Stuff on toast (No. 1)

Lists, ratings, rankings and statistics. I can't get enough of them. It's why I can't resist rating the restaurants I review. It's why I'm a sucker for 50 this, top ten of that and 100 of the other. Awards and and best ofs and so on and so forth. It's probably the main reason I've developed a love for cricket, with it's myriad rankings and scorings and co-efficients (check out cricinfo, hours of fun to be had on there). It's sad but I just can't help myself.

Not content with Bacon Sandwich Quest, restaurant rankings, catalogues of good things to eat and everything else in the same vein on this blog, I'm always imagining new and exciting ways to create lists. I have some great ones in mind, but none are likely to come to fruition. Too obscure or just downright silly.

How about: 'Top ten modern style Indian restaurants in West Yorkshire with faux leather seats serving disappointing stodgy food in enormous portions'. Silly and my constitution couldn't handle it.

Or maybe: 'Supermarket cafe sweep'. In which I review and rate comparable meals in the cafeterias at different supermarkets. This one was my Dad's idea. Too depressing and I'm already pretty sure Booth's is the best.

Or perhaps: 'Stuff on toast', a simple series cataloguing what I've been eating on toast. Simple, easy, no shortage of material, doesn't take much effort (keeping up with writing this blog is proving tricky at the moment) and will keep me amused deciding what the best things on toast were at the end of the year.

So here it is: stuff on toast, number 1.

Broad beans, mint and feta on sourdough. Tomatoes on sourdough.

Roast squash, thyme, feta, sweet pepper & tomato sauce

This was a bit of a random throw it all together and see what happens supper. It turned out really well so I thought I'd write about it. I've roasted squashes with thyme before, and paired thyme with feta (usually crumbled over lamb chops), and eaten tomatoes and peppers with feta, but never the whole lot together.

It tasted great. Sweet, caramelised squash with tart, lactic cheese and fragrant thyme. The sauce sort of mirrored the squash and the cheese, being both sweet and sour, and stopped the whole from being a little too dry and mushy. I ate it scooped out of the skins onto airy, open textured crusty bread. Lovely.

What you'll need, enough for 2

For the squash:
1 large or 2 small squashes (I used butternut)
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
a chunk of feta (I used about 75g)
olive oil
salt and pepper

For the sauce:
half a tin of chopped tomatoes
1 red or yellow pepper
1 clove of garlic
white wine vinegar
sugar
salt and pepper

What to do, takes about an hour:

1. Set the oven to 190 deg C. Cut the squash into fat wedges, scooping out all the seedy bits. Put the wedges into a roasting dish, season generously with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on plenty of thyme leaves. Put the squash in the hot oven for about 45 minutes.

2. Cut the pepper into large chunks and grill it until soft and charred at the edges. Put the tomatoes in a small pan over a low heat with the clove of garlic, peeled but not chopped.

3. Cook the tomatoes for about 15 minutes over a low heat. When the peppers are done let them cool for a bit then scrape off the skins, blend them to a liquid then add them in with the tomatoes. Add a good pinch of sugar and a good splash of wine vinegar. Heat for another few minutes.

4. Remove the garlic from the sauce. Taste it and season it, then set aside.

5. Check the squash after about 45 minutes. It should be almost tender. If not return it to the oven for a bit longer. When it's almost tender and caramelised at the edges remove it from the oven and crumble over the feta and a little more thyme. Return to the oven for 5 more minutes.

6. Heat the sauce back up, then remove the cheesy squash from the oven. Pour the sauce over the squash, drizzle with olive oil and serve immediately with crusty bread.