Hassleback halloumi

 I'll start this post by making it very clear that this is not my recipe, it's one I got from Olive Magazine and I have linked the original recipe here. It is, however, a recipe I absolutely love and make all of the time, it's also super quick, you can make it even quicker than I have shown here if you just use a jar of pasta sauce and it really elevates the halloumi, which, let's face it, is pretty good unelevated. 

If you want the full and proper original recipe the of course go to the link above but I've included some photos of how I make it, as much for me to look back on as anything else. 

This is what you'll need:

A dish that can go in the oven- I've used an enamel Daylesford one

Enough tomatoes to basically fill the dish when they're uncooked

A handful of basil and oregano

A few cloves of garlic

A block of halloumi (the original uses more but I've tried to slim it down a little)

Some olive oil for drizzling - optional, I don't always use this and to be honest don't miss it when I don't, though I suppose it does make the halloumi slightly crispier/ more golden

Chop your tomatoes and peel your garlic, I don't crush the garlic but do maybe chop it in two, it all seems to sort of melt together as it bakes for so long

Place all this in the dish, along with the herbs, tearing these as you go and pop in the oven for around 20-30 minutes 

When you remove it from the oven you should have something that looks like this, you can mash it down a little with a wooden spoon just to make sure it's all broken up though I like it quite chunky 

Slice the halloumi, this bit is hard to explain, but basically put lots of slices in it, quite close together though never slicing all the way through as you want the whole block to stay together as one piece. Place this block on top of your sauce, season and pop back into the oven for around 30 minutes.

Remove it when the halloumi has turned golden and crispy and serve immediately, with salad if you're being good, or bread to mop the sauce up, or ideally, with both. 

And that's it- enjoy! It really is very quick and tastes so good. As I said you could skip the first few steps and put a ready made tomato sauce straight into a dish and put the halloumi on and go from there, either way works well!