How to Eat Weekends
Tasteless Tomatoes
October 19, 2011
4 comments
Posted by Sally Swift
I've been thinking a lot this week about something we wrote about in How To Eat Weekends: the idea of doctoring up tasteless tomatoes. With tomato season essentially over for much of the country and my die-hards clinging hard and fast to the vine, it's time to take matters into my own hands. When I started thinking about what makes a tomato pop with flavor, I realized that it's the high flavors that light me up -- the pop of sweet against that bite of acid. Those flavors are hard to find even in the depth of summer. So it's time to manufacture that contrast without Mother Nature.
Here are some ideas to heighten tomato flavor.
If you have the time, channel the heat of the southern Mediterranean. Think slow and long . Place halved tomatoes on a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and sugar (a bit more sugar than salt). Slowly roast in a 200- to 250-degree oven until shriveled -- anywhere from 2 to 8 hours, depending on the size of the tomato. Leave lots of room between the pieces so they can really dry out. Store them sealed in the refrigerator and use as you would a good tomato.
If you need great tomato taste ASAP, chop them into pieces and doctor them with a dash of fish sauce. Taste and add sugar, and maybe even a little vinegar to get the high notes. The fish sauce brings a meaty umph and the sugar and vinegar bring out the highs and lows.
One more thing about tomatoes: One of the most haunting and powerful interviews we have done all year was with journalist Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2010). Listen
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Great post
I have been slicing fresh tomatoes and sprinkling sugar over them.Then I put them in the refrigerator for a few hours or over night before I use them in salsa.Would salt add anything to the flavor?I put salt in the salsa to taste so I don't add to the tomatoes beforehand.
plum tomatoes with sea salt,olive oil and a bit of red wine vinager usually taste pretty good even in winter , taste fresh.
I hear you! Tomatoes are an obsession of mine. This Summer, I grew 26 different heirloom varieties! We live in an area where there is a fairly short growing season. I preserve them in many ways when they are at their peak of flavor, and I don't rely on fresh tomatoes until I can get them from my own garden again. I roast them with garlic and olive oil and then freeze them flat in freezer bags; and this past year I made tomato jam! I also take raw tomatoes and either freeze them whole or cut up if they are large, then they can be added to recipes or made into tomato sauce or ketchup in the fall when I have more time for such things. Personally, I don't buy tomatoes in the Winter partially because they don't live up to my expectations, but mostly because they are coming from too far away to make them a sustainable choice.