It's Caprese Time!

[Scarpozzi]

Anyone else enjoying tomatoes and basil right now? This is probably my favorite time of year for food.

 

[nakedfrog]

I don't enjoy tomatoes until they've been turned into sauce.

 

[Captante]

Not a fan of the mozz, pesto or any cheese/dairy myself, BUT I did have a Pepe's New Haven fresh tomato pie with basil and sausage the other night! (yum!!)

*(NOT my pie ... picture sausage in place of sun-dried tomato's)

 

[brianmanahan]

i made a grilled cheese with ketchup and miracle whip tonight, does that count?

it was heinz

 

[Scarpozzi]

Not a fan of the mozz, pesto or any cheese/dairy myself, BUT I did have a Pepe's New Haven fresh tomato pie with basil and sausage the other night! (yum!!)

*(NOT my pie ... picture sausage in place of sun-dried tomato's)

That works. We just have a ton of cherry tomatoes and caprese is a great way to get rid of them. 😎

 

[MrSquished]

That looks perfect. I appreciate the addition of the red onion. Adds a great contrast.

Fresh sweet tomatoes, and fresh made muzz, can't go wrong. Quite a few delis here make their muzz every day, I need to go pick some up.

Also gotta go eat the BLT at Tom Colicchio's Craftwich, he only puts it on the menu when this one farmer in Jersey has his tomatoes in season. Which is now.

 

[Scarpozzi]

That looks perfect. I appreciate the addition of the red onion. Adds a great contrast.

Fresh sweet tomatoes, and fresh made muzz, can't go wrong. Quite a few delis here make their muzz every day, I need to go pick some up.

Also gotta go eat the BLT at Tom Colicchio's Craftwich, he only puts it on the menu when this one farmer in Jersey has his tomatoes in season. Which is now.

It's also go kosher salt, really good olive oil and 25 year old balsamic vinegar too. Unfortunately, the mozzarella isn't fresh and even moreso.... it's mozzarella and not burrata.

 

[DigDog]

i hate cherry toms.

 

[Captante]

That works. We just have a ton of cherry tomatoes and caprese is a great way to get rid of them. 😎

My dad used to grow huge piles of them when I was a kid... spent all summer eating them like candy out of a big bowl in the kitchen.

I still love fresh ones... lately been making omelette's with them.

 

[brianmanahan]

i hate cherry toms.

cherry toms = best toms

 

[Captante]

cherry toms = best toms

Actually my favorite variety/size for eating uncooked is (usually) called a "cocktail" tomato and is slightly larger/more robust. I usually use actual cherry-size tomato's in cooking.

These are the ones I get in my area... slightly smaller then a golf ball.

They also often have locally grown "on the vine" of the same type sold by the lb in the organic section of Stop & Shop. (New England Grocery store)

 

[ultimatebob]

i made a grilled cheese with ketchup and miracle whip tonight, does that count?

it was heinz

Only if you sprinkled on some dried basil from the Dollar General spice rack!

 

[DigDog]

cherry toms = best toms

i would forgive anyone who lives in the british isles for thinking as much.

Here: https://www.quisisana.com/en/m-index
where, according to wikipedia, we have the first known historic mention of a Caprese salad - from this island of Capri.
Go there, and have a caprese.

 

[Captante]

i made a grilled cheese with ketchup and miracle whip tonight, does that count?

it was heinz

Now if you had gone with Hellman's then MAYBE we could talk....

Only if you sprinkled on some dried basil from the Dollar General spice rack!

I was going to say only if you were using it as a substitute for Syrup of ipecac!

 

[MrSquished]

My dad used to grow huge piles of them when I was a kid... spent all summer eating them like candy out of a big bowl in the kitchen.

I still love fresh ones... lately been making omelette's with them.

On point. Eggs and tomatoes is delicious. Sometimes I'll make that for a late night snack. Maybe with some mushrooms or onions too. But the tomaters are the key ingredient.

 

[brianmanahan]

i would forgive anyone who lives in the british isles for thinking as much.

pfft, i live in 'murica

though i guess you can think of that as a really big island that speaks british

Here: https://www.quisisana.com/en/m-index
where, according to wikipedia, we have the first known historic mention of a Caprese salad - from this island of Capri.
Go there, and have a caprese.

oh man i would love to go

but i don't think i will travel until 2025 at the earliest, and i bet most restaurants and hotels will be out of business at that point

 

[NuclearNed]

Holy cow I love me some caprese. We live right down the road from the Scott's Farms store (Scarpozzi knows what that means) so this time of year the tomatoes are the best!!!

I will say your pic intrigues me... I've never put onion slivers on my caprese. Seems like a great idea.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Holy cow I love me some caprese. We live right down the road from the Scott's Farms store (Scarpozzi knows what that means) so this time of year the tomatoes are the best!!!

I will say your pic intrigues me... I've never put onion slivers on my caprese. Seems like a great idea.

Cherry tomatoes are super easy to grow. Tomato vines will actually shoot up, then you have a set of flowers that turn into tomatoes. Cherries will form like 6 or so....then when they start getting ripe, the vine keeps going and you'll have another 12 or so....you pick the first set and the plant focuses on the other fruit more. Most farmers actually grow them in greenhouses and train them to grow horizontally so they can keep harvesting fruit and continually redirect them. We trained a few to grow over a trellis last year from both sides and we ended up letting a lot die on the vine.

We had so many last year that we've had a few plants pop up in the yard from birds that ate them last year and deposited seeds around. Once we realized they were tomatoes, we either transplanted them or staked and mowed around them.

I know where you're talking about and the gun range up there too.

 

[DigDog]

pfft, i live in 'murica

ok, alternative solution; get some seeds and plant your own tomatoes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tomato_cultivars
call up the seed company and ask which tomato will do well on your soil and climate.

Let them stay on the plant until they become soft. We'd harvest ours when they started falling off.

and then you need some decent mozzarella.

 

[Scarpozzi]

ok, alternative solution; get some seeds and plant your own tomatoes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tomato_cultivars
call up the seed company and ask which tomato will do well on your soil and climate.

Let them stay on the plant until they become soft. We'd harvest ours when they started falling off.

and then you need some decent mozzarella.

My wife's about had it with all the varieties she's planted this year. You always hear that San Marzanos are what you want to plant. She also did quite a few heirloom tomatoes which have been really neat looking, but they don't always yield big fruit. At this point, she's ready to shift gears and just go for the hybrids. She's saying, "Why would someone make a hybrid unless it was to solve a problem."

For her, it's all about efficiency when canning. By the time you core them and peel them, bigger tomatoes is less work.

Of course, I think the larger fruit usually has a milder flavor. I think the smaller tomatoes tend to be sweeter and have more developed flavor for sauce....but what do I know?

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Anyone else enjoying tomatoes and basil right now? This is probably my favorite time of year for food.

How many calories for that entire thing?

 

[DigDog]

i'm not a great fan of San Marzano. They are good for making sauce, but not for eating raw. I mean, you still can, but a good beefsteak style tomato kicks their ass.

And yes, heirloom. Hybrids always trade some flavour for efficiency, whether it's longer shelf life, resistance to disease, etc.

As for canning, you know what they say, one thing money can't buy is homegrown tomatoes. Buecause there's only so many and nobody in their right mind would give them away.
I'd rather have less product to can but that it tastes better.

Again, the point here isn't to try to have sauce at hand throughout the year, it's to enjoy those 2 months where you can eat caprese every day with the most delicious tomatoes. And then when it goes cold again you switch to something else.

Caprese is one of those "summer dishes" that are designed to be light on the stomach, because when it comes summer in Italy, it's *hot* and you suddently don't care for sausages and guanciale anymore.

 

[nakedfrog]

i'm not a great fan of San Marzano. They are good for making sauce, but not for eating raw. I mean, you still can, but a good beefsteak style tomato kicks their ass.

And yes, heirloom. Hybrids always trade some flavour for efficiency, whether it's longer shelf life, resistance to disease, etc.

As for canning, you know what they say, one thing money can't buy is homegrown tomatoes. Buecause there's only so many and nobody in their right mind would give them away.
I'd rather have less product to can but that it tastes better.

Again, the point here isn't to try to have sauce at hand throughout the year, it's to enjoy those 2 months where you can eat caprese every day with the most delicious tomatoes. And then when it goes cold again you switch to something else.

Caprese is one of those "summer dishes" that are designed to be light on the stomach, because when it comes summer in Italy, it's *hot* and you suddently don't care for sausages and guanciale anymore.

 

[Fritzo]

i hate cherry toms.

Me too...I hate raw tomatoes in general, but I love tomato sauces and soups. I have that gene that makes raw tomatoes taste like blood

 

[DigDog]

when i was young (idk, <14) the acidity of the tomato hurt my belly and made them disgusting to me. Now that i've practically got a foot in the grave i much prefer them raw.

People who .. MY FAMILY, when they grew tomatoes, they would eat them that they are picked from the plant, and the fruit has gotten to the point where it's "good today, but rotten tomorrow". They keep them on the vine for as long as possible to maximise that tomatoey flavour, and tomatoes are criticized for being "green" if they are not there on near that level of ripe.
Nowadays with nitrogen-pumped tomatoes, they get red but taste nothing like they should, and not only are they "green", but they are ven horrible to bite into. And frankly i think cherry tomatoes only accent that type of taste, literally the one we do not want.

I was recently at a farmer's market and they were selling 4huge beefsteak tomatoes for £3 which was a steal, and they were far better than anything that i can buy in the local Sainsbury's (large UK supermarket chain). They actually tasted of something. Yeah ok, nothing like you get in the south of italy, but then again i'm not expecting miracles.


Tomato is a plant that wants a lot of sun. It gives much better fruits when it gets that much sun, and when it doesn't, the fruits are more acidic and less tasty. Add that the supermarket tomatoes are grown in sterile soil, and pumped full of nitrogen to force growth, and that's why they are bad compared to soil grown, hot climate tomatoes.

FYI cherry tomatoes were developed specifically for their long shelf life, *not* for taste.