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No, jungle drums aren’t talking – it’s the tomatoes out in the garden and they’re yelling to be picked. The ripening started a few weeks ago, one here, one there, then a few more; now we have the full chorus, fortissimo, and we can barely keep up. The Captain has already started canning what we can’t eat.
In addition to his delicious canned sauce, he makes a couple of things with fresh tomatoes that are quick, easy and a joy to eat: insalata caprese:
and pasta with a fabulous fresh tomato and herb sauce, about which I wrote a year ago:
The Caprese makes great use of fresh basil, which has also been growing like mad in pots on the terrace (much happier in pots than in the garden). Which brings to mind another of the Captain’s quick and easy summer treats: the bruschetta that he learned to make from his Sicilian mother:
Recipes for the three dishes above can be found here, here and here and over on the right under ‘Good Recipes’.
Here’s one of my very favorite summer treatments for tomatoes: go out to the garden with a paring knife and a salt shaker. Find the plumpest, ripest tomato you can and pick it. Cut it in half, salt liberally, and eat it right there in the garden. This is best done on a hot day when the tomato has been gently heated by the sun. Yum. Summer tomatoes and basil. What could be more delicious?
An Ex-Expatriate 
Ha! My inlaws came over for a grigliata today and the first thing my father-in-law says when he saw the garden was “When are you going to pick your tomatoes? These are ready to be picked!”
I just smiled and nodded my head, for I knew he would inevitably say something (his usual critique) as he always does when it comes to us “kids”.
Oh, the old ones always know best… odd thing is, often they do! Your FinL sounds like a good guy. Does he spray his tomatoes, and if so, when does he stop?
Oh lord – one of my most favorite “Oh, have I died and gone to heaven?” taste moments is when I sit down to that first bite of insalata caprese. It is my most favorite summer lunch treat, and much to my amazement I have been concocting it correctly and even have the buffalo milk fresh mozzarella to give it the stamp of authenticity. We had some buffalo farmers up north here in Vermont but the economic climate made it more attractive to move to Quebec – tant pis! We’ll miss them, but not as long as their product keeps showing up in local markets.
That’s great! Both that you’re making and enjoying it, and that you have somewhat proximate buffalos. I’m not sure we can get buffalo mozz in Arizona. In fact, we rarely buy it here because it’s so much more expensive, and the ordinary mozz is divine, I think.
will there be any left in late Sept.? I do so hope so!
Should be… in one form or another.