The late summer sunshine brings a glut of tomatoes. These two recipes are a perfect way to use up an overflow and add some new ideas to your summer menus

Spicy Tomato Salad.

Although there are quite a lot of spices in this recipe the salad has a cooling effect when served as an accompaniment to spicy, or barbequed food. It needs to be made at least an hour before serving, and kept refrigerated so that it comes to the table well chilled for maximum impact.

The quantities given will serve 4 people, and the preparation time is really speedy.

You will need:

· 250g(8 oz) tomatoes, skinned and chopped

· 1 small red onion

· zest and juice of 1 lemon

· ¼ teaspoon chilli powder

· ¼ teaspoon ground coriander

· ½ teaspoon turmeric

· 2.5cm(1inch) piece fresh root ginger, finely grated

· salt and pepper to taste

· a handful of coriander leaves for garnish

Mix the chopped tomatoes and onion in a large bowl. Add the lemon juice and zest. Sprinkle the spice ingredients over the tomato/onion mixture, stir gently to combine everything and chill for at least an hour. Just before serving add the coriander leaves, chopped or roughly torn according to preference.

For a more substantial dish a cup of pre-cooked, cooled couscous can be stirred into the salad before refrigerating. Mint could replace the coriander, especially if it is being served with cold lamb.

Mediterranean countries have a myriad of tomato recipes, and a very popular salad in Italy is Panzanella, a tomato and bread mixture which may sound mundane but is actually packed with flavour and has the same cooling effect as the Spanish soup,gazpacho. Which is hardly surprising as it contains almost the same ingredients.

There are several different versions of this salad, but the basics remain the same….tomatoes, stale bread, cucumbers and garlic.

For this version of Panzanella you will need;

· 500 g (1lb) ripe tomatoes. Plum tomatoes are especially nice, or a mixture can be used.

· 1 red onion

· 1 large clove of garlic

· 1 medium cucumber

· 1 yellow pepper

· 1 small fennel bulb

· 250g (8oz) stale chiabatta or other rustic bread

· a handful of fresh basil leaves

· 1 tsp chopped oregano

· 6 tbsp virgin olive oil plus 1 tbsp for baking the bread

· 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

· 50mls ( 2 fl oz) tomato juice

· salt and pepper to taste

Tear or cut the bread into large, irregular croutons. Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle liberally with 1 tbsp olive oil. Stir to coat each piece with oil, then bake for 8mins approx in a hot oven ( 200c, 400f)

While the bread is baking slice the tomatoes into quarters. Peel and thinly slice the onion. Remove the tough outer layers of the fennel and discard. Thinly slice the remainder. Peel and dice the cucumber. Thinly slice the pepper.

Place these in a large bowl and add the garlic clove (crushed or finely chopped) and the chopped oregano.

Remove the croutons from the oven, allow to cool, and then add to the sliced vegetables.

Whisk the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and tomato juice together to make a thick dressing then pour over the bread and tomato salad. Stir gently and refrigerate for 15 to 20 mins to allow the flavours to develop. Just before serving tear the basil leaves roughly and sprinkle over the salad.

With its red, yellow and green colours, and it's intense flavours it's like having the Mediterranean in a bowl.