Weekend Cook and Tell: Tomatoes
Welcome back to another summery edition of the Weekend Cook and Tell. Every Wednesday we search through the food sections of various national newspapers and come up with an article or recipe to inspire a weekend cooking project. We want all of you to cook along with us and share your experiences, recipes, and photos.
Today the Chicago Tribune's food section is all about tomatoes, in fact they have deemed 2009 The Year of the Tomato. Since February the Tribune has been running tomato-centric articles: Tomato mavens share their tomato growing secrets, the pluses and minuses of pruning you tomato plants, and some ideas for turning your crop of cherry tomatoes into great cocktail snacks, just to name a few.
With the first summer tomatoes finally arriving (better late than never), we thought that a tomato challenge was in order. The challenge is a simple one if you are able to get your hands on some juicy summer specimens, all you have to do is whip up something that involves tomatoes. A simple tomato sandwich is always satisfying, a tomato salad, perhaps a caprese or a panzanella. If you have wonderful tomatoes it's hard to do wrong by them.
Keep us posted over the weekend and let us know what kind of tomatoey deliciousness you are preparing! Show us your photos on Photograzing (make sure to include "Cook and Tell" in your submission title) and tell us about your recipes in Talk with comments on this thread! If you'd like to blog along from home, leave a link to your Cook and Tell blog post in the comments. Next Wednesday we will be posting a round up of your photos and recipes. We can't wait to see what kind of wonderful tomato-based recipes you are going to come up with!
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29 Comments:
oh man, i'm breaking two rules, by cross-posting a comment from earlier post (the one about horseradish) AND by talking about something i did last weekend (as opposed to this coming weekend), but the bloody marys i made using tomato juice i extracted myself last saturday were killer.
mr guy at 5:34PM on 07/22/09
I'm not going to be able to make it this weekend, but my new favorite pasta dish is basically a spin on a caprese salad. Take a whole bunch of grape tomatoes and put them in a glass baking dish along with a few glugs of olive oil and some balsamic vinegar. Roast the heck out of them. Toss with pasta, fresh mozzarella, and lots of fresh basil.
Trust me - make it once, you will crave it forever.
NYCEater at 7:13PM on 07/22/09
I'm now into baking tomatoes - right now using my countertop oven to avoid heating up my kitchen. I cut the tomatoes in half and place on a foil covered baking sheet. I mix grated parmesan with seasoned breadcrumbs, then pour a little melted butter into the breadcrumb mix. I put a little Italian dressing on top of the tomatoes, sprinkle with garlic powder, top with the breadcrumb mixture and sprinkle more grated cheese on top. I bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes - until the breadcrumbs are crunchy. I've been using those campari tomatoes since they taste so good. I'd bake longer if I used regular tomatoes.
annzee at 10:12AM on 07/23/09
Tomatoes? They are my favorites! That's why my blog is called Mango & Tomato :)
So of course I have a "few" favorite recipes:
1) grilled cheese sandwich with tomatoes and ham
2) gnocchi with tomatoes and basil
3) conrbread muffins with cherry tomatoes and jalapeno
4) spicy shrip with Mango & Tomato salsa
5) and tomato, mozzarella, cilanto tower
orchidgirl at 10:39AM on 07/23/09
@anzee - I use that method at least once/twice a week for years. I use the Campari's in the Winter and regular tomatoes in summer. They always add a bright explosion of flavour and look good as a side. My breadcrumb mix is with a bit of Worcestershire sauce, parmesan, S & P and really good EVOO. When they are done, I add some chopped fresh basil.
@NYCEater - I can hardly wait to try it! It sounds quick and easy for a hot summer evening.
bareneed at 10:59AM on 07/23/09
Yum! Might make my dad's Tomato curry this weekend (Tomato tarkari). It's so easy that it is irrevocably linked to camping in my head--we used to make this on the camp stove when I was a kid. However, I am not a huge fan of cooked tomatoes...I like them better fresh.
I think I just wanted to brag about my dad's awesome Indian recipes that I am now able to cook. =)
inothernews at 11:57AM on 07/23/09
I have one Big Boy tomato plant and 6 cherry tomato plants and OMG! I have dozens and dozens of them...we are constantly eating tomatoes in some way or another. Just oven dried some for a pasta dish.
arm1970 at 12:04PM on 07/23/09
I am making snapper with roasted cherry tomatoes and olives. I too love roasted tomatoes.
flavacrisp at 1:50PM on 07/23/09
I am going to try that recipe that Molly Wizenberg seduced me with, from Seattle's Cafe Lago. Read the reviews, and tell me that doesn't sound magical...
http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2008/09/pomodori_al_forno
tatianak at 1:55PM on 07/23/09
i made molly wizenberg's pomodori al forno last year for a party (made little crostini with the roasted toms) and they were gone before anything else. so sweet and so good. but i love raw tomatoes so much that i don't get around to cooking with them til i've had my fill of straight-up tomatoes with salt for a couple weeks.
tori_t at 5:43PM on 07/23/09
I harvested my very first tomato from my garden and made Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce. Yummy.
You can read about it here: http://blog.notesfromhomeplates.com/2009/07/pasta-with-fresh-tomato-sauce.html
ChefDJen at 7:56PM on 07/23/09
A tomato and cucumber sandwich, on freshly baked bread, with home-made mayonnaise, and a sprinkling of salt and black pepper. Add a slice or two of thinly-cut ham if you must have meat. It tastes like summer.
NotAmerican at 1:30PM on 07/24/09
I made a delicious tomato salad for a dinner party lat night. I have beautiful yellow cherry tomatoes in an abundance. I did a traditional tomato and bread salad, with onions, sicilian green olives, red wine vinegar and olive oil. OH YUM!
DELICIOUS at 2:00PM on 07/24/09
Orchidgirl I printed out your recipe for the ricotta gnocchi. My next harvest of tomatoes will feature this, thank you!
DELICIOUS at 2:02PM on 07/24/09
What timing...I just made a tomato sandwich with some incredibly delicious tomatoes from our garden...pure heaven!!
RJ Foodie at 6:54PM on 07/24/09
Sliced tomato still warm from outside + two pieces of white bread smeared with mayo. Eat over the sink.
Emsev333 at 7:34PM on 07/24/09
I grow Sun Golds, which are incredible, fruity little tangerine gems, and most of them get eaten while I'm in the garden, straight up. No recipe necessary.
But one of my favorite new recipes is to saute sliced onion, minced garlic, add portobellos or chicken, deglaze with white wine, add chopped tomatoes, feta, cooked spaghetti, salt and bp. Decide how cooked you want your tomatoes to be and add to the dish at the right time.
lemonfair at 7:00AM on 07/25/09
Well.. my jalapeno plant has just 1 pepper on it at the moment, and the tomato's are coming in late. So I had to resort to the supermarket.
Today I made an appetizer of 2 tomato's (boiled w/ skin peeled), 4 serrano peppers (roasted and skin peeled,) witha half an onion, about a quarter cup of cilantro and a pinch of spices.
It turned out delicious and pending the submission of my pics to photograzing I may be able to share. :)
AyeEat at 11:40PM on 07/25/09
tomato, watermelon, feta cheese, reduced balsamic vinegar, ribbon mint, pinch of salt and sugar. Very yummy.
sbryden at 3:04AM on 07/26/09
the most stupid simple recipe in the world: render down some cubes of salt pork or pancetta. remove the meat nuggets, quick saute some chopped garlic in the salty fat. deglaze pan with about a cup of chicken broth. a second later, drop in a giant pile of chopped broccoli rabe, a can of canellini beans, 4 or 5 diced ripe tomatoes, and the meat nuggets, plus some crushed red pepper and sea salt. cover it and cook for about 10 minutes or until it's all amazing and juicy. i made some on wednesday and have been eating it all week. had some for breakfast this morning with a fried runny egg on top. BLISS!
there are so few things in this world that a fresh, ripe tomato can't fix :)
Ariel777 at 11:50AM on 07/26/09
BLT (on white bread with mayo, natch!).
FoodieSearching at 5:16PM on 07/26/09
Now that I'm thinking about it, we used a boatload of tomatoes this weekend. Guess that means that we'll have great skin what with all the lycopenes :)
So first up for a picnic birthday party on Saturday, I made this Trinidadian Curried Tomato Arugula Salad that I first blogged about a few weeks back. It's a combination of a yogurt dressing spiced with curry powder, roasted juicy tomatoes and peppery arugula.
I also used some green tomatoes from my parents garden to make this Green Tomato Lentil Stew. It's a winning summer combination of tangy green tomatoes and nutty, spiced lentils.
Last but not least, tonight's dinner was a take on Kadai Paneer using tofu. Tomatoes, onions, cumin, coriander, garam masala and chili powder with a variety of colored bell peppers and blocks of tofu. Blog post on that to follow soon!
nithya at hungrydesi at 10:30PM on 07/26/09
I made a delicious lemon fusilli with slow-roasted tomatoes, arugula and zucchini. The roasted tomatoes make this otherwise fine dish into something spectacular.
Jilly at 2:21PM on 07/27/09
I tinkered around in the kitchen and made:
- a salad -- a variety of tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives, ciliegine mozzarella, and basil w/ olive oil
- an entree -- used Michele Humes' Spaghetti all'Aglio e Olio with Marinated Summer Vegetables recipe, with linguine, basil, and kielbasa
- a dessert -- tomato cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting
Scribbled about it here: http://cassaendra.blogspot.com/2009/07/tomatoes.html
Cassaendra at 1:04AM on 07/28/09
What variety of tomatoes do you people plant, and where do you live? I'm south of Seattle and, despite a warm spring, my Early Girl, Sun Gold and Oregon Spring tomatoes aren't anywhere close to being ripe, even with the heat wave we're in. I'm so jealous.
betteirene at 1:45AM on 07/28/09
This past weekend I adapted the roasting methodology from Alton Brown's homemade tomato sauce recipe and the roasted tomato recipe that was posted last week here at Serious Eats. It was *mind-blowingly* good. Here's what I came up with...
Roasted Tomato and Mushroom Pasta
4 Roma tomatoes, seeded and quartered
1 lb. crimini mushrooms, quartered
1/2 cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 a white onion, minced
1 tbsp. oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
3 strips bacon, chopped
Grated parmesan
Put the tomatoes on one sheet pan and the mushrooms on another. Top them liberally with olive oil, onions, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Roast in a 300 degree oven. The mushrooms take about a half hour and the tomatoes take about 45 minutes. Cook the spaghetti the way you normally would. Brown the bacon over medium heat and then add in the tomatoes and mushrooms. Let it all cook together while the spaghetti cooks. When the spaghetti is done, mix it all together and serve with parmesan.
JRWStormy at 1:22PM on 07/28/09
Whew - stuck to plant and made oven baked tomatoes, but only was able to get the ignorant camera to upload them today....
They were as amazing as promised. I do not say that lightly.
See the post at:
http://www.mycoldprairie.com/2009/07/28/weekend-cook-and-tell-tomatoes/
tatianak at 4:11PM on 07/28/09
i madea quick simple tapa using jarred tomatoes and goat cheese... but best of all, was receiving in my CSA box these miniature tomatoes and eating them like candy, YUM!!!
MadelynRodriguez at 11:09AM on 07/29/09
I'm posting late, because I just joined, but I'm gonna post here anyway in case someone is interested! There are a bunch of recipes for tomato pie on the internet, but I think I have perfected the recipe (at least to my taste!). I work with a bunch of men at a cemetery, and I live here, too. I cook for them all the time. This is one of the things that they ask me for constantly.
Mix one package of Bisquick cheese and garlic biscuit mix (do not use the Martha White brand!) with enough milk to make a thick mixture to press in a 9" pie pan (about 3/4 of a cup). Press this into the well-greased pie pan (I use bacon grease, that's what we do in the south! plus it adds good flavor.)
Place enough fresh sliced tomatoes on top to almost fill the pie plate. Use the best you can find. I have been blessed this season to have a great source of wonderful heirloom tomatoes, good tomatoes make all the difference in this recipe. Sprinkle this with a chiffonade of fresh basil to taste.
Mix a cup of good mayonnaise with at least a cup of sharp cheddar and some chopped green onions. Spread this mixture over the tomatoes and basil. Top with more cheese, if you like, and bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. Let rest five minutes before cutting.
Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!
pharris123 at 8:38PM on 08/31/09