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08/05/2003 Archived Entry: "Summer Tomato Recipes"

Field-ripened tomatoes have just begun to arrive at local Greenmarkets. The verdict is out on their quality. There are reports that our wet spring and hot July was good for the crop. Then again, there are reports claiming the opposite. In any case, they will be the best tomatoes of the year, better than anything coming from Florida in January or Mexico in March. The tomatoes I just bought from south Jersey were fine, but not as intensely flavored as I'd hoped,well, they are rarely as intensely flavored as I hope.

Don’t we love tomatoes? Indeed, I recently read the results of a Food and Wine magazine study that claims 50% of Americans want more tomato recipes. Of all things! I don’t believe it for a minute. Not more chicken recipes? Or more chocolate recipes? Why do we need tomato recipes at all? As far as I am concerned, when you get a good tomato all there is to do is sprinkle some salt on it and eat it. You can add a leaf of basil. You can arrange the tomato on a plate with some mozzarella (and basil)– that’s called Insalata Caprese, a Capri salad, after the island in the Gulf of Naples.

If you are in fact looking for more tomato recipes, look no further. This website as quite a few.

Storing your tomatoes for later use
Try making Oven-Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil. It’s a great way to enjoy your summer tomato harvest during the bitter days of winter.

Sun-dried Tomatoes
This entry from the Maven’s diary explores the difference between sun-dried and oven-dried tomatoes.

Roasted Tomatoes (and Sauce)
Check this out when tomatoes are really abundant and inexpensive, and when you've tired of eating them in salads, sandwiches, and for their own sake make some roasted tomatoes.

Five-minute Tomato Sauce
Often called "filetto di pomodoro", this Neapolitan fillet of Tomato Sauce (from my book Naples At Table) is extremely easy to make and perfect in the summer when you don’t want to be cooking over the stove for a long time. The sauce cooks so quickly the tomato strips never dissolve. It’s perfect for pasta, but also for topping grilled meat, poultry, or fish.

Rozanne Gold’s Provencal Tian
My good friend Rozanne Gold’s Provencal Tian recipe is from her book, Little Meals, and is a Food Talk listener favorite. I get requests for it all the time. Combining eggplant, onions, herbs, and, of course, fresh tomatoes, it’s a casserole that is perfect for parties. The recipe makes a lot, but it keeps well in the refrigerator, so you can make one and eat it over the course of a week. It’s good at room temperature, too, so you don’t even have to reheat it.

Provencal Tuna Steaks
This recipe for Provencal Tuna Steaks produces fish that’s fully cooked yet thoroughly moist. It also calls for two items readily available during the summer at our Greenmarkets, locally caught tuna and locally grown tomatoes.

Peperonata Recipe
What better way is there to take advantage of the upcoming sweet pepper season while using up your tomatoes than with this recipe for peperonata? This versatile dish can be used as an antipasto, a bruschetta topping, a side dish to meat, poultry, fish or scrambled eggs, on macaroni as a sauce, or with cheese and other vegetables as a vegetarian meal.

Penne a la Vodka
Penne a la Vodka was an extremely popular dish in Italy dating back from a 1970’s promotional campaign promoting the introduction of Vodka to Italy. While the Italians have lost interest in it it’s still firmly embraced by Italian Americans in the States. My recipe calls for either fresh tomato puree or canned, crushed tomatoes. As long as tomatoes are in season, why not go the fresh route?