Simply delicious

It's been a couple of nights of really simple yet delicious homecooked fare. On Sunday we bought a huge carrier bag of vine tomatoes. We gave half to his mother who was visiting, and on Tuesday night, M blanched then peeled the rest of them, then roasted them whole in the oven for half an hour with some garlic cloves and, towards the end of the cooking time, some fresh thyme. When they were roasted, he removed most of the thyme then mashed the garlic and tomatoes a little and served them with freshly ground black pepper, freshly grated parmesan, De Cecco spaghetti and gusty Rioja.

Tonight, he fried chopped bacon from Baldwins, with olive oil, garlic, freshly ground black pepper and cooked butter beans. He whizzed fistfuls of fresh parsley and Italian virgin olive oil in the blender to make pesto and served the lot with De Cecco spaghetti.

Don't worry, he loves cooking. Anyway, I'll make it up to him: I've booked a table for two at über expensive and über exclusive Japanese restaurant UMU in Mayfair next week.