Serves 6-8

A versatile salad, this could be served as an accompaniment to grilled steak, chicken or the creamy fish pie above. Or you could turn it into a quick starter by adding slices of mozzarella or crumbled ch??vre and some toasted pinenuts.

8 medium-sized plum tomatoes, preferably on the vine
2 fat cloves garlic, peeled
2 sprigs fresh thyme
6 tbsp olive oil
2 bunches watercress or 2 x 100g bags
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Heat the oven to 150C, Gas 2. Halve the tomatoes lengthways and snip out the cores in a V-shape. Place cut side up in a shallow baking dish, making sure they are nicely spaced and not too crowded.
2 Slice the garlic into slivers and place one or two on each tomato. Then scatter over leaves plucked from the thyme sprig and season well, particularly with pepper.
3 Drizzle each tomato with oil, then bake for about 30 minutes. Halfway through, remove the pan from the oven and spoon over the juices to baste the tomatoes.
4 Remove the pan from the oven and cool. Pick over the watercress, but don??t discard the stalks - that??s where the juicy pepperness is.
5 Arrange the tomatoes randomly on top and trickle over the pan juices. Serve at room temperature with more sea salt and pepper sprinkled over.

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