Serving Raw Tomatoes

There’s many ways to prepare beautiful fresh tomatoes

Tomatoes are amongst the easiest vegetables to grow, and also amongst the most satisfying. In fact if – or when you get it right, you’ll find you have an ongoing crop throughout the warm season.

While tomatoes are great to pick and eat in the height of the season, even a dozen or so plants will produce more than any individual can eat. Apart from which it’s good to vary what you do with this special “fruit”.

Happily there’s a lot that you can do with tomatoes. You can cook them on their own or as part of a stew or casserole. You can use them to make sauces and salsas, even jams and puddings. You can also serve them raw.

Apart from the ubiquitous and rather boring lettuce, tomato, onion and sometimes cucumber salad, there are hundreds of ways that you can serve raw tomatoes. Here are just a few ideas.

Simply Sublime Focaccia Alla Caprese

Loosely based on an Italian tradition, this simple recipe relies on flat Italian bread – focaccia – as well as soft mozzarella cheese, basil, good quality virgin olive oil, and of course tomatoes. All you do is to thinly slice ripe tomatoes, lay slices on the bread (which should ideally be ultra-fresh), and cover with thinly sliced cheese. Sprinkle a little chopped basil over the cheese and then dribble a little bit of olive oil over the top. Grind a little black pepper over the focaccia before serving.

If you find mozzarella too bland, you could substitute ripe brie or camembert instead. Either way this is a delicious snack or starter.

Ginger Tomatoes

This is a tasty, rather exotic salad that elevates standard tomato and lettuce to new heights.  But the basic salad ingredients are – quite simply – lettuce and tomato, ideally straight out of your garden. Any type will do, although smooth butter lettuce works particularly well with sliced Roma or cherry tomatoes. If you are using larger tomatoes, chop them. Whether you skin them or not is your choice, but it isn’t necessary. If you do want to skin them, all you do is pour boiling water over them and leave for about a minute. The skin should then come away very easily without damaging the pulp.

To make the spicy salad dressing you will need about a tablespoon of finely grated ginger root; double that amount of finely chopped spring onion (you can include some of the green); a tablespoon of chopped shallots (if you don’t have any use red onions instead); two tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice; a teaspoon of Dijon mustard; quarter of a cup of good quality virgin olive oil; and salt and pepper to taste.

Put all the salad dressing ingredients in a screw-top jar, shake and leave for about half an hour. Pour over the tomatoes and lettuce and toss.

Tomatoes Dressed With Blue Cheese And Yogurt

This is another really simple salad, but one that is absolutely delicious. Ripe sliced tomatoes and finely chopped chives (try garlic chives) are combined and then dressed with a combination of rich blue cheese, yogurt and tarragon vinegar.

To make the dressing, blend five tablespoons of plain unsweetened yogurt with a quarter of a cup of blue cheese that has been crumbled. When smooth stir in two teaspoons of tarragon vinegar. Toss the tomatoes in the dressing and sprinkle the chives on top.

To cut down on costs, make your own tarragon vinegar by first growing your own tarragon – that’s an easy one – and adding the fresh leaves to good quality white wine vinegar. Leave for about a month before using.