Ode to ripe tomatoes

[DocBuzzkill]

Ripe tomatoes are my favorite vegetable....I mean, favorite fruit.  Oh fuck it, a good ripe tomato by any other classification would taste as sweet.  I may be remembering the tomatoes we grew in our farm's garden through the rosy-colored glasses of lost youth, but those Big Boys and Better Boys were outstanding.  Might have been the hot summers combined with the rich central Illinois soil that did it, but they were so intensely flavored.  Following my father's example, I'd pick a sun-warmed tomato right off the vine and eat it like an apple.

In the "What do you like about where you live?" thread, I should have noted that a major dislike is the all-too-short tomato season in Massachusetts.  However, the tomatoes are finally coming in strong around here.

Using the haul I bought this morning at the farmers' market, I just finished making heirloom tomato salsa (basically pico de gallo) to go with the sea scallop and sweet corn fritters I'm making for tonight's dinner; bruschetta topping for miscellaneous snacking (got a batard at the local bakery); and Andalusian-style gazpacho for my lunch this week.  Now I'm exhausted.

I deeply envy those of you who live in warmer places where tomato season is longer.

[BonitaApplebum]

Preach!

Ripe tomatoes are the very best part of summer.

None of mine are harvest ready yet, which makes me sad. But it’s my own damn fault, I left the starts in their tiny containers for too long before planting, and they are all stunted. Every day my FB memories remind me that by this time of year I’m usually swimming in them.

I went to the farm today and picked up three pints of sun golds. They are like candy. They will be gone in 24 hours!

[diablita]

Yes ! I was just dreaming of tomato sandwiches while I ran this morning.  I pass a tomato field near my house and was practically drooping.

[diablita]

Food porn form a local bakery that just showed up in my feed. (OWL = old world leavain)

[Run Amok]

Oh yes-- growing up in CA and my mother being an amazing gardener-- her fresh veggies from the garden, and in particular her tomatoes basically ruined me for everything else.

Our growing season is both short & unpredictable. You just never really know what kind of summer we'll have-- this year we've had lots of grey days and some rain so no one is getting any tomatoes. I only plant them if I'm feeling really ambitious but the reality is our climate is just not ideal.

We have a decent farmers market but the reality is that a warm tomato straight off the vine is just... amazing... in a way a farmer's market tomato can't ever be.

[RioG]

I've gotten scads of tomatoes and scads more to pick.

I once made my homemade tomato soup with canned tomatoes.  Everything else was ours - the stock, the onions.  But canned tomatoes.  It was inedible!

I will never not pack my freezer full of homegrown tomatoes.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

[merigayle]

getting an average of 6-8lbs in my CSA half share every week 

[DocBuzzkill]

Food porn form a local bakery that just showed up in my feed. (OWL = old world leavain)

Oh, my lord...that definitely is food p0rn!  I'm guessing that's burrata in the center?

[DocBuzzkill]

We have a decent farmers market but the reality is that a warm tomato straight off the vine is just... amazing... in a way a farmer's market tomato can't ever be.

OMG, yes.  That's it exactly, RA!

I've gotten scads of tomatoes and scads more to pick.

I once made my homemade tomato soup with canned tomatoes.  Everything else was ours - the stock, the onions.  But canned tomatoes.  It was inedible!

I will never not pack my freezer full of homegrown tomatoes.

In late August/early September, my mother processed our garden tomatoes and also made tomato juice (she mixed in a few other vegetables, sort of a homemade but better version of V8) using a water-bath/mason jar method.  These were nothing like store-bought tomatoes in metal cans.  Maybe not quite like the taste of a sun-warmed tomato off the vine like RA noted above, but damn.  Still really good.  These were stored in the basement of our farmhouse.  No frozen tomatoes though.  Space in our big chest freezer was reserved for applesauce, blanched corn, asparagus, peas, spinach, green beans, and Fordhook limas as well as our farm-raised beef, pork, and poultry.

Merigayle, that's a lot of tomatoes, but I'll bet you're enjoying them!  NJ/PA farm tomatoes are truly awesome, and those tomatoes (and peaches) are something I really miss.  Here's a way to use a big quantity of tomatoes.  I tried this out a couple of summers ago.  It was, uh, a LOT of work but the sauce was truly amazing. 

Serious Eats: How to make the best, fresh tomato sauce

[diablita]

Oh, my lord...that definitely is food p0rn!  I'm guessing that's burrata in the center?

yes, made on site.  basil grown in their little garden, agrodolce and local figs

[merigayle]

I made pico for tonight's dinner with a ton of the tomatoes. At my CSA you go to the farm and there is a sign with what you get for your share and bins with all the produce and you collect it on your own. One bin was "hot peppers" and I thought I got jalapenos, but OMG i am sure these were NOT because the pico is hoooootttttttt. But delicious.

[ihop]

I love ripe tomatoes.  Tomato sandwiches, tomato pie, slices with basil, etc.  YUM!

Nothing beats NJ tomatoes.  Nothing.

[Run Amok]

Someone here (dev? teetime?) posted a tomato tart a few years ago which was so pretty and easy and tasty, although I can't seem to find it now.

My mother made welsh rarebit with her fresh tomatoes over english muffins which is still one of my favorite dishes ever. Especially when she would make her own sourdough english muffins. To die for. 

[caribougrrl]

rasam season!

[rocketgirl]

The new guy has referred to my raised beds as the "tomato graveyard".     My plants are in terrible shape.  And the tomatoes are either rotting before they ripen (the normal sized ones) or splitting and rotting (the grape Romas).  On the other hand, I have TONS of jalapenos.

[rocketgirl]

I remember discussions of tomato tarts.  I'm digging through my computer, and I found this one.  But I know we did a different one with puff pastry on another occasion.  So I'm looking...

omato Tart (Pie)
September 1, 2014 at 6:32 PM
Well, we were going to make this one http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/fresh-tomato-tart-recipe.html, except that we couldn't find tart pans.  So then we were going to make this one http://allrecipes.com/recipe/summer-tomato-pie/ because we'd at least know how much "stuff" to put in a 9 inch pie shell, except that we didn't have garlic cloves (or a jar of minced garlic) or mayonnaise and were feeling more like mozarella than cheddar.  So, what we ACTUALLY did was:

Put premade pie crust dough in a pie plate and did this per the 2nd recipe:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
Press pie crust into a 9-inch pie pan; prick bottom and sides with fork.
Bake crust in the preheated oven until lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely.  (We were impatient.  We used a floor fan to "help".)
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Here's where we deviated.  We did not thinly slice 3 tomatoes of indeterminant size.  We sliced a bunch of cherry and grape tomatoes in half. Because the's what was growing in my garden. Maybe a cup and a half worth, but I'm guessing.   We didn't have the right garlic, so we used 2 teaspoons of garlic powder.  I didn't think that we quite had 1/4 cup of basil (fresh from my garden) after I cut it up with scissors.  So we threw in some random amount of dried basil.  And mayo, not happening.  3 eggs and a tablespoon of olive oil sounded better.  And a cup of mozzarella, instead of half cup mozz and half cup cheddar.  So...

 

5. Place tomatoes in a colander; sprinkle with salt. Let sit for about 10 minutes to release moisture. Blot excess moisture with a paper towel.

6. Beat eggs in bowl.  Add olive oil, garlic, basil, and tomatoes.  Let sit for a bit to absorb all the flavors.

7. Put half the mixture in the bottom of the shell and spread the tomatoes around evenly.  Add half the mozzarella as a layer over that.  Then layer the rest of the egg/tomato/etc mixture, followed by a layer of the rest of the cheese.

8. Bake in the pre-heated oven until done.  That was somewhere in the 40 minute range with our modifications.

Let cool and eat.  It was delicious and this WILL be made again!  (Probably with more fresh basil and minced garlic from a jar vs. dry powder).

[rocketgirl]

And I only found where I re-did the puff pastry one and winged it:  Puff pastry, an egg, Gouda cheese, basil, tomatoes, salt, pepper, & caramelized onion.

[BonitaApplebum]

Was I the one that posted it? My mom makes one with tomatoes and pesto, I can get my hands on that recipe again if you are interested.

[diablita]

interested! 

[BonitaApplebum]

interested!

Okay next time I talk to her I’ll try to get it from her! It’s so good.