Tomato Talk

“In a world driven by hate, greed and envy, everyone loves tomatoes” wrote food journalist Raymond Sokolov. “Real  (as I will call vine-ripened, soft-walled, acid-flavored, summer-grown) tomatoes are an article of faith, a rallying point for the morally serious...a grail.”

And the holy grail can be found at the market right now where real tomatoes are on parade:  in colors from yolk yellow to 70s orange to fire-engine red and ranging from the size of a gum-ball to the size of your fist, all deftly balancing acid and sweet. Now is the time to enjoy them in as many different ways as possible.

If you're a purist, you'll do what I did last Saturday after coming home from the market, and, even before I put my groceries away: I sliced a thick piece of miche bread from Bien Cuit Bakery, then placed two thick slices of a bulbous yellow heirloom from  Obercreek Farm, scattered them with coarse salt, and drizzled them with some Agape Premium EVOO. I laid a broad leaf of market basil on top and enjoyed it over the kitchen sink to allow for the juice from the tomato and the green oil to drip down my arm. Bliss. 

Tomato sandwiches will undoubtedly be my lunch for the foreseeable future, at least until summer tomatoes give way to squash.
I might actually sit down to eat my sandwich if I make this tomato sandwich with arugula and haloumi or this classic BLT: Head straight to Painted Goat Farm for your haloumi and to R&M Farm for your nitrate-free bacon, which you should cook under a weight to crank up the crisp.

If you fall in the salad camp, consider this tomato and sumac salad, which invites melon to the dance. Chef David Tanis can coax the flavor out of a stone so you know the umami factor will be high. 

One sure way to coax even more flavor out of a tomato is to slow-roast it. Toss your sweet and slightly caramelized tomatoes into your favorite La Trafila pasta with some ricotta from Maplebrook Farm, or serve them on the side of grilled or baked chicken or fish. Or, just slide them into a puff pastry crust and add red onions and ricotta. 

Slipping a slice of heirloom tomato onto your burgers is a MUST. And, so is adding farm-to-jar condiments from Channery Hill Farm. Have you tried their spicy green tomato ketchup, made with their own tomatoes? Dee-lish.

And if you don't have time to cook this week but want in on all the tomato feels, pick up some gazpacho from Soupernatural.

Feel like baking? Pick up some sweet white peaches from Mead andConcklin Orchards to make this white peach and lemon thyme galette.

We've got some Middle-Eastern goodness at the market this week: both Zabari Falafel and Zeena Bakery are in the house. Make a bee-line for your muhammara from Zeena, sure to sell out no matter how much she brings!

Unofficial Ice Cream is back this week with the following flavors: toasted polenta;  corn ice cream with a butterscotch ripple; plum and tallow (tallow ice cream with plum jam) and peach and tomato sorbet. Grab some maamoul cookies from Zeena Bakery to serve with your favorite flavor and call this dinner-party dessert DONE.

Need a poem this week? Our resident  poet,  Julia Gardener, is back with her portable typewriter ready to sling some stanzas.  An ode to the tomato, perhaps?

We are sorry to report that Sugar Shack Creamery has had to shut down their operation due to illness. We will let you know when they are ready to return.

See you at the market!