the
domestic goddess - devoted to the art of food and its preparation |
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16. june: you say tomato...I say delicious
A botanist would say that a "fruit" is any fleshy material that covers a seed or seeds (but what about strawberries?). A horticulturist would, in contrast, claim that the tomato is a vegetable plant. In history, the tomato was classified (thanks to the industrious and creative tomato-farmer, John Nix) as a fruit, in order to avoid taxation, at least until the late 1800’s when the Supreme court ruled that the tomato was in fact a vegetable. Fruit or vegetable, the tomato is one versatile ingredient. Chop a tomato into 1/2" cubes, warm them, serve them over pasta with olive oil, pesto and a grating of parmigianno and you're having some amazingly easy, delightfully delicious pasta. Pair chopped tomato with toasted, garlic infused french bread and some chevre and you have the perfect (according to me) bruschetta. Slice some tomatoes thinly, add to thinly sliced mozzarella and thinly sliced eggplant, grill and you have some gorgeous, towering appetizers. Simmer some tomatoes with herbs and puree and you have a light, scrumptious, creamy tomato soup. There are a million and one ways to prepare tomatoes, and I have to say, I think I would enjoy every one of them. There was a time when tomatoes weren't so revered. In the 16th century, when the British were introduced to them, they admired the tomato for its beauty, but believed that it was poisonous. Thank goodness they're not today...for dinner tonight we had a delicious fresh pasta with the sun-dried tomato pesto (thanks, Clotilde!), chevre and parmagianno-reggianno. Oh, heavenly.
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