An ode to the tomato
Apart from having the garden’s broadest palette, tomatoes are the backbone of so many favourite dishes. Chefs share the best ways to use them.
WHAT is it about tomatoes? That they have the garden’s broadest colour palette? That they impress straight off the vine? That they’re the backbone of so many favourite dishes? That they can grab centre stage in a near-improvised meal? That their highly perishable qualities make them the poster child for locally grown foods? That they take to preservation of all stripes, whether it’s freezing, or canning?
All of the above. Find out how three Twin Cities (Minneapolis– Saint Paul) chefs in the United States make the most of this fleeting bounty.
Wyatt Evans, Heirloom
Tomato love: “I have a love-hate relationship with tomatoes,” he said. “I love fresh tomatoes when they’re in season, but when they’re not, I don’t bother. If they’re not local, and in season, they’re like an unripe avocado, and why bother? You know it’s going to be a disappointment. I’m picky about them.”
In the restaurant’s kitchen garden, he’s cultivating Napa Chardonnay Blush cherry tomatoes, and Michael Pollans, named for the food writer.
“I’ve never grown them before,” he said. “They’re pear-shaped, an Italian plum tomato. They’re a bit larger than a cherry tomato. I don’t think they’ll turn out too big.”
Tips: “You want a tomato that has never seen refrigeration; that’s always going to be the best tomato,” he said. “At work, we store them on a flat surface, shoulders and stem down, in a single layer, at room temperature. It depends on how ripe they are when they’re picked, but you’ve usually got about three days. That’s the tragic dichotomy of ripeness. If you pick them when they’re really, really ripe, then they’ve already hit their apex and they’re on their way to going rotten. You need that beautiful little window – when they’re just becoming ripe – to get the maximum in terms of flavour and texture.”
Off the clock, he follows the KISS – Keep it Simple, Stupid – rule. Tomato slices, with very few embellishments.
“I don’t care for balsamic vinegar with tomatoes,” he said. “All that’s necessary is really good olive oil and really good salt. Or make a salad, cutting them and tossing them with herbs from the garden. Or a BLT. Toasted bread, tomatoes, lettuce and good-quality bacon, that’s our go-to at home. Just work with what you have on hand, and have fun with it.”
His recipe: Oven-parched tomatoes. “It’s what you do when you have a ton of tomatoes around, and you’ll never be able to use them all,” he said. “This will extend their shelf life by a week, and that’s the difference between using them an throwing them away. And it concentrates their flavours.”
It’s easy. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil and preheat the oven
200°C. to Depending upon the size of the tomato, Evans advises cutting the larger tomatoes into quarters, and the smaller ones into thick slices. Toss the tomatoes with chopped shallot and garlic, salt, fresh thyme and olive oil. Bake them two to six hours (depending upon the size of the tomatoes), until the tomato’s skin is easily removed.
“You don’t want them to get to the sun-dried stage,” he said. “Take them to where they’re moist, and leathery, not dry.”
Transfer the peeled tomatoes to a tightly covered container and refrigerate for up to a week.
“Use it as you would use tomato paste,” he said. “Or put them on pizza. For me, it’s a pantry staple.”
At the restaurant: “They’ll find their way into the menu,” he said. “We’ll do a chilled gazpacho soup. I’ll make a Bloody Mary cocktail sauce. And a flavoured aspic for a shrimp dish. I love mint and tomato together. And I really like a pickled element with tomatoes, because i makes the tomatoes sweeter. Like onions, or ramps, or cucumbers, gently pickled, nothing too assertive.”
Alan Bergo, Lucia’s
Tomato love: “When tomatoes are in season, it’s like Christmastime,” he said. “I’ve come to terms with the fact that our geographical region is what it is. Our tomatoes taste good when they’re in season, and that’s it. When you have less of something, it means you like it more. If we had heirlooms all year, they would become kind of routine. But if you wait, and wait, and wait, and keep checking the availability and they finally show up, it’s all that much more exciting.”
Tips: “It’s super fun to try to get to know the different species,” he said. “You can turn the farmers market into a big Easter egg hunt. I love the little Sun Golds, they’re so good. I don’t see white tomatoes very often, but making a white tomato sauce is supercool.”
His recipe: Pasta with heirloom tomatoes. “I like to blanch heirlooms, peel off the skin, take out the seeds and then toss them with pasta, butter, herbs and a little garlic or garlic scapes,” he said.
It starts by filling a pot with salted water and bringing it to a boil over high heat.
“The water has to be boiling, really boiling, with a little salt in it,” he said. “Use a paring knife and score the tomatoes. Carefully drop them in the water for a short time – super-brief, just a few seconds for an heirloom, because the skins are so fragile – and then immerse them in ice water.”
When they’re cool enough to handle, the skins will peel right off. From there, he cuts the tomatoes to remove the seeds. The next step is to prepare the pasta, according to the directions on the package.
While the pasta is cooking, “take a big blob of butter and some olive oil,” he said, and place them in a skillet over medium heat. In goes some garlic (or garlic scapes), which he cooks until it’s just starting to brown. To that he’ll add some fresh basil and red pepper flakes.
“Maybe I’ll wilt a handful of greens, if we have them, or I’ll add some shrimp,” he said.
Toss in the peeled and seeded tomatoes, lightly stir to combine, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Drain the pasta, then toss the pasta with the tomato-garlic mixture. A beautiful summer dinner, in less than 20 minutes.
“On the farm, this is one of our favourites,” he said.
At the restaurant: “We get in as many tomatoes as possible, and put them all over the menu,” he said. “I’m in love with a chopped-up watermelon and tomatoes. A little bit of vinegar, some jalapeños – or those tiny hot dried chiles – and some feta, or chèvre. Herbs, too, maybe lemon basil, or mint. It’s hard to find dishes that hit all sorts of notes at once, but this one does, it’s a complex combination. You get
sour, sweet, salty, spicy, aromatic and cold and refreshing, all at once. Sometimes we forget that tomatoes are a fruit and not a vegetable. We sell out of it.”
Brianna Baldus, Wise Acre Eatery
Tomato love: “I have a lot of fond memories around tomatoes,” she said. “I grew up in a small town in southern Minnesota. I’d walk down to my great-grandparents’ house. My great-grandpa would be reading his newspaper on the porch, and he’d get a tomato and cut it in half. One side got salt; the other side got sugar. He’d eat the salt first, then the sweet, then he’d smoke his pipe and eat honey roasted peanuts. I would eat tomatoes like apples. The other grandkids would be eating sugar cookies.”
Tips: Baldus likes to turn excess cherry tomatoes into dinner. Here’s how: Grease a baking sheet with olive oil, and arrange whole cherry tomatoes in a single layer. Add whole cloves of garlic, splash with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (for a sweeter profile, add honey) and season with salt and pepper. Roast in a 375 degree oven for about 25 minutes, then add fresh herbs (“whatever you have in the garden”) and roast for an additional five minutes.
“You roast them until they’re luscious, and juicy, and they’re beautiful when they shrivel,” she said. “Pair it with pasta; use it as a crostini at a dinner party or serve it as a side dish. I freeze it, and I’ve also canned it, because it makes for a great on-the-fly gift. You get invited to a party on a Sunday night, and you can grab something homemade in your cupboard.”
Her recipe: “I like to do a simple galette,” she said. “It’s supereasy. You don’t even have to make the dough; you can use store-bought puff pastry.”
Since she always has Dijon mustard in her refrigerator, she spreads it across the puff pastry. “Then I’ll slice tomatoes thin and spread them out. Top that with ricotta and fresh basil – or an herb mix from my garden.” Bake according to the instructions on the puff pastry package. “It’s dinner in less than half an hour,” she said. “It’s so versatile. You can do minis – line muffin tins with puff pastry – and serve them at a dinner party. I made it the other night and had the best leftovers the next day for breakfast, with a poached egg on it.”
At the restaurant: “We’re getting an influx of tomatoes this week, so we’ll have a summer vegetable galette on the menu. It’s a simple go-to, and it’s so relatable.” Oh, and ketchup.
“We’ve got a lot of Green Zebra tomatoes coming in this week,” she said. “We’ll pickle the majority, but we’ll also start making green tomato ketchup. We have a long-standing debate at the restaurant as to what real ketchup is. Here’s my kick to those who yell at me on Yelp because I don’t have quote-unquote ‘real’ ketchup: We’re never going to offer Heinz because I have all of these great ingredients at my disposal: beets, rhubarb, green tomatoes. That’s something that Beth [Fisher, Baldus’ predecessor and mentor] really instilled into me.”
One can get a taste of the farm’s impressive tomato output when Baldus hosts the Wise Acre annual on-the-farm dinner on Aug 19 at its Plato, Minneapolis acreage.
“That’s going to be my big push for tomatoes,” she said. “You’ll see a lot of tomatoes on that menu.” – Star Tribune/ Tribune News Service