I grew up near the busy market town of Bridport in Dorset. My dad was a keen gardener: he liked growing new potatoes and runner beans in the big vegetable patch, and my mum liked growing tomatoes and soft herbs in her little green house. They cooked simple, fresh food for us. Buttered potatoes straight from the ground, beans with tarragon and black pepper and lettuce salads trickled with our family dressing.

In late summer, my mum would make salads with her homegrown tomatoes; she’d slice them thickly and toss them with diced red onion and fresh coriander as a side for roast lamb or grilled mackerel. I remember it so clearly and, to this day, find the aroma of ripe tomatoes so special: sensory, warm and coddling, like childhood.

I didn’t plan on being a chef. When I was 18, my wife, Alice, and I had our first daughter, Isla, and I began working in a kitchen. Soon I realised that I really enjoyed it, and, actually, I was quite good at it too.

Cooking has since become a part of who I am. I’ve spent the past 10 years or so cooking at River Cottage, a smallholding that produces its own fruit and vegetables in a simple and respectful way. There’s a beautiful walled garden and several productive polytunnels, which are right now full to bursting with of all sorts of tomato varieties with curious names such as Orange Banana, Green Zebra, Marmande and Scotland Yellow. Every time I go in, I pick a few and eat them in situ – they want for nothing else.

These days it’s easy to buy tomatoes at any time of year, just like apples or strawberries. We import loads of them, but they’re never as good to eat or cook with, so over the winter and spring I’ll eat other things or use decent tinned tomatoes instead.

When tomatoes are in season, I tend to treat them pretty simply. In many cases I’ll serve them straight up, bar some good olive oil and some flaky salt, good bread and saucisson. I like them with crab and aioli, or with lightly cured fish, and I love them with herbs. Fresh tomatoes with lovage (an unusual but delicious garden herb) are incredible, or with lots of chopped mint and capers or cheese and dill.

Occasionally, I’ll make a sauce or a soup with the really ripe ones. Both are made by roasting the tomatoes with garlic, thyme, salt, pepper and olive oil, and then passing the soft, blistered fruit through a sieve. The resulting puree or passata is incredible, and makes the most refreshing chilled soup. For a rich sauce, it might need to bubble away on the stove for a little longer.

There are no special tricks to today’s recipes. They are, at best, delicious assemblies, inspired by what I have to hand and the food-producing landscapes that surround me. Each of them celebrates the beauty that is sun-ripened tomatoes, while we still have them in season.

That said, you can make the pasta sauce with tinned tomatoes and pep up lacklustre supermarket varieties with garlic, herbs and seasoning in the fish recipe. The panzanella-style salad with tomatoes, anchovies, egg, bread and tarragon – a flavour explosion – would be as good in winter using raf or marinda tomatoes from the Mediterranean as any British seasonal varieties.

Spaghetti with tomato and fried chicken

My mum used to make this for us. It is, without question, one of life’s great things. Now it is my younger daughter’s favourite, so I make it for her, happily.

Serves 2
For the pasta sauce
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
A pinch of dried chilli flakes (optional)
A sprig of rosemary
2-3 bay leaves
500g skinned, ripe fresh tomatoes, chopped, or 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
Salt and black pepper

For the fried chicken
200g chicken breast
3 tbsp plain flour
1 egg, beaten
100g white breadcrumbs
2–3 sprigs thyme
2 tbsp light oil
About 100g spaghetti
A knob of butter
Salt

1 Put a heavy-based pan over a medium heat. Add the olive oil, followed by the onions, garlic, chilli and herbs. Season with a little salt and pepper. Cook gently, stirring occasionally for 8‑10 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes, sugar and a good splash of water. Put a lid on the pan a simmer for 35-40 minutes. The tomatoes should be breaking down and tender. Remove the lid and cook for a further 8-10 minutes, to thicken the sauce. Taste, adjust the seasoning and keep warm.

2 While the sauce is cooking, prepare the chicken. If you have one breast, slice it in half as evenly as you can across its face, giving you two much thinner, similar-sized pieces. You can tap them out using a rolling pin to get them nice and thin. Season them with salt and pepper, toss them in the flour, then dip in the egg and cover liberally with the breadcrumbs.

3 Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat, add the light oil and, when hot, add the breaded chicken and the thyme. Fry for 6–8 minutes on each side or until the chicken is cooked through and the crumb is crisp and golden.

4 Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of salted water until done to your liking. Drain, then return to the pan. Add the tomato sauce, the butter and a little more seasoning.

5 Serve the spaghetti alongside the chicken with some grated parmesan and perhaps a crisp green salad.

Roast tomatoes with fish, marjoram and garlic (main picture)

Pollock is a firm-fleshed, delicate flavoured white fish, and although I’ve been cooking it for years, I still think it’s underrated. It goes beautifully with marjoram. I love to eat this with plenty of good bread to mop up the amazing juices from the base of the roasting tin. This dish would work well with all sorts of other fish. Mackerel or sardines would be amazing alternatives, provided you like your oily fish. Black bream or cod would also be delicious.

Serves 4-6
1 large fresh whole pollock (about 1.5kg), scaled and gutted
500g mixed ripe tomatoes
1 garlic bulb, cloves separated but not peeled
1 bunch of fresh marjoram
6-8 sprigs fresh thyme
4 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper

1 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Choose a large roasting tray. Scatter the base of the tray with some salt and pepper, then trickle over 1 tbsp olive oil.

2 Lay the fish on the tray. Halve the larger tomatoes and put them around the fish – you can leave the smaller ones whole. Scatter over the garlic cloves, the marjoram and the thyme, making sure you get a little into the cavity of the fish, then trickle everything with the remaining olive oil. Season both the fish and tomatoes well with salt and pepper.

3 Put the tray in the hot oven and cook for 25–30 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked through and the tomatoes are lovely, soft and blistered.

4 Serve the fish straight from the tray alongside spoonfuls of the tomatoes and all the amazing juices, some good bread and buttered new potatoes.

• Gill Meller is a chef, food writer, stylist, cookery teacher and the former head chef at River Cottage in Devon. His first book, Gather (Quadrille) is out in September.
  @gill.meller