Salt Those Tomatoes

The most iconic summer food. Oh my goodness, that could be an endless list. Figuring out what to pick, to write about, could take awhile. So, in trying to think about the exact perfect, most iconic food recipe or bite to write about, I closed my eyes to envision, what I’ve most loved about summer in the past and what I most loved to eat. What came to my mind was a ripe juicy tomato. However, not just any old tomato, one that is picked fresh from a garden, perhaps in the Southern region of the United States. A tomato that is picked in the heat of the summer, just ripe for the picking, to bring inside a house, and lay upon a cold ceramic counter. This action would pre-empt one to reach into a drawer to get a cutting board and a knife just sharp enough to slice the juicy red tomato with some rough patches, just enough to indicate that it was garden grown, and not presented as “perfect” to be sold in a store. Slicing the tomato with just enough accuracy to get almost even slices, good enough that it doesn’t really matter, because they will be gone within a matter of minutes. The next step would be to get out a pretty plate, with maybe some blue patterns on it, a contrast in color, that would help illuminate the natural earth delight that you are about to devour. For me, a salt addict, I must admit, the next step would be to reach for that salt shaker, you know the one the Doctors warn you about. If you are lucky like me though, you find out later in life, you need extra salt in your life, due to an odd auto-immune disorder not widely known, that requires one to add extra salt to everything to achieve a healthy equilibrium. I must say, I don’t complain about that, because if you have ever tasted a fresh juicy home grown tomato with salt and some pepper sprinkled on it, in the dead heat of summer, you might think you up and went to a place called natural food heaven. At least that’s what it’s like for me. It takes me back to simpler days where getting garden grown food like tomatoes and raspberries, corn, and carrots from a neighbor’s garden was a gift you couldn’t turn down.

I will have to take it a step further though, to highlight another color of tomatoes that make a delicacy that will forever be one of my favorite dishes of all time, and that is Fried Green tomatoes. Yes, just like the movie, the one with Mary Stuart Masterson and Kathy Bates! It is reminiscent of my love of Southern food, and when paired with just the right sauce to accompany it, to dip your bites in, you will be a tomato fanatic.

So, tomatoes, whether they are red, green, a little bit yellow, kind of orange, and maybe even an almost purplish hue, they will introduce you to a whole new world of goodness. They are even supposedly really good for one’s heart. Apparently, a tomato has something known as lycopene in it, that can help us lower that nasty thing called cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as heart disease.

My recent discovery of Campari tomatoes, that I admittedly pick up in the grocery store, are some of my new favorites. They are smaller that average tomatoes, but the flavor is out of this world. It doesn’t matter where I’m at in the world, it could be Italy or even South America, visiting some amazing foreign country, if I’m eating a tomato, and I put a touch of salt on it, as soon as I taste it, I’m transported back into time, of being a kid, growing up in the South and feeling ecstatic when I bite into something so simple, yet so darn good to the taste. Not only are tomatoes an iconic food to eat, they are obviously iconic in movies and art. Still like art paintings have been recreated over centuries, to capture just the right light and angles of these beauties. I know, I will be having several fresh tomatoes, sliced with just the right amount of salt on them this summer. It won’t be a complete summer without it!