Sun-dried tomatoes, a tin of chopped tomatoes and a pack of gnocchi come together into a warming, bubbling bake topped with melted mozzarella, comforting, filling, and simple enough for a weeknight.

Ingredients

• 50g sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped, plus 1 tbsp oil from the jar
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• Small bunch fresh basil
• 200g cherry tomatoes
• 1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
• 500g fresh gnocchi
• 150g mozzarella ball
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180°C fan / Gas 6. Heat the tablespoon of oil from the sun-dried tomato jar in a large, ovenproof frying pan over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and fry for 3–4 minutes until it starts to soften. Stir in the garlic with a pinch of salt and cook for another minute.
3. Strip the basil leaves from the stalks and set the leaves aside. Finely chop the stalks and add to the pan along with the sun-dried tomatoes. Fry for a further minute.
4. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes, then pour in the tinned tomatoes. Half-fill the empty tin with water, add to the pan, stir, and let everything simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Roughly chop half the basil leaves and stir them through the sauce along with the gnocchi. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Tear the mozzarella into large chunks and scatter over the top. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until the mozzarella is melted and golden and the gnocchi is tender.
7. Bring straight to the table and scatter over the remaining whole basil leaves. Great served with focaccia or garlic bread for dipping.

Tips

• If the tomatoes taste a little sharp, stir in a teaspoon of honey or a pinch of sugar before adding the gnocchi.
• No fresh basil? Dried herbs work just as well.
• Cooked sausages are a tasty addition, stirred through or served alongside.

Made with ingredients from this week’s Pantry at West Somerset Food Cupboard. Follow us on Facebook for more Cupboard to Kitchen recipes.

This week’s tart uses courgette, red pepper and tomatoes, all wrapped up in golden puff pastry with a creamy ricotta filling.

It’s easy to make, looks impressive, and works just as well warm from the oven as it does cold the next day.

Ingredients

• 375g ready-rolled puff pastry
• 250g ricotta
• 2 eggs
• Herbs of your choice (fresh or dried)
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 courgette, cubed
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced
• 12 small tomatoes, sliced
• 50g grated Cheddar cheese
• Oil for frying
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Remove the puff pastry from the fridge 30 minutes before you need it, to let it come up to room temperature.
2. Fry the courgette, garlic and red pepper in a frying pan (or air fryer) until softened.
3. In a bowl, beat the ricotta with a little salt and pepper. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the grated Cheddar.
4. Preheat the oven to 200°C / Gas 6 and line a baking tray with baking paper.
5. Unroll the pastry onto the lined tray. Using a sharp knife, score a 2cm border around the edge — don’t cut all the way through. Prick the middle several times with a fork.
6. Spread the ricotta mixture over the base, staying within the scored border. Arrange the courgette and pepper mix on top, scatter over your herbs, and finish with the sliced tomatoes.
7. Brush the pastry edges with oil. Bake for 25 minutes, until the pastry is risen and golden and the filling has set.
8. Serve with a salad.

Variations

The base of this tart is really just the pastry, eggs and ricotta — everything else can flex depending on what you’ve got:

• Cheese: swap the ricotta or Cheddar for feta, Parmesan or Boursin.
• Meat: add sliced cooked ham or sliced cooked sausages.
• Fish: smoked salmon works really well.
• Veg: try asparagus, defrosted peas, or sliced fried leek or red onion instead of (or alongside) the courgette and pepper.
• Herbs: fresh or dried both work — thyme, basil and Italian seasoning are all good choices. A few small dollops of pesto on top before baking is a lovely addition too.

Made with ingredients from this week’s Pantry at West Somerset Food Cupboard. Follow us on Facebook for more Cupboard to Kitchen recipes.

These were inspired by the Tex-Mex dips available in the Pantry this week, showing just how creative you can get with the ingredients provided.

A few members had a taste and absolutely loved them, and some even took the recipe home to try themselves using this week’s Pantry bags!

It’s a great example of how simple ingredients can be turned into something delicious and different.

This recipe uses mashed potato (you could use sweet potatoes) to which fried onion, pepper and Mexican inspired species are added. Once assembled (as rounds, logs spheres or triangles) they are cooked and served with a chilled salsa dip selection. In this recipe they are oven baked until golden but could equally be air fried or shallow fried.  

Experiment with the seasoning. You could leave out the beans (but they do give some protein, colour and texture) and add peas or sweetcorn instead, for example.  

Ingredients 

• 3 large potatoes (suitable for mashing) 
• 1 onion 
• 1 pepper 
• ½ teaspoon chilli or cayenne powder 
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika  
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin 
• ¼ teaspoon garlic granules 
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper 
• ¼ teaspoon salt 
• ½ can black or red kidney beans 
• Oil 

Method 

Peel the potatoes. Cut into even pieces. Place in pan of water. Bring to boil. Once boiling, turn down heat and simmer until soft. Drain. Mash with a fork or potato masher.  

Peel and finely dice the onion. Wash, halve and deseed the pepper. Cut into 5mm dice. Fry in a little oil until soft (10 to 15 minutes). Once softened, add the chilli powder, smoked paprika and cumin. Stir and fry for 1 to minutes to cook out the spices. 

Add onion mix to the mashed potato with the garlic granules, salt and pepper. Mix to combine. 

Drain the beans, Place in a sieve and wash. Dry thoroughly. Stir carefully through the spicy potato. 

Once cool enough to handle, shape. Brush with oil and bake on a lined tray in a preheated oven gas 7/190°Cfor 30 minutes, carefully turning halfway through.  

Serve with a dip selection alongside other Mexican dishes of your choice.