It’s tomato season and my garden is filled with red and yellow tomatoes everywhere. Inevitably, when I offer tomatoes to people, there’s always someone who claims not to like them. Of course they don’t. Homegrown tomatoes are a completely different breed from their cardboard counterparts at the supermarket. Chances are, they have never tasted a real tomato.
Recently, I stumbled across an article that explains why the ones at the store taste so terrible. Tomatoes that end up in the grocery store are green when they are picked. The ones that will turn the most beautiful red color and be the most eye appealing to the consumer actually have the lowest sugar content and taste the worst. In contrast, homegrown tomatoes are picked when they are further along. They mature longer on the vine and get to the market quickly. As a result, the sugar content is high and they taste sweet. They just might not look as pretty.
My favorite preparation for homegrown tomatoes is simple: tomatoes, fresh basil (I prefer the Cuban basil I grow in my garden along with some sweet purple basil for color), and fresh mozzarella. I top with a little Kosher salt, fresh pepper, fig balsamic vinegar, and lemon-infused olive oil.
I serve this in several different ways, depending on what type of entertaining I am doing. I love the look of a skewered appetizer with the tomato and mozzarella surrounded by a large basil leaf. When serving on a buffet, I like to do a sliced layered salad on a long, boat-shaped platter. For individual servings, I go for the traditional cubed version of the salad served in a martini glass.
My tomatoes may not win any beauty pageants, but they are gorgeous to me. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all.
