Tomato Time!

“Every blade of grass has an Angel bending over it saying. 'Grow, Grow!” ~ The Talmud

I own a house in Brooklyn, NY that has a very small backyard. It doesn't even have any dirt in it, as it consists of a cement patio and a wooden deck. I love to garden, however, so every Spring I plant a variety of herbs and vegetables in an assortment of pots, water them every day, and like the proverbial angel I whisper over them all summer to "grow- grow." The photo above is of my garden from about a month ago. Now everything has reached its prime and I am reaping a basket full of tomatoes almost every day!

I grew heirloom Lemon Boys, Big Boys, plum, and grape tomatoes.

 

Our favorite way to eat them is as a Caprese salad, which is rows of sliced tomatoes, spaced with sliced fresh mozzarella cheese, and a fresh basil leaf then sprinkled with salt, black pepper, and dried oregano, and then a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top of all. This has been our dinner a few times in the past few weeks accompanied by some crusty chewy fresh Italian bread to mop up all the wonderful juices!

 

Today I had a batch of less than perfect tomatoes that did not look good enough to use in a salad. A few days of overcast thunderstorm weather had left them a little anemic as they ripened. So I fire-roasted them on my grill until they were soft and their skins were slightly charred. I used a handy little rack that Williams-Sonoma presently has in their clearance section, that held the tomatoes securely while they roasted.

After roasting, I passed the tomatoes through a food mill, which strained them and removed the skin and seeds, creating a tomato puree. Then, in a small saucepan, I sauteed some finely chopped onion and two cloves of garlic in extra virgin olive oil until soft, added the strained tomato puree, a small amount of salt, and a few fresh basil leaves, and simmered it for as long as it took to cook a pound of Farfalle pasta.

 

It was another perfect taste of summer! Roasting the tomatoes gives them a more intense flavor, and simmering them quickly produces a light and delicate sauce. Adding some fresh peas and cooked shrimp would make another delicious variation of this dish.

How are you using your summer tomatoes? I have to admit I've also eaten a few right off the vine, cut in half and sprinkled with a little salt or smeared with a little mayonnaise...yum!