Melted cheese breadsticks - quick and easy lunch

I like to make lunches and dinners that are quick and easy and it really doesn't get much faster - or simpler - than this.

This is pure comfort food and has a touch of indulgence too as it uses butter (real, lovely, melted butter) and lots of gooey, luscious melted cheese.

These bread sticks are perfectly delicious dipped into tomato soup and I serve the whole thing with a fresh salad as a concession towards healthy eating.Regarding tomato soup, the very best I've ever made was a Gordon Ramsay recipe.

Tiny tomatoes were gently roasted with herbs and a little butter in the oven until delightfully fragrant and tender. A lot of fiddling about was then involved, then a blender and I'm pretty sure that thick double cream was added as a final touch. It took hours but it was truly delicious.

I'll tell you a secret though. It might just be us but it actually wasn't quite as good as the canned Heinz tomato soup that we grew up with and that we can easily buy in our local supermarket. True!

Photographs © BritFlorida.

To serve two

• 1 can Heinz tomato soup
• Slices of good bread - I used six slices for the two of us
• 3 - 4 oz. hard cheese
• 1½ oz. butter
• 1 tomato
• Green salad leaves
• A handful of cherries, pitted
• 2 scallions / spring onions
• A few fresh basil leaves

BREAD

Using a rolling pin - or if you don't have one, a clean jar or wine bottle - roll the bread on a board until it's as flat as you can make it.

TOMATO

Finely slice the tomato.

BUTTER

Put a pan onto the stove - a skillet or frying pan is ideal - on a gentle heat, Add the butter so that it gently melts (and smells wonderful!)

CHEESE

Grate the cheese. Also get a saucepan ready in which to heat the soup.

MAKE THE BREADSTICKS

Lay the rolled and flattened slices of bread on a board or on the counter top. Divide the cheese equally between the slices, making a 'sausage' of cheese along the length of each. Use your hands to roll these up. If you use bread which has an uneven edge, as I did, roll this edge first. Place the rolls seam-side down on a chopping board or place on the counter top.

Press lightly to create a mild seal. If you want to, you can even them up and make them look neat by trimming the ends with a serrated bread knife. I don't do this if I'm making this mean just for us but I try to be a little posher if I'm making them for guests!

SAUTÉ

By now, the butter will have melted in the pan. Turn the heat up just a little, Place the bread sticks in the pan, seam side down. The cheese on the lower portion will immediately start to melt and form a good seal.

SOUP

The bread sticks only need a minute on the first side but this gives you time to put the soup into the pan to warm through. Heinz are careful to say that their soup should not be boiled, just gently heated otherwise the flavor can be impaired.

TURN THE BREADSTICKS

Sauté on the other side and when they are cooked through - you'll smell the lovely melted cheese - place them on paper towel so that any excess butter will be absorbed

TOMATO

Place the thinly sliced tomato into the pan from which you've just taken the breadsticks. You can switch off the heat as they only need to be warmed.

SALAD

While the tomatoes are heating through and the soup is continuing to warm up, arrange the salad leaves, scallion and cherries on a plate. Because of the fat content from the butter and cheese I don't add any dressing - but the salad is gorgeous without.

SOUP

Pour the soup into bowls. Top with the warm tomato slices and garnish with the fresh basil leaves.

BREADSTICKS

Arrange these on a side plate so that you can dip them, deliciously, into the tomato soup.

SERVE

Serve the soup and breadsticks with the salad on a separate plate. Delicious!

Don't you agree that soups, salads and sandwiches are the ultimate comfort foods? When I was a child, we used to wait every year for the snow to arrive and then go outside and get thoroughly wet and cold - great fun. My mum always used to give us Heinz tomato soup afterwards, along with buttered bread to dip and possibly and apple to munch too. Today there are so many great ideas for combinations. These books (not vegetarian) are wonderful for giving you excellent ideas to make the ultimate comfort foods at home.