There are so many options. In this list, I’m limiting myself to dishes that use raw tomatoes and are simple enough to describe in a paragraph without a recipe. If you have other ideas, please let us all know in the comment section!
Tomato Plate
This is my personal favorite. I spontaneously came up with the idea many years ago. It was before I ever had one in a restaurant. It was before I really learned about food systems. It was when I’d go to the farmers’ market just a few times each summer. I decided to purchase tomatoes of different colors and taste them side by side. I knew these tomatoes would taste way better than anything from the grocery, but I was surprised at how different they all tasted. Sure, they all tasted like tomatoes, but each was unique. Just like all red wine tastes like red wine, but each has its own striking and subtle nuances. This was a big step in my journey into conscious gastronomy. This is so simple. Get as many different varieties of tomato as you can find. Slice them up and plate them. Drizzle some really good olive oil and sprinkle some salt. I like to add a dab of basil pesto and some chèvre on the side. If you have guests who have never tasted different varieties, side by side, this will be an eye-opening experience.
Caprese
The Italian classic. Tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella cheese. Layer them in a pretty fashion if you have the time and inclination. And a drizzle of really good olive oil. That’s it. In the Italian fashion, a few of the best quality ingredients, paired together and prepared simply. Understated elegance. In the US, we often add a drizzle of balsamic vinegar or a balsamic glaze. That’s not how it’s done in Italy. My wife spent 2.5 years in Rome, lucky girl, before I met her. I trust when she tells me she never saw any balsamic on caprese in Italy. And having tried both ways, I feel that any vinegar distracts from the flavors of the other ingredients. I do like a sprinkle of salt, though.
Bruschetta
Another Italian classic. This is best made with paste tomatoes, such as Roma. Optimally you should take the time to deseed the tomatoes, so the dish does not get watered down by the tomato gel. But I often make bruschetta by quartering cherry tomatoes, and I think it comes out great. Here you do want a little balsamic vinegar. Seed and chop up some tomatoes along with some basil. Stir a little olive oil, balsamic and salt into the mix. Taste. Add a bit more salt or balsamic if you think it needs it. Spoon over garlic scented crostini. Yum.
Buttermilk Biscuit Tomato Sandwich
A Southern classic. Bread, mayo and big ol’ slices of tomato. The most common plating uses grocery store style soft white bread. The idea is that if the bread has any structure, the tomatoes smoosh out the sides when you try to take a bite. I’ve found buttermilk biscuits to be a great compromise. Nice and soft, like Wonder Bread, but way more character and flavor. And the mayo? Growing up, Miracle Whip was in the family fridge. I generally avoided it. After moving to the South, and discovering Duke’s, I was quickly converted.
Open Face Tomato Sandwich on Artisan Bread
I must list the tomato sandwich twice, because I have a second version that I also really like. The whole problem with smooshing the tomatoes out the sides of the sandwich when you bite is mitigated with an open face sandwich. I get a really good bread and slice it fairly thick. I then toast it on the bagel setting so it gets nice and crispy on the top, where I’ll spread the mayo, while the bread stays tender underneath. Vivian Howard has a recipe for Sweet Potato Onion Bread in Deep Run Roots, which she says is great with tomato sandwiches. But she’s also OK with grabbing the sandwich with two hands and having the smooshed tomato juice run down both arms to her elbows. I take the easy route and get a potato, onion and rosemary bread from the Chicken Bridge Bakery at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market or a dill bread from the Sour Bakery at the Chapel Hill Farmers’ Market.
Gazpacho
Everyone’s favorite chilled soup of Spanish descent. Just throw these into a blender: About 2 pounds of tomatoes, cored and roughly cut. One cucumber. I taste the skin at the stem end. If it’s bitter, peel it. If not, leave the peel on. Remove the seeds and roughly chop. A small, mild green chili (bell, Anaheim, cubanelle, etc). Remove the pith and roughly chop. A couple ounces of onion. A clove of garlic. Then add 2 teaspoons of sherry vinegar, a teaspoon of salt, and a couple ounces olive oil. Spanish tradition adds some decrusted bread to the mix, acting as a thickener. Go that route if you want. Blend it up to your desired consistency. Taste for seasoning. Add salt or vinegar if necessary. Chill the gazpacho in the fridge for a couple hours, to a couple days. For serving, I like to garnish with some tasty, chopped basil or chopped parsley and a drizzle of olive oil. Tastes like summertime in a spoon!
Tomato Panzanella
Panzanella is a salad which uses bread cut into croutons as a primary ingredient. A common variety of Panzanella uses tomatoes as a second primary ingredient. It becomes a bit of a riff on bruschetta with the croutons substituting for the crostini. Stale bread is traditionally used to make a Panzanella, where it soaks up the tomato juices. But understand that Panzanella is a bread salad. You don’t want off flavors in the bread. And, when you make this off the cuff, you are more likely to have fresh bread than stale. No problem, just toast up the cubes of bread in the oven, 300F for 15 minutes. For a step up, toss the croutons in olive oil before toasting. Infuse a bit of garlic in that olive oil for a second step up. Anyway, chop up about 12 ounces of bread and toast it up. Chop about 2.5 pounds of tomatoes and transfer to a mixing bowl, saving as much juice as possible. Stir a teaspoon or two of salt into the tomatoes. This will help draw out their juices. Stir in the croutons. Chiffonade a dozen or more basil leaves and stir them into the mix. Stir in a couple ounces of balsamic vinaigrette. Taste, and add more vinaigrette if necessary. You can augment this salad with other things. Options that I like include arugula, pitted Kalamata olives and grated aged Asiago style cheese.
No Cook Tomato Pasta
Well, the pasta gets cooked, but nothing else does. This dish may be thought of as a riff on caprese, but it’s pretty distinct. The dish adds minced raw garlic and you mix up all the ingredients a couple hours ahead of time allowing them to marinate. Chop up about a pound and a half of tomatoes into bite sized chunks and move to a mixing bowl. Try to capture as much tomato juice as possible in the bowl. Mince up some garlic, one big clove or a couple small ones, and add to the bowl. Chop up about a dozen basil leaves and chop up some fresh mozzarella. Add them to the bowl, along with a couple ounces of good olive oil, some salt and several cranks of the black pepper grinder. Stir it all together and then let it marinate together for a couple hours. Restaurant food safety guidelines would require you to put this in the fridge to marinate. If you do, it may take more than a couple hours. I don’t. My wife brought home this technique from Rome, where she says the Italians just leave it on the counter, often for several hours. I stir occasionally because it is fun, and it smells so good. When it’s time, the tomatoes will have broken down quite a bit and the garlic and basil flavors will be well mingled with the juice and olive oil. Taste for salt level and add a bit more if necessary. Prepare a pound of short, dried pasta according to the package directions. Drain the pasta and add to the mixing bowl and stir it all together. The mozzarella will melt a bit given the heat of the pasta. Plate up and enjoy!
