The only thing these beauties have in common with those, stocked in our grocery store’s produce section for most of the year, is in appearance and even then almost not so much. The grocery store tomatoes are uniformly bright red. The tomatoes I stole from my neighbor’s garden are many colors and some variegated with yellow, orange purple or green.
Tasteless Imposters
The supermarket tomatoes are tasteless imposters whose only
redeeming value is that are in fact edible, but then so is cardboard.
If the truth be told for most of the year I avoid tasteless “fresh”
tomatoes, grown in Mexico, bred to ship well and not spoil too quickly. But
during the tomato season, which in Wisconsin generally runs from early August
until sometime in October when we are hit with our first hard frost, I cannot
get my fill of fresh tomatoes.
This is the season of bacon-lettuce-and tomato sandwiches,
of when a slice of tomato can so beautifully top a hamburger or a delicious
turkey sandwich. It’s the season of luscious sauces from fresh ripe tomatoes,
both pasta sauces and curries. It is when they absolutely beam in a salad and
in fact can define a simple salad in a way to make it magnificent. But if going
in that direction, a thoughtful dressing is in order.
A Simple Vinaigrette
In my supermarket after you pass by the mounded bins of
industrial grown faux tomatoes there is a one-hundred foot isle of shelves,
stacked as high as you can reach, and abundantly, with various commercial
“salad dressings.” These are there of course to give those tasteless tomatoes a
facsimile of flavor.
I guess those concoctions are fine after the joy of the
harvest has had its Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year death rattle. They are fine
as we suffer through the lethargy of January, February and March and from time
to time assemble a mostly tasteless salad of greens. Those sad salads are a
hopeful look forward to the spring to come. They aren’t the real thing but a facsimile
of things remembered and those hoped for.
Annatto Extract?
Here’s what’s in the Wish Bone Balsamic Vinaigrette
dressing: water, balsamic vinegar, soybean oil and extra virgin olive oil,
sugar, salt, spices, caramel color, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate and sorbic
acid calcium disodium EDTA, citric acid, natural flavor, sulfur dioxide,
annatto extract.
You can see why dressing a garden fresh tomato, or any other
in-season produce and fruit, with a commercial dressing is almost sinful. It
disgraces the goodness of God’s seasonal bounty. And worse, those commercial
dressings are built with inferior ingredients than those on our cupboard
shelves and in our refrigerators. The one-hundred foot isle in my grocery store
of salad dressings is largely stocked with a-half-dozen or so ingredients that
already on my shelves – variously combining vinegar, oil, eggs, tomato paste,
sour cream, sugar and spices.
They are mixed with many of the same things, but with things
of inferior quality – soybean oil – and other mystery ingredients – annatto
extract. Better cooking with chemistry after all.
Of all the things in the Wish Bone dressing, none of these
are in my pantry: caramel color, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate and sorbic acid
calcium disodium EDTA, citric acid, sulfur dioxide, and annatto extract. I have
never eaten an annatto and for all I know “natural flavor” is, in fact, the
flavorful juice from pressed pig’s ears.
Blue Cheese isn't a Sin
Eating in season means a sliced peach dressed with heavy
cream and a few toast triangles for dunking is a beautiful breakfast. It also
means beautiful ripe tomato wedges should be properly dressed. It’s a
thoughtful thing, not here’s your choice of Ranch, French, or Italian. For a
beautiful salad of tomato wedges the sauce is the key – complementary and not
overpowering. This one is simple oil vinaigrette. And garnishing it with some
crumbled Blue cheese wouldn’t be a sin.
Here's how it goes to
serve two to four.
1 or 2 tomatoes sliced into wedges
¼ cup olive oil.
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. dried basil
1 Tbs. minced garlic
½ medium onion very thinly sliced
1 tsp. prepared Dejon mustard
Thoroughly mix the dressing then add the tomatoes and
onions, marinate at room temperature for about two hours. Serve the tomatoes
and onions over a bed of Iceberg lettuce torn into bite sized pieces. Drizzle additional
dressing as desired over salad when serving. Garnish with crumbled Blue cheese or
chopped fresh basil.
Parting Thoughts for Consideration
Because of its crunch and because this salad is intended to
highlight tomatoes, iceberg lettuce is a perfect complement. The dressing,
unlike its Wish Bone facsimile, contains no water balsamic vinegar is very
mild, there is no sugar the basil serves as a sweetener, the oil is all olive
oil rather than a blend. Better cooking with real food.
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