Tomato Recipes


From Joanne Weir's You Say Tomato,
published by Broadway Books

Uncooked Tomato or Pasta Sauce
Delicate fresh no-cook tomato sauces like this one are a perfect foil for fresh poached shellfish tossed with spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccine. Makes about 3 cups.

  • 3 large ripe red or yellow tomatoes, diced
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
  • 1/2 small red onion, diced
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

    Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together. Leave at room temperature for at least 2 hours before serving. Use the sauce the same day that you make it. Refrigerate but bring to room temperature before serving.

    Grilled Bread with Tomatoes and Olive Oil
    In every village in Spain, they make a simple tapa called "pan con tomate", bread with tomatoes. Thick slabs of country-style bread are toasted over a wood fire until lightly golden. Then tomato halves are smeared all over the toast, leaving the seeds, juice, and pulp, and the bread is rubbed with garlic and fruity Spanish olive oil. As an optional garnish, thin slices of Manchego cheese can be added. Manchego cheese is a sheep's milk cheese available in many well-stocked cheese shops. Also Spanish olives, anchovies, or Spanish ham or prosciutto make a nice garnish. Serves 6.

  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Coarse salt
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Twelve 3/4-inch-thick slices country-style bread
  • 6 very ripe red tomatoes, halved
  • Freshly ground black pepper

    Optional garnish, choose one or a combination:
  • 1/2 cup green Spanish olives
  • 12 anchovy fillets, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, drained, and patted dry
  • 6 paper-thin slices Spanish ham or prosciutto
  • 12 paper-thin slices Manchego

    Preheat the broiler or an outdoor grill. In a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic with a pinch of salt. Mix in the oil.

    Broil or grill the bread until golden brown. Cup a tomato half in your palm, rub both sides of one toast with the tomato, squeezing slightly as you go to leave the pulp, seeds, and juice. Repeat with the remaining tomatoes and toasts. Drizzle the olive oil over one side of the toasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve immediately, with the optional garnishes, if desired.

    Tomato Upside-Down Spice Cake

    This old-timey tomato cake is one my great-grandmother used to make with heirloom tomatoes from her garden. Much ahead of her time, she didn't know that the tomatoes she grew would be chic one hundred years later. Serves 8 to 10.

    Topping:
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
  • 2 small ripe red tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced

    Cake:
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • Large pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground mace
  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup molasses
  • 2 large eggs, separated
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
  • A few drops of vanilla

    Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan. For the topping, melt the butter, brown sugar, and ginger in the cake pan over medium-low heat. Cover with a single layer of the tomato slices. If you have more tomatoes, reserve for another use.

    For the cake, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and mace together. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the molasses, then add the egg yolks one yolk at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix well. Add the milk alternately with the dry ingredients, beating well after each addition.

    Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold the whites into the cake batter. Spread the batter over the tomatoes and bake until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.

    Let the cake cool for at least 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen it. Turn the cake over onto a serving platter and let it sit, still in the pan, for another 5 minutes. Remove the pan.

    To serve, whip the cream and flavor with the confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Cut the cake into wedges and serve the cream on the side.