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Get ready for tomatoes
It's almost time for the fruit to make its debut
Whether purchased from the farmers market or grown in your own garden, tomatoes' arrival is summer's most anticipated event. Cory Young/Tulsa World file
By KIM BROWN World Scene Writer
Published: 7/4/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 7/4/2009 3:53 AM
Are you ready for summer's most anticipated event?
It's almost tomato time.
Whether you buy from a farmers market or pluck them from your own garden, fresh tomatoes are like no other fruit.
If you're lucky and have access to ripened tomatoes, you could make something refreshing for the Fourth of July.
Here's a simple bruschetta recipe I've adapted over the years to make use of my fresh basil and tomatoes when they're ripe. A store-bought tomato will suffice, but there's nothing like the colors of homegrown tomatoes to make this a beautiful appetizer or snack.
BRUSCHETTA FOR TWO
3 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped coarsely and with seeds removed
5 large basil leaves, julienned
2 or 3 cloves of minced garlic (to taste)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 baguette
1 generous pinch of kosher or sea salt
1 pinch of freshly ground pepper
1. Combine tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil in small bowl. Stir, adding salt and pepper. Allow to sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice baguette into pieces 1/2-inch thick and spread on baking sheet. Drizzle or brush each slice with olive oil. Lightly salt and pepper bread and bake for about 8-10 minutes until slightly golden and crisp.
3. Top each slice with a heaping tablespoon of bruschetta.
Another great
way to get your meal started is with a fresh salsa. This one serves up a twist by using fresh mango. It comes from the 2006 cookbook "House Beautiful: Welcome to the Table" by Barbara Scott-Goodman (Hearst Books, $24.95).
TOMATO-MANGO SALSA
4 tomatoes (about 1 pound), seeded and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
3 small or 2 large ripe mangoes, peeled and diced
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, deveined and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons white vinegar
Juice of 1 lime
1. Combine the tomatoes, mangoes, onion, pepper, cilantro, garlic and pepper flakes in a large nonreactive bowl and mix gently.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the pineapple juice, orange, juice, vinegar and lime juice. Add to the tomato mixture and mix gently. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days). Serve chilled or at room temperature.
In print
Two new books
on tomatoes — one
a novel, the other a
collection of essays.
Tomato rhapsody
A Fable of Love, Lust
& Forbidden Fruit
Adam Schell (Delacorte,
$25)
Forbidden fruit
because, in Italy
as elsewhere, the
tomato was initially
viewed with suspicion.
Before it was
revered for its utility
in cooking, delicious
fruitiness and, much
later, its health qualities,
the tomato was
considered a red, fat
piece of poison.
Which makes
the idea of a Tuscan
romance between a
Jewish tomato farmer
and the Catholic
stepdaughter of an
olive merchant simmer
like an August
hotbed. Schell — a
college linebacker
turned yoga teacher
— writes passionately
about how
the tomato came
to Italy. On such a
topic, passions run
high.
Heirloom
Notes From an Accidental
Tomato Farmer
Tim Stark (Broadway,
$14)
“Heirloom” came
out in hardcover last
year, and it’s a story
worth repeating.
Stark was a government
consultant
(and moonlighting
writer) who — in
one of those larks
that build from
strangulation of
the spirit — Dumpster
dived one day
for a pile of scrap
pipes and lumber.
From this, he built a
germination rack for
heirloom tomatoes
(Cherokee Purple,
Green Zebra, Garden
Peach).
From that came
a farming operation
in Pennsylvania
Dutch country that
supplied New York’s
Union Square Farmers
Market, where
locals and chefs
Batali and Boulud
grabbed them up
and got Stark out of
the office.
- Mark Brown, World Scene Editor
Kim Brown 581-8474
kim.brown@tulsaworld.com
By KIM BROWN World Scene Writer
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