A note on the shape of the pasta. I think this dish works best with penne or spirelli, or any shape that is short and dense. That way a piece of pasta, tomato, mozzarella, whatever can all fit on to the fork and run through the juice, making each bite delectably perfect. It’s very difficult to hold the twirl on a spaghetti type while stabbing the tomato and collecting sauce.

Gazpacho

Gazpacho, I have come to find, is a very personal thing. Everyone makes it differently and everyone feels passionately about the way they make it. Degrees of complication vary as much as the ingredients themselves. I like to keep it simple with the freshest vegetables possible, literally pick and whizz. My recipe is adapted from one I found in  Paula Wolfert’s Mediterranean Cooking.  I think it’s the best around as it can be either a very easy country lunch or refined a bit for a dinner party. It is also very kid friendly and a fabulous way to pack the vitamins in.

Half of a small white fleshed melon

2 kilos of juicy tomatoes

4 small crisp cucumbers

1 large red pepper

2 small sweet onions

2 cloves of garlic

1 quarter cup olive oil, more for serving

1 half teaspoon of salt or to taste

1 half teaspoon aged Spanish sherry vinegar or to taste

1 Avocado (optional)

Rough chop the vegetables and put them in a big bowl, add everything else and whizz. Here come the complications should you wish to make it a bit more elegant.

Rough chop the vegetables and leave overnight in a big bowl to marry the flavours, add a rough chopped red chilli pepper or two if you are not feeding children. whizz it well in the morning and add the other ingredients along with  pinches of ground coriander and cumin. Even further, if you want a refined texture, run it through a food mill. Correct seasoning and chill. I like to serve it with rough chopped avocado, or a different coloured tomato and a drizzle of good olive oil.

This recipe makes a lot because it lasts a few days in the fridge and I love to have it on hand. We eat it almost everyday for lunch in the summer, the simple version of course.

Crostini

I love crostini, particularity tomato crostini made with the different coloured tomatoes we grow. It both tastes and looks fabulously delicious. It is a great party food, served as a starter with a rocket avocado parmesan salad, or as a lunch with a tortilla and a salad or just with olives and nuts for cocktails.

2 loaves French bread, the fatter the better

2 or 3 tomatoes of each colour, if available, or 8 medium best quality red tomatoes

3 cloves garlic sliced fine

6 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Finely torn basil leaves or if you are feeling fancy, stack leaves and slice strips

A few drops of very good quality balsamic vinegar (optional)

Slice the bread on a slight diagonal to make the crostini a tiny bit bigger, about an inch thick

Heat the olive oil and garlic in a pan, or grill pan, allow a few minutes for steeping

Remove garlic, place bread in hot pan and toast both sides

Cut tomatoes in half and squeeze out seeds, chop the remaining flesh (keep the colours separate in ramekins)

Salt and pepper, add a drop of balsamic and a slash of olive oil to each ramekin

Scoop on to bread, sprinkle basil and a drop more oil if needed.

My Mother is very clever with crostini, she cuts down on last minute hassle by toasting her breads in double batches until very crunchy on a large griddle and stores them in an air tight container. She has crostini in 5 and as often as she likes.

The Heirloom tomato is the pride and joy of the Can Riero summer garden and kitchen, it is the thing we plan and look forward to most. I begin collecting seeds in autumn, we start the seedlings in February under cover and new seedlings each month until May. The planting out usually begins in April and the tomatoes finally arrive in July. The process is extensive and the anticipation huge. The very first thing we do is make glorious tomato sandwiches and then we feel summer has truly arrived.

Recipes by Anne Sijmonsbergen.

Photos by Annie Peel