Whatever its accent, tomato is never boring in peak season
Let’s get this straight. A juicy, plump summer tomato needs nothing to bring out its flavor save a pinch of salt. Maybe not even that. Even better — a drizzle of olive oil, a touch of vinegar, slices of sweet onion and slivers of basil. It’s food nirvana.
Others feel strongly, and I don’t disagree, that a summer tomato’s place is firmly clasped between two slices of soft white bread and slathered with mayonnaise. If you’re from the South, Duke’s mayo is your must-have. Northerners reach for Hellman’s and we might toast that bread. Either way, the tomato juices meld happily with the mayonnaise, and that’s why it’s eaten over the kitchen sink.
High tomato season has arrived in my garden. Tomatoes burst forth from my kitchen counters. Maybe you’re inundated also, or you’re inspired by the bounty at farmers markets. With these beauties, sometimes, simple isn’t enough. You want to cook up something special. So we’ve come up with recipes and ideas, combining tomatoes with ingredients that enhance and elevate them.
Botanically, tomatoes are a fruit and fruits are wonderful when mixed with other fruits. Sugar or honey, plus a pinch of salt, will enhance the fruit’s flavor. In this mindset, tomatoes are superb in a salad with velvety sweet nectarines, accentuating the best in both. A little honey in the vinaigrette brings it all together.
The pairing of tomatoes and chilies is a standard in the Latin American kitchen especially in table sauces such as pico de gallo, with its basic mix of chopped tomato, white onion, fresh chili peppers and cilantro. The combination is “ubiquitous in Mexican and Mesoamerican cooking,” says
Maricel Presilla, author of “Peppers of the Americas.”
“Chilies are a pungent enhancer of flavor,” she says. “Chilies with a clean and moderate heat, like serrano, jalapeno and poblano, enhance the flavor of tomatoes and round out their acidity.”
Cheese also enhances the tomato. A classic is salad Caprese, where beautiful firm-ripe tomato slices are interspersed with creamy, fresh mozzarella, splashed with olive oil and showered with basil. The tomato’s juices ooze out, melding with the milky soft cheese. The reason it’s so delicious, explains Jennifer McLagan, author of “Fat” and “Bitter,” is the fat and umami.
“The riper the tomato the more umami,” she says. “Most of the umami is in the tomato seeds and pulp. If you make sauce, you should really keep in the seeds. The combination of summer-perfect, umami-rich tomatoes with the fat of the mozzarella and good olive oil equals total deliciousness.”
Parmesan and sharp cheddar also contain umami. When paired with tomatoes, “they increase that savory taste, making them more intensely tomato-y.”
And butter makes everything better. When the butter is cooked to a toasty brown and spooned over juicy tomato slices, as per our intriguing recipe, it heightens the tomato flavor even more. Why?
Ms. McLagan, who believes that fat also is a flavor, explained: “Butter is a fat, fat carries flavor. Browning the butter intensifies all the flavor compounds in the butter. I’m not sure how much bitterness you are adding with brown butter, but bitter always punches up flavor, even if you can’t detect it.” And you’ve got salt and pepper in there, she says. “That recipe is really hitting all the five or six flavors. It’s a complete dish.”
Ms. McLagan says in the end it’s all about balance. “It’s about getting all those flavors in some kind of perfect harmony. It doesn’t happen very often.”
“I don’t know what makes tomatoes so delicious,” she continues.
Maybe part of the secret is the season is so short, so anticipated. When it comes to tomatoes, let them shine. Simple is best, but sometimes you can do even more.