You say tomatoes: there’s almost nothing this versatile fruit can’t do

As a Guardian recipe columnist dispatching from Australia, where it’s winter right now, I often feel as if I’m sending serving suggestions from the future. And even though this time of year here in Melbourne can be a little blustery, during the day temperatures rarely fall below 10C, so our version of “winter warmers” still sits somewhere sunnier than most. I’m reminded of a visit to Northern Ireland, where we were met with signs offering to pop in and cool down with an iced coffee, what with the summer heat … It was a balmy 13C.

If you’re reading this with the summer sun streaming through your window, then lucky you: it’s tomato season! Now’s the time to toss together a simple chopped tomato salad to go with my smashed falafel flatbreads (pictured top) for dinner. It has all the falafel flavour, but with no chickpea soaking or deep-frying required.

Or maybe you’re still thinking about breakfast, in which case Meera Sodha’s grated tomatoes and butter beans on toast should tickle your fancy. I love the way Meera plays – combining garlic, dill, kalamata olives and aleppo pepper flakes is a globe-trotting ticket to flavour town, let alone the textural treasure of letting the olive-y breadcrumbs soak into grated ripe tomatoes.

Mother Nature gives us what we need when we need it, which is why tomatoes, full of sunburn-soothing lycopene, are at their most abundant and delicious in summer. But tomatoes are also packed full of glutamates, that elusive “fifth taste” of umami that rounds out a savoury dish, and is enhanced and concentrated when tomatoes are preserved. Which is why so many winter dishes around the world have a tomato base. I took a squiz through the archives of my column You’ve Got This and was struck by just how often my midweekers crack open a tin of toms.

If you’re in my neck of the woods, okra is popping at the moment, so give this autopilot okra curry a whirl. For an accelerated adjika (the Georgian answer to harissa paste), I whizz together sundried tomatoes with marinated capsicums and aromatics, which you can take for a spin in this rice dish. (A rice dish, which, incidentally, would be a welcome addition no matter where you are in the world.)

And if you’re entertaining this weekend, then you can’t go past my version of tomatoes on toast: a pan confit tomate that can be made using fresh tomatoes or tinned cherry toms.

If you’re in southern Europe, you’ll already be enjoying your pomodoro peak, and you’ll love Yotam Ottolenghi’s confit tomato pasta that flips tomatoes and bread upside down. He uses fresh cherry tomatoes (what we’d call “plum tomatoes” here) through a “tricolore” pasta bake with a nutty, dukkah pangrattato topping. You could always confit a double batch if you’re heaving with homegrown cherry toms and pop them on toast, too.

And if you’re looking for another way to use up your fresh tomato windfall in the coming months, Felicity Cloake’s done the zip-around with her perfect sauce. Once again, what I love most about this most versatile ingredient is that you don’t even have to wait for fresh – the sauce can also be made with quality tinned tomatoes.

Birthday bites | I celebrated my big 4-0 with a family lunch at our new favourite fancy spot, Barragunda, in Cape Schanck, about 45 miles south of Melbourne. The menu is unpretentious and inspired by what is in chef Simone Watts’s “backyard” on the Mornington Peninsula. The cheesecake with a pain d’épices crumb base and carrot halwa top, spiced with cardamom, was wonderfully wintry, enhanced by the grower of said carrots sitting at the next table!

Food on the page | I’m reading Orbital by Samantha Harvey, which is truly out of this world (and a favourite of Feast’s own Rachel Roddy). The way Harvey describes what happens to one’s sense of taste and smell in space explains how the international space station food offering can remain so rudimentary. It’s in stark contrast to Asako Yuzuki’s Butter, where the culinary detail is remarkable – particularly as it’s translated from Japanese. I spent some time with Asako when she came to town for Melbourne writers festival last month, and her enthusiasm for food is infectious.

Noodling around | I’m enamoured with bánh cuốn/bánh Ưuớt – the Vietnamese rolled rice noodles that take significant skill to make yet can be bought from the refrigerator aisle at east Asian grocers and refreshed in the microwave to great results. I popped them into some chicken soup last night instead of our usual lokshen, and they were revelatory.

Ragù, Bristol | ​“A cool, minimal, romantic ode to Italian cooking that’s housed in a repurposed shipping container on Wapping Wharf in waterside Bristol,” writes Grace Dent. But don’t let the setting put you off. Owners Mark and Karen Chapman are delivering “some of the most skilful cooking anywhere in Britain right now”. No wonder it’s Grace’s favourite new restaurant of the year so far. Read the full review.