It's the Season

By Miriam Rubin

Juicy, red-ripe tomatoes are the most anticipated and beloved vegetable of the summer. This year in my garden, I'm growing over 20 different types of tomatoes and almost all are heirlooms. It's been a rollercoaster of a season with stormy hot and rainy weather, like the tropics. The tomatoes love it. They're hard green orbs right now but they'll be ripening soon.

One of the first things I'll make with my favorite Brandywine tomatoes is a simple tomato sandwich. No fancy ingredients: just bread, sliced tomatoes, mayonnaise and flaky sea salt. The only decisions to make are which bread to choose, white, whole-wheat, crusty or soft?  Should the bread be toasted?  Should the crusts be removed? Should the tomatoes be peeled? Which mayonnaise should you spread on the bread? All a matter of personal taste.

If you live in the northern states most likely, you will toast the bread. In the south, this sandwich is overwhelmingly made with untoasted, soft, white bread. The sandwich is eaten over the kitchen sink because it's so juicy. A more genteel Southern-style of tomato sandwich is prepared with peeled tomatoes and cut-out rounds of bread, with less emphasis on the juicy tomato aspect.

They're all good.

Another tomato dish I love and can only properly make in season is tomato salad. It can be as simple as you like: Juicy ripe tomatoes, sliced or cut in wedges; slivered sweet onion, torn basil, good olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar and/or lemon juice. Or gussy it up with creamy avocado, milky mozzarella, roasted peppers, crisp bacon, salty prosciutto, briny olives. Tomato salads ooze lots of lovely juices, which need something in the wheat-bread family to sop them up.

Freshly made garlic croutons are a great solution; simply sauté cubes of crusty cracked-wheat bread with olive oil and minced garlic until crisp and golden. Sprinkle them on top of the salad while still warm. For an Italian Panzanella, cube the tomatoes instead of slicing them, then add plenty of fresh basil and cubes of mozzarella.

Also wonderful alongside a tomato salad and good for sopping are plain, unadorned crostini. Choose a crusty Italian cracked-wheat or white loaf or a French baguette, and slice it thin. Toast or grill the slices, drizzle them with olive oil and rub with a cut clove of garlic. Pile them on a platter and serve with the tomato salad, add a shower of Parmesan if you like.

There's a special, wonderfully easy Spanish riff on a tomato sandwich that's made by rubbing those same toasted, garlicky bread slices with the cut sides of a tomato. I even serve these for breakfast, they're toast, after all! Sometimes adding a slice of Serrano ham or mild cheese. It's a fun way to highlight tomatoes and crunchy bread and it would not be overkill to serve them with a tomato salad.

For a special Sunday supper, I often bake a quick bread like flaky buttermilk biscuits or scones. The savory cheese scone (recipe below) comes from the aunt of a good friend. These little breads are so easy to prepare and it's nice to make the effort. They're wonderful with a cold or room temperature main course, such as roast chicken, thinly sliced roast beef, glazed ham or poached salmon. A juicy tomato salad completes the meal. Offer fresh fruit for dessert such as sliced peaches, berries or melon, fresh from the garden or the farmstand. To celebrate the season in style.

Peggy's Cheese Scones

This recipe is from Elizabeth Alston's aunt, Peggy Primrose Alston. I often add snipped fresh chives or sliced scallion greens to the dough when mixing in the cheeses.

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar (see note)
½ teaspoon baking soda (see note)
1 teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon fine table salt
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter or margarine (Peggy uses margarine), cut up
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 large egg
½ cup milk

Heat oven to 400 °F. Set out a baking sheet lined with a silpat or sheet of parchment.
Put flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, dry mustard and salt in large bowl; mix well.
Add butter and cut in with a pastry blender or rub in with your fingers until the mixture looks like fine granules. Add cheeses and toss to mix.
Break egg into milk and beat with a fork to blend well. Pour this over the flour mixture and stir with a fork until a dough forms.
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured board and give 10 to 12 kneads. Cut dough in half. Knead each piece briefly into a ball, turn smooth side up, and pat or roll into a 6-inch circle. Cut each circle into 6 wedges. Place on baking sheet.
Bake 12 to 15 minutes (a little less for small biscuits), or until medium brown. Cool, loosely wrapped in a dish towel on a wire rack. (It's optional; I keep forgetting to do this).

Makes 12 scones.

NOTE: Instead of the cream of tartar and baking soda, you can use 1 ½
teaspoons baking powder.

Used with permission from Elizabeth Alston.
Recipe from "Biscuits and Scones: 62 Recipes From Breakfast Biscuits to Homey Desserts" by Elizabeth Alston (Clarkson Potter, 1988)

Miriam Rubin is a food writer and a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she writes the seasonal column, "Miriam's Garden."