Tomatoes

 Today and this week is about tomatoes, the watery jewels of summer that encourage you to eat salt and oil too. In other words a medicinally perfect food for the season. But first a word about perfect eating altogether.    

The New York Times today carries yet another urgent editorial about how our American processed and pesticide laden food supply is literally killing us. Americans essentially consume nutrient-free sugar, preservatives and poisons.  This is the premier reason to shop at a local farmers' market. Your life literally depends on it. 

The tomato is a good illustration of our industrial horror: flavor and color has been bred out of the tomato to make a hard ball easy to harvest, ship and store. It's coated in pesticides and covered in weed killer. It's gassed to get red. And so it never goes out of season, it's flown and trucked in from nutrient depleted fields in Central and South America that now deprive local farmers of their own food supply. For your health you need to be part of the landscape you inhabit, digesting its minerals and solar energy.

Eat and enjoy tomatoes in our summertime, then let them go and move on to winter squashes and cold weather greens. You don't have to give up entirely. I'm including some recipes that let you naturally preserve them for colder times when you want their vitamins and color. Indulge now.

Roasted cherry tomatoes

A vendor at the farmers' market told me about this last year and I've been crazy doing it ever since.  You just have to slice the tomatoes, coat them in oil with garlic and salt and roast. Not much work for the bang. The best news is you can freeze these in freezer baggies and pull them out in winter to put on a baked potato. pasta or beef, on top of hummus or in a stew or soup.  

This recipe is totally flexible meaning there are no fixed quantities, just a process to follow. You just want enough oil, salt and garlic to lightly coat how many sliced tomatoes you have. I happen to like mine garlicky so I often use more cloves and you can too.

1 box ripe cherry tomatoes (I've been buying cylinder shaped ones called "Juliet.")
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 med/lg garlic clove, minced or through a press
1/2 tsp sea salt (like I said approximate)

 Heat a toaster or regular oven to 350º.
Wash and slice the cherry tomatoes into disks not thicker than !/4". Thinner is fine. Put them in a medium bowl and add just enough olive oil to barely coat them. Sprinkle on the salt and garlic and blend. (I use my hands.)

Line a small baking sheet (I use the one in my toaster oven) with foil or parchment paper (easy cleanup) and put the tomatoes out in a single layer. Roast/bake at 350º about an hour until the tomatoes start to show burnt spots and look a little crisp. Don't worry about how much time it takes to get to the goal of candied tomatoes. You can raise the oven temperature to take less time too.  

 

hummus with toasted tomatoes and parsley

Cool and put on a small plate to serve or pack some in little freezer baggies for winter. They should taste sweet like candy, be a bit chewy and garlicky if you like garlic.  
          




Provencal tomato soup

There is the famed cold tomato soup, gazpacho, from Spain but also this old favorite of mine I include in cookbooks and past posts from a woman in Provence. Nothing could be easier, tastier, healthier and to boot, you can freeze some for later. Again, the quantities are flexible depending on how many tomatoes you use, how much soup you want. Normally this is served warm with garlic croutons or plain, but I've been known to pour it in a mug and drink it at room temperature. It's that versatile. I often wait til the end of the season when tomatoes are so abundant and cheap and buy a pile to make this for the freezer. 

Serves 4-5

2 lbs. fresh large tomatoes, skinned (optional) and chopped

2 lg. onions, peeled and finely chopped

3 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. butter

1 mildly hot small pepper, whole

2 tbsp. dried thyme

1 bay leaf

¼ tsp. salt

freshly ground black pepper to your taste

2 tbsp. minced fresh parsley for garnish (5-6 sprigs)

Optional garnish: buttered garlic croutons

In a medium sized heavy gauge casserole, heat the butter and olive oil together until the butter melts. Stir in thyme and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add onions, bay leaf and a pinch of ground black pepper. Stir to blend and sauté over medium low heat until the onions are soft and glistening, 8-10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and mix well. Drop in the whole pepper. If the tomatoes aren’t juicy, add ½ cup water to avoid burning. Cover and simmer on low for 20-25 minutes, until the tomatoes become soupy. (If the soup is too thick and pasty, add either another ¼ cup of water or dry sherry if you’d like.)

Remove the bay leaf and whole pepper. Stir in the parsley. Remove from heat. Adjust salt and pepper to your taste and serve with or without garlic croutons.

Greek tomato rice

The Spanish version is "arroz con tomate" so this is a popular summer Mediterranean dish: rice with tomatoes. It complements grilled meats. If you make too much, which you might want to do, you can use the remainder to stuff grape or cabbage leaves for a vegetarian lunch. You basically turn the tomatoes into sauce and cook the rice in it.
 

4 large Roma or San Marzano tomatoes

1 box chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp red wine

1/2 white onion

1 leek, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 c good quality olive oil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 c short grain rice

2 c water or vegetable broth for more flavor

2 tbsp fresh dill, minced

4 sprigs fresh mint, chopped

1/4 c flat leaf parsley, chopped

Salt & pepper for taste

not my photo

In a medium/lg lidded saucepan heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, leeks, and garlic. Saute until onions are translucent, 5-6 minutes.

In a blender, puree the Roma tomatoes, boxed tomatoes, garlic, wine and oregano until smooth. Add this to the onion mixture and cook over medium heat until sauce has thickened slightly.

Add the rice, and 2 cups liquid. Stir just until all ingredients are well combined.

Reduce heat to low, and cover the pot. Cook about 18 minutes, or until rice is thoroughly cooked. Add basil, mint and dill, and cover the pot letting it sit 5 minutes to let the spices absorb into the mixture. Season, and serve with a drizzle of olive oil.

Notes~

You can add more water to your rice mixture, if needed.

Serve with fresh crumbled feta.

Pairs perfect with chicken kabobs, and grilled vegetable

Pasta "fresca"

Fresca means fresh or not exactly cooked and this dish showcases tomatoes tossed into a pot with the pasta and cooked only as long as it is for a refreshingly light summer dish. There is a more "fresca" alternative: marinate sliced cherry tomatoes in olive oil and balsamic vinegar with a minced clove of garlic, salt and fresh pepper for an hour or two, then throw them in the pot with the just cooked and drained pasta adding back a tbsp of the pasta water to blend everything. You can grind up pine nuts with lemon zest and oil to thicken the final product. This recipe has a fresh from the garden look and taste.

serves 2
olive oil to coat the pan thickly
10 0z mini san marzano or roma or juliet tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, minced or through the press
1 tbsp capers
1 tbsp black pitted olives, chopped
4 scallions, minced
pinch red pepper flakes
freshly ground black pepper
Sea salt to your taste
4 oz pasta (linguini is what I used)
1 1/4 c water 
1/4 c fresh basil leaves, chopped plus a few for garnish
to serve: grated fresh Parmesan cheese 

Thickly cover the bottom of a flat bottom pan with olive oil.
Cut the tomatoes in half and quarter the larger ones. 
Heat the olive oil over medium heat.  When the oil is hot, put in the tomatoes, garlic, capers, olives and scallions. Put in a generous grind of black pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Cook two minutes over medium heat. Add 1 tsp salt. Lay the linguini in the pot. Pour in the water. Add the basil leaves. Raise heat to med/high  to get the water boiling to cook the pasta. 

Cook until the pasta is just past al dente. If it needs more liquid alternate olive oil and water. Remove from heat. Divide onto two serving plates. Garnish with the remaining basil leaves and grated cheese and another grind of black pepper.


Tomato Pie
 There is a tomato tarte tatin and other pies but this one is easier

Serves 8

Oil or butter, for greasing

1 packet chilled short crust pastry (or make your own)

Flour, for dusting

4 tbsp wholegrain mustard

8 large tomatoes (about 2 lbs), thinly sliced

2 tbsp grated gruyere cheese

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350º placing an oven rack in the lower part of it. Grease a 9” detachable bottom tart pan. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface until it is large enough to line your tart pan. Spread the mustard on the bottom of the pastry case. Place some sliced tomatoes around the edge of the case, making sure they overlap, then fill in the middle. Sprinkle the cheese over the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, then drizzle with the oil.

Place the tart on a baking sheet and bake on a low oven rack 40 minutes. Take the tart out of the oven and carefully slip off the outer ring, leaving the tart sitting on the base. Return to the oven on the baking sheet for another 5–10 minutes so the sides get really crisp.

Fresh tomatoes with scrambled eggs

This is a summery quick version of the beloved Turkish breakfast dish known as "menemen."
 serves 4

1 1/4 lbs ripe fresh tomatoes 2 green bellpeppers 4 extra large eggs 1/4 c water or milk 5 - 6 tbsp. olive oil 1 tbsp. chopped basil salt  black pepper

Peel and chop the tomatoes. Put them in a large frying pan with 2 tbsp  olive oil and over med/low heat cook 5 minutes. Beat the eggs with the  water/milk and set aside. Chop the pepper. When half of the liquid  evaporates from the tomatoes add chopped pepper, salt and black  pepper. Stir and let them cook gently 5 minutes. When all of the liquid  evaporates, pour the remaining olive oil and  beaten eggs evenly over  the tomatoes while stirring gently. Cook slowly for a few minutes until  the eggs are cooked but not too solid.

Tomato Jam

This is another way to save tomatoes for the winter. Tomato jam is yummy on toast with cheese or butter, on crackers with goat cheese, as the T in a BLT and you'll find lots more uses.

Makes five 4 oz. jars. 

2 lbs ripe tomatoes
1 cinnamon stick (a fat one)
1/2 c cider vinegar (use good quality)
1 3/4 c turbinado, raw or granulated sugar
pinch of red pepper flakes

The slightly annoying part of this process is getting the skins off the tomatoes. To slip them easily, cut a cross in the bottom or each tomato, then submerge them in boiling water 1 minute. Remove and plunge into ice water or ice cubes or a combination. The skins should now slide right off. 
   Once that's done, remove lids from canning jars and submerge the jars in boiling water. Reduce heat to simmer while you make jam.

Quarter the tomatoes and combine with cinnamon stick in a deep pot. Cook over medium heat about 10 minutes until the tomatoes start to dissolve. Slowly add the sugar, vinegar and pinch of pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. and continue to boil and stir until the mixture thickens--15-20 minutes. You will know it's good to jar when the spoon goes through the bottom and exposes the pot. Ladle into hot sterilized jars, seal and submerge the jars in boiling water 12 minutes. (Raise the heat to med/high from simmer once you put the jars in.)