Summer Tomatoes

I doubt that anyone will argue with me when I make the blanket statement that tomatoes are better now than any other time of year. They're flavorful, meaty, and come in a rainbow of beautiful colors. And they're cheap, to boot. You don't have to go to Whole Foods and pay $4/lb for heirloom tomatoes. You can just nip down to your local farmer's market and pick up gorgeous local tomatoes for surprisingly reasonable prices. Way to be sustainable, folks.

Anyway, With this in mind, you'll understand when I say that I don't like to mess with them too much. I always get this weird Catholic guilt thing when I do... like I'm somehow compromising the integrity of the tomatoes' natural flavor. So today, I've put together a little menu of my favorite summer dishes that really let the tomatoes shine. That, and they're all really simple to make.

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Appetizer: Bruschetta & Crostini

A little tedious/ time-consuming to make but easy nonetheless and always a crowd pleaser.

ingredients for the bruschetta

3 Large ripe tomatoes (Different colors adds a nice visual element)

1/4 c packed basil leaves

1-2 cloves of garlic

2-4 tbs high quality olive oil

sea salt or kosher salt & fresh ground pepper to taste.

1. Cut the tomatoes across their equator and remove the juice and seeds so that only the flesh remains. Tomatoes are fairly meaty this time of year so seeding is easier that it is usually, but this depends also on the variety you're using. Remove the cores.
2. Chop the tomatoes into 1/4 inch pieces and put them in a large mixing bowl. When you're finished, drain the excess juices (I find that a mesh sieve works well here).
3. Either mince the garlic or put it through a garlic press. Add it to your chopped tomato bowl. Ad salt, pepper, and olive oil (Tip: You're going to need a lot of salt to counteract the sweetness of the tomato). Stir together and adjust seasonings as necessary
4. Finally, finely chop the basil leaves and add them to your tomato mixture. (Tip: I have a pretty good technique for chopping broad leafed herbs like basil or mint. I stack the leaves one on top of the other, making sure that the largest leaf is on the bottom. When the pile is complete, I roll it up like a cigar and thinly slice the roll.)

ingredients for the crostini

French or sourdough artisan bread (baguette)

Olive oil

1 clove of garlic, cut lengthwise

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice your baguette at a 45 degree angle.
3. Lay the bread flat on a cookie sheet and brush the top with olive oil. Place them in the oven and bake until golden-brown. Depending on the bread you're using and the thickness of the slice, this will take anywhere from 3-10 minutes.
4. When the crostini are out of the oven, rub the top of each cracker with the garlic clove that you've cut in half. Serve with bruschetta (Note: Don't pre-load your crostini with the bruschetta. It's a nice thought, but the only thing that ends up happening is that your crackers get really soggy.)

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Soup: Gazpacho

Cold soups are one of the most underrated dishes in the world, and I can't, for the life of me, understand why. There are very few things more refreshing on a disgusting, sticky August day. I've been making a ton of it this summer, but I'm not quite sure of the proportions I've been using, so I sort of made the recipe up. You should feel free, then to experiment with different mixtures and see what comes out.

ingredients

2-3 medium tomatoes

1-2 bell pepper

1-3 medium cucumbers

1/2-1 large red onion

Smoked Chipotle Tabasco sauce, salt, pepper to taste.

1. Core your tomatoes. Roughly chop your veggies and throw them in either a blender or a food processor. Process them until they are the texture of a fruit smoothie.
2. Adjust vegetable proportions and seasonings to taste.
3. Chill for at least 4 hours, and serve as cold as possible.

For those of you who like a more precise recipe, I tried this Chilled Golden Tomato Bisque out last night-- it was awesome. It's a fairly forgiving recipe too. For example, I swapped the cream for milk, and then threw in some lemon and basil in the mix and it turned out just lovely.

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Salad: Tomato Stack

The tomato stack is, in its essentials, a Caprese Salad. I feel like this is just a fun twist on an excellent classic

ingredients

Tomatoes that are roughly equal in size (again, I like to use different colors, but that's not to say that a beautiful red tomato stack is any less appetizing)

Fresh mozzerella cheese (Log should be about the same diameter as your tomatoes)

Basil leaves

High quality balsamic vinegar & olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

1. Core your tomatoes. Carefully cut them into slices of even thickness. Discard the end pieces.
2. Lay the tomatoes flat and salt and pepper each slice.
3. While the flavor from the seasoning is soaking into the tomatoes, cut the mozzerella so that each slice is about as half as thick as a tomato slice.
4. Create the stacks by piling alternating slices of tomato and mozzerella. I usually keep my stacks between 4 and 6 slices of tomato, and between 3 and 5 slices of cheese.
5. Drizzle each stack with the balsamic and olive oil, keeping the proportion about 2/3 vinegar and 1/3 oil. Garnish with basil (Note: I like to shred my basil like I explained in the bruschetta recipe. It's really pretty on the salad)

A nice variation on this is to add a little basil pesto sauce instead of fresh basil leaves. This covers the olive oil too. Delicious.

*****

Main Course: Warm Pasta Salad with Tomato and Feta Cheese

This is one of my all time favorites, and it's a summer staple in my household. My mom might crucify me for sharing the secret with you all, but really it's too good to keep under wraps.

ingredients

1 lb fusilli or penne pasta

1.5 c feta cheese (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)

3/4-1 c chopped basil leaves

2.5 c diced tomatoes

2-3 cloves of garlic

1/4 c olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Put the olive oil, garlic, basil, and feta in the bottom of a large pasta bowl. Mix them together and set them aside.
2. Begin to boil your pasta water. Don't forget to generously salt the water and throw in about 2 tbs of vegetable oil so the noodles don't stick together.
3. As you're waiting for your water to boil, begin dicing your tomatoes. When the water is boiling, put the fusilli in to cook, and then put your diced tomatoes in the pasta bowl with the basil-feta mixture.
4. When the pasta is al dente, strain it, dump it into the bowl with the tomatoes and feta and mix together. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy. No, really. Seriously. Enjoy.