Prosciutto Tomatoes

For the times you really want maximum impact, both with flavour and impact, for minimum effort, you need to give these a go. Something I made up just over seven years ago, to impress a certain someone who I met at university. It must have made an impression, because last week we celebrated our seventh anniversary, and this is part of what I cooked for that dinner.

It's really such a simple thing to do. Cut a tomato into wedges, usually 6 - 8, depending on the size of your tomatoes. Wrap each wedge in a slice of prosciutto. The slices I get from the deli usually are long enough to cut in half and use for two wedges - a bonus when you are paying $50 a kilo for what is essentially just fancy pants bacon.

You can secure the prosciutto strips with toothpicks, threaded through along the spine of the wedge, or just let them sit with the loose end sitting tucked under. If you fry the tucked under side first, it should hold if you are careful with it.

Fry until the bacon is crispy and hard, about the time it takes to colour up. The best thing about prosciutto is that you don't have to cook it for very long to get a wonderfully hard crunchy bacon slice.

There you go. Great for company, and $7 worth of bacon will do 3-4 tomatoes, which is enough for around 6 people. Less than $2 a serve if you grow your own tomatoes. I don't yet, but I hope to have some plants in place for this summer! Mmmm... this would be a perfect way to show off just picked tomatoes. *drools and wanders off dreaming...*