Bake with abandon!
I can’t believe I didn’t think of half the tomato dishes people suggested yesterday, especially since Summer Fest ended with tomatoes. Given my mental lapse, I’m quite surprised how polite you all were with your suggestions. Not one of you put “Doh!” in your answer or called me names.
Well, I’ll do it for you.
Doh! What sort of Idiot With The IQ of a Kumquat can’t come up with sliced tomatoes with oil and vinegar? Or tomato soup? Or salsa? Or tomato sauce? Thanks to the no-nonsense advice from Former Chef, I enjoyed a plate of vine-ripe tomatoes while the ketchup simmered. (Ketchup recipe later, with a bit of a story that includes “Doh! What sort of Idiot With The IQ of a Kumquat…)
The irony? My mom serves a version of this when we have a corn roast. The only difference? She uses red wine vinegar.
To get the shot before my willpower weakened, I grabbed a plain old white kitchen plate. I thought it would show off the red. And it does…
Two frames in I realized these fleeting summer fresh tomatoes were worthy of My Birthday Dish. A quick re-plate and…
Ta da!
Okay, this isn’t haute cuisine, but if I’m using my very own tomatoes with the last drops of my 25-year-old balsamic vinegar I might as well pull out the Fancy Plate and honour the tomatoes appropriately.
Sure, they’re just sliced tomatoes with a bit of oil, vinegar and herbs, but they do look nice thanks to Mother Nature and a sharp knife.
Now, were these the Best Tomatoes Ever? No. They were flavourful and firm, but they aren’t in the league with the heirloom tomatoes last summer that made me want to grow these blasted nightshades in the first place.
This dish requires no elaborate equipment or culinary talent. No one will praise you for your gastronomic genius, but if the tomatoes are good, you’ll hear words like “delicious”, “wonderful” and “just what I was waiting for all summer.”
I’ll give you the “recipe” but really, it’s a bit like giving you detailed instructions for buttered toast.
I used cilantro, because that’s my favourite, but basil or lemon thyme are wonderful too. I was out of Parmesan, but think it’s a perfect finish.
And to think, my maternal grandfather used to eat fresh sliced tomatoes sprinkled with sugar! What do you put on your tomatoes?
