got it to work like this {$recommends[0].extra_fields[1].value} only it sets the same field value for all the products in the recommended area.
Is there a way to specify an index or something ?
tried with {$recommends[index].extra_fields[1].value} but it doesn't work.
any ideas ?
SOLVED:
added a counter before the foreach statement in simple_products_list
{assign var="counter_rec" value=-1}
and used it in the listing
{assign var="counter_rec" value=$counter_rec+1 }
<ul>
<li>{$recommends[$counter_rec].extra_fields[1].value}</li>
<li>{$recommends[$counter_rec].extra_fields[2].value}</li>
<li>{$recommends[$counter_rec].extra_fields[3].value}</li>
<li>{$recommends[$counter_rec].extra_fields[4].value}</li>
</ul>