Sweet + sticky roast jersey royal + tomato bake
This recipe is more than the sum of its parts. Something amazing happens during the roasting: the tomatoes become juicy, burnt-red orbs of sweet and sour, and the once-harsh little onions mellow to milky sweetness.
The real star of this dish is the rich, sweet gravy from the onions and tomatoes that bastes and flavours the roasting jerseys and feta, making sure not a drop is lost.
Trust me: this is a dinner in its own right. Just a perky, lemon-dressed green salad on the side will do.
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 500g baby onions
- 500g cherry tomatoes
- 750g jersey royals, scrubbed clean and halved
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Olive oil
- 200g feta cheese
- 1 lemon, zested
- A small bunch of fresh basil
Put the oven on
Preheat your oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.
Prep the onions
Put the onions into a bowl and cover them with boiling water. Use a slotted spoon to fish them out and peel back the skins, which will have been helpfully loosened by the hot water. Cut any larger ones in half.
Tumble into the tray + bake
Tumble the peeled onions on to your biggest roasting tray and add the tomatoes and the halved potatoes. It might be a squeeze, but this way the tomatoes will cover the potatoes with their juices. Everything will shrink a bit as it cooks, so don’t worry. Season generously with salt and pepper, and pour over some olive oil. Toss the tray contents to coat in oil, then roast in the oven for 1 hour, returning to toss everything again every 15 minutes or so.
Scatter over the feta + bake
Once the bake has had an hour, it should be smelling delicious: the onions should be soft and slightly browned in parts and the tomatoes blistered and charred. Remove the tray from the oven and crumble over the feta, grate over the zest of the lemon and scatter with basil, then put the tray back in the oven and roast for another 15 minutes.
Serve
Spoon on to warm plates and make sure not to miss a drop of those juices.
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