Want an easy way to cook really tasty food? Start with the best ingredients you can. It’s that simple!! That’s why a basic sauce made with fresh tomatoes tastes amazing on pasta in the summer – and maybe not so awesome in January. Tomatoes are at their peak right now. It’s time to dig in! Scour the farmers’ markets. Grab the heirlooms. Go for the odd knobby ones! All kinds and colors of tomatoes can be roasted, grilled, sautéed, fried, pickled, stuffed, or chopped fresh to make something like a simple tomato-cucumber salad. Or a spicy pico de gallo. If you have a tomato avalanche, cook up a big batch of our Nana’s Red Sauce or Tomato Habanero Jam. Both of these sauces are bangin’ on everything from rice and pasta to pizza and sandwiches! Freeze the extras and enjoy those jammy tomato flavors all winter long.
Some quick tips: When you get your tomato haul home, keep them at room temperature (above 55ºF/13ºC). If you refrigerate tomatoes, you kill a key flavor compound that makes them taste so good. Chilling can also make the flesh mealy.
Also, did you know that tomatoes can help prevent cancer? They contain an antioxidant called lycopene that can help prevent certain cancers like prostate cancer (you listening, gents?). And get this: Cooking tomatoes actually increases their lycopene content, giving you more cancer protection. These little orbs of love are also high in fiber, which makes your gut happy, and they’re high in vitamins A and C, both of which can help prevent cancer. Plus they’re low in calories. And they taste friggin great! A little sweet, a little savory, a dash of acid, a bit of bitter, a burst of aroma…tomatoes got it goin’ on! Want to lessen the bitterness? Strain out the seeds. Boom! Oh, and when a recipe calls for tinned tomatoes, you can of course use fresh. Check out some of our favorite ways to enjoy tomatoes below. While you’re at it, invent some new ways of your own!
