It’s spring. And I am so looking forward to seeing this beautiful bejeweled ripe fruit in the market. The smell, the colour, the flavour… winter tomatoes (can we even call them tomatoes??? They don’t smell like tomatoes, or taste like tomatoes…) just don’t cut it and leave us yearning for their summer counterparts.
Here at home, (and perhaps at yours as well, let me know if we have this in common!) I start seedlings in the spring, and then nurture them until they are strong enough to be planted outside. When we had a big house and an acre of property I was known for going a little overboard with up to 70 plants (or more!) and then come fall, would reap hundreds of pounds of delicious fruit in all kinds of varieties: Roma, Plum, Beefsteak, Scotia, Cherry, Grape, etc… (my hubby doesn’t like to think about this part… in our part of Canada frost comes early which means tomatoes on every surface in the house until they were all ripe and ready to be prepped and stored… the fact that we had no free surface to eat on was not amusing for some reason, lol)
What would I do with all this fruit??? Dry it, blend it, can it, turn it into pizza sauce, pasta sauce, freeze it all… and of course eat it!!! In sandwiches: toasted tomato, (nothing like a simple but delicious toasted tomato sandwich!) a BLT, bruschetta, salad, sliced and served on a platter as is (or with a little drizzle of olive oil, balsamic glaze, basil leaves, Kalamata olives and feta or burrata, sprinkled with toasted pine nuts… so many options!!!)
Then there’s the unadulterated pleasure of the tomato alone, still warm, freshly plucked off the plant, as you slice through the perfectly ripened fruit, the aroma of fresh tomato (you can almost smell the earth it grew in) makes your mouth water and tastes of sunshine, the pop a cherry tomato makes in your mouth as it drizzles down your chin (Every time! And then most probably down my top!!!)… the whole experience speaks of summer and it’s culinary pleasures.
No longer the crazy tomato lady (as my husband scoffs next to me while I write this), I now reasonably plant maybe 10-15 or so plants… in pots on my patio since I now live in a condo. Because you can still have a garden even when living in an apartment. And, well, there really is no greater joy than being able to go out to your patio, pluck a tomato, slice it and throw it in the salad you’re making for dinner.
I have found so much tomato inspiration over the years and thought I would share some of it here with you!
If you are looking for inspiration in the form of a book, check out “Tomato” by Claire Thompson, 80 Recipes Celebrating the Extraordinary tomato. (Could you find a more apt book??? I think not. And the pictures are AMAZING, I may need to blow them up and put them in my kitchen!! I have included a couple here in this blog.) It’s divided into sections: Soups, Salads, Sauces, Fried & Grilled, Braised & Stovetop, Baked & Roasted. And these are the kind of recipes you will find: Roasted Tomato, Fennel and Potato Soup with Fried Sourdough, Pumpkin Seeds and Halloumi; Tomatoes with Peaches, Grapes, feta and Oregano; Trapanese Sauce; Deep-Fried Camembert Beignets with Tomatoes; Tomato and Harissa Mussels and Tomato Focaccia. Hmmm…. Maybe I will need to add a few more plants to my patio this year with all these amazing recipes I want to make!
