Kofte, salad and a savoury ricotta bake: Claire Thomson’s tomato recipes

The taste of summer (clockwise from top left): Claire Thomson’s tomato bread-and-butter pudding, meatball-stuffed tomato koftes and peach and tomato feta salad. Photograph: Ola O Smit/The Guardian. Food styling: Ellie Mulligan. Prop styling: Louie Waller. Food assistant: Sophie Denmead.

Whole tomato kofte

I made these during a live cook-along session with Ulrika Jonsson, home-cook champion (among many other wonderful things) and my muse at the other end of the camera. The session was great fun, both of us with a glass in hand, while the rain lashed down here in Bristol and one or other of my children filmed me at the barbecue holding an umbrella (to no avail: I got soaked). Ulrika looked far more cool and stylish, with her dog and youngest daughter as company. I’m aware that sometimes I can cook at such speed (it’s the chef in me) that people struggle to keep up, but Ulrika kept pace and the night was a riot, albeit a virtual one, such was “the thing” in the summer of 2020.