6-18-17 Farfalle with fresh tomato salad and mozzarella

This is a dish that will appear often over the summer.  We wait all year for the fresh tomatoes.  I grew up with summer tomato salad, although my mother never combined it with pasta. It is a treat by itself, especially if you have good Italian bread to sop up the delicious juice.

INGREDIENTS:

1.     Fresh tomatoes, cut into bite size pieces

2.     Olive oil

3.     Water

4.     Garlic – one clove finely chopped

5.     Fresh basil coarsely chopped

6.     Oregano – I prefer the dry oregano because the fragrance reminds of my mom’s salad.

7.     Mozzarella cheese - diced

PROCESS:

Place the tomatoes in a bowl with about ¼ cup of water.  Add the garlic, basil, and olive oil and mix well.  Salt to taste.  When the pasta is ready, drain and mix well with the tomatoes.  Add the cheese to the top of the bowl and serve.

You have to make this a few times to get a feel for the amount of water and oil to use.  No vinegar!!

I recommend making the salad and let it sit for about an hour before dinner.Thinly slice onions are optional.

COMMENTS:

This is a simmer staple.  Tonight we had a side of beet greens from the porch garden cooked in olive oil and butter with shallots and garlic.  Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture.  They were delicious.

TOMATOES - A LOVE AFFAIR

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I love tomatoes.  I love them as much as I love pasta, so obviously I wait with intense anticipation for the late summer months when this most wonderful of the locally grown fruits is available.  How do I survive the rest of the year when fresh tomatoes are not available?  The truth is, I am such a tomatoholic that a harsh winter tomato is better than no tomato, much to the dismay of my dear wife.

Thinking about it, I would have to say that the tomato has been the most prominent food in my life, even more than my beloved pasta.   The lovely Jersey tomato dominates the gastronomic history of my childhood.  There has never been one that matches the flavor and richness of a tomato freshly picked from my father’s garden.

By the time I started school my father had converted the farm from crops to poultry, but always, out of love and necessity, managed a large, abundant vegetable garden.   He cultivated lettuce, asparagus, arugula, corn, and a variety of peppers, but the queen of the garden was the tomato.  This was before the age of the hybrids, and those seeds are no longer readily available; sadly the tomatoes of my childhood are no more.  The plants were not staked or contained in the cages used today.  The vines, laden with their fruit lay on the sandy soil, a mass of green dotted with red.  The tomatoes were generally the size of a tennis ball, maybe a little larger, and sometimes smaller.  It is easy for me to remember the pure delight of slices of fresh tomato and mayonnaise between two slices of bread on any summer day.

Competing with the tomato sandwich for “the best way to enjoy a tomato” title was the tomato salad, so simple, yet absolutely heavenly.  Several tomatoes are cut into bite sized pieces and placed in a bowl with a bit of water and drizzled with olive oil.  Salt, oregano, basil, and chopped garlic are added and mixed in with the tomatoes.  Accompanying the salad should be several thick slices of good Italian bread to sop up all the wonderful juices.

My dad, years later, in his beloved garden when he and my mom lived on our farm in Maryland.

TOMATO SALAD...pasta...7-22

Next to pasta, this is the most memorable dish from my mother’s kitchen. It was made with tomatoes grown in south Jersey soil in the ‘40s and ‘50s, before they were spoiled by agri-business’ genetic manipulations. The tomatoes from my father’s garden were the crown jewels of summertime; sadly, like so many childhood experiences, I took them for granted.

That was then. Today, despite the decline in flavor, tomato salad remains a favorite summer dish for me. Several years ago I began using it as the “sauce” for pasta (usually Rigatoni). I’ve posted variations of this previously…May 12, and June 20. Tonight’s dish is all about the simple, un-adorned salad, using tomatoes from Graves County that I purchased this morning at the Farmer’s Market.



The real delight in this dish is when the pasta and tomatoes are gone and you are looking at a dish filled with the most delightful juice…waiting for you to sop it up with a piece of thick Italian bread.

INGREDIENTS:

Fresh tomatoes…not Roma…cut into bite size pieces
Fresh Basil, oregano
Onion…several thin slices, chopped
Garlic, finely chopped
Olive oil
Water
Rigatoni or shell pasta

PROCESS:

1-2 hours before dinner prepare the salad. Place the tomatoes in a bowl, add about 2-3 tablespoons of water, about ¼ cup of olive oil, and the remaining ingredients…mix well, cover, and set aside. Do not refrigerate. (I prefer the tomatoes at room temperature.)



Place the cooked pasta in a bowl, add the tomato salad and mix well. Drizzle with olive oil and serve immediately.

COMMENTS:

I cannot be objective regarding this dish…there are too many memories associated with tomato salad…all of them wonderful.