(photo: lovely friends are rare in life, lovely friends who give you heirloom tomatoes are the equivalent of Saints; thank you Dr. K.)
One of the loveliest times of the year for individuals enamored with food here in the northeastern section of the United States is late August because, amongst other fruits and vegetables, the tomato crop is in full swing. Here in New Jersey you can find excellent, high quality, heirloom tomatoes at small local markets, farmer’s markets, and in the tiny backyards of local residents. In fact, the tomatoes are so good in the New York metropolitan area that I’d venture to say they are one of the few food types found in the Unites States that are just as good, or even better, than their Italian counterparts.
We consume the ubiquitous tomato salad (see our recipe) 4x-5x per week from late August through mid to late September and we mourn the loss of the tomato season come October. We prepare our tomato salad in two manners, namely:
- sliced with red onion, basil, Kosher salt, black pepper, dried oregano, red onion, and extra virgin olive oil or,
- chopped with red onion, cucumber, basil, Kosher salt, black pepper, dried oregano, red onion, and extra virgin olive oil.
Good bread is also a necessity when preparing a high quality tomato salad as it’s the mopping agent for the incredible juice that is produced by way of the tomato, salt, and extra virgin olive oil. In fact, the juice is so prized in our household it’s one of the few times that I battle my wife for a piece of food at our dinner table!
(photo: some tomatoes given to us by our friend and fan, Dr. K. from PA)
(photo: a sliced tomato salad with three types of heirloom tomatoes; the sliced tomato salad is my favorite)
(photo: heirloom tomatoes courtesy of our good friend, Dr. K.)
