When They’re Good, They’re Great (Tomatoes: Part I)

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

For his tomato salad recipe (in the Les Halles Cookbook), Anthony Bourdain asserts with his characteristic insouciance, “If you can’t get a good tomato, don’t make the damn dish.”

He’s right, of course.  The best tomato dishes are utterly pointless out of season; you really need to reserve them for July, August, and September.  Fortunately, living where we do, we enjoy tomatoes that easily match anything Bourdain would have served.  In fact, here, nothing epitomizes “seasonal” or “local” more than tomatoes: the intense sweetness of sungolds, the meatiness of the larger heirloom varieties, the balance of acid and sweet in the those gorgeously marbled yellow-and-red and “zebra” variations. 

At the peak of the season, each recipe should, to me, do very little to obfuscate the flavor.  Simplicity becomes key: sliced with just a bit of salt; sliced with mozzarella, olive oil (really, really good oil) and torn basil leaves; barely-cooked with herbs and garlic and served with eggs; chopped and heated-through-but-uncooked with a sofrito (gently long-simmered onions and garlic) tossed with short pasta; or briefly sautéed sungolds in oil and garlic until they “pop” and tossed with some herbs (chives, basil) and long pasta.

I am fairly certain that tomatoes are the reason I got into local, seasonal produce in the first place.  For about three months of the year, each year, I am reminded of how one fruit could be responsible for such a change.