I say “Eh”…
I’ve never been a fan of the tomato. I don’t add them to my salad; I’m not tempted by the cherry variety that I set out on the counter for my kids in the summer. If I was sitting along the canal in Venice, and a dreamy Italian man offered me fresh tomatoes with homemade mozzarella, I’d only reach for the cheese. And the vino of course!
I like red sauce on pasta only. I do not want it on chicken; I do not want it on veal. I only like it sparingly on my pizza.
Sun dried tomatoes however, I adore. The only explanation I can dream up for this anomaly is, you soak anything in good extra virgin olive oil and it turns to magic.
But last night … I started a love affair with the simple tomato.
Since trying to shed some excess poundage as of the first of the year, I knew fresh fruits and vegetables would have to become part of my daily diet. Typically my day, culinarily speaking… is comprised of processed foods. Even when trying to lose weight, I live on Lean Cuisines, Power Bars, Slim-fast shakes; rarely does a fresh fruit or vegetable enter my body. I know now, "I’ve got to change my evil ways... baby!”
Enter the Barefoot Contessa, aka: Ina Garten.
Mike has lots of cookbooks hanging around. Sometimes I flip through the pages in hopes of finding something, anything… to inspire me to cook. After numerous failed attempts, I am finally at peace with marking the pages and leaving them out for Mikey to fix.
One day recently, I was sitting in my friend Kim’s swanky new kitchen watching her seamlessly throw together a pan of fresh veggies to roast; they looked delish. When I expressed how impressed I was by her culinary talent, she shamelessly reached over and held up the Contessa’s “Back to Basics” cookbook.
“Hey, we’ve got that” I declared having recognized the cover. Then Kim poured us another glass of wine and that was that.
A week or so later I was back to carousing the cookbooks and there she was… the Contessa herself, right under the Artisan Bread cookbook Toby sent Mike for Christmas. I thumbed through the pages and found the “oven roasted vegetables” recipe. Not only did I make that, (which was a piece of sugar-free cake!) but the “parmesan-roasted broccoli” was to die for too; the kids liked it so much I’ve made it two more times since!
Admittedly, if the Contessa didn’t have such gorgeous pictures of food accompanying her recipes, I doubt I would have ever tried the “roasted tomatoes with basil”. It was after all, well… tomatos. But I could almost hear them sizzling off the glossy page of that cookbook. The sweet smell of the rich balsamic vinegar, coupled with the roasted garlic carmelized in extra virgin olive oil was oozing through as well. I could smell it, I swear . So last night, I gave them a try.
Oh my God.
That’s really all I can say. OMG, OMG… who knew a simple tomato, a winter tomato at that, could be so damn tasty?
I went right back to the store today and bought ten more. I cooked them up for lunch and ate every single one of them. I ate TEN tomatoes… in one day!
You may say tomato, and she may say tomahto.
I just say… "bring ‘em on, roasted with basil please!"
Note: The picture in the cookbook is oh so much prettier than mine. But I could not find it online to link anywhere, so my image will have to suffice!
