Heirloom Tomato

Dede always preferred to plant his corn patch in the fruitful black soil at the river’s edge. He taught me that when corn is ripe and ready to be picked, the silk at the top of the ear should be dark brown, almost black. It is not unusual to see people peeling back the husks in search of ears with perfect rows of kernels. Just take a peek to make sure the ear is full and free of worms, but keep the husk on to keep the corn moist and sweet. Do not bother with this recipe unless it is summer and you can make it with fresh corn and the best tomatoes, preferably heirloom. You will only be disappointed. Heirloom tomatoes, varieties passed down through generations by farmers and gardeners the world over, come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and tastes. If you cannot find heirlooms, this garnish would also be delicious with any ripe tomato from your garden or market.

No salad screams “summer” louder than this one. The combination of tomatoes with freshly chopped herbs is a testament to my philosophy of simple recipes executed with the best possible ingredients. Heirloom tomatoes are grown from non-hybrid, open-pollinated seeds, and are the varieties that have been passed down through the generations by farmers and gardeners around the world. They are far superior to the red-colored tennis balls available in most grocery stores. If you cannot find heirloom tomatoes, use a ripe tomato from your garden, a good produce market, or a farmer’s market. Be sure to look for a regional goat cheese and support your local farmer. Other cheeses to consider for this recipe include briny cubes of feta or mild, creamy fresh mozzarella.

In French, tartine means a slice of bread with jam, butter, or other spread. It’s a typical after-school snack for children. But there is nothing childlike about this grown-up version: baguette toasts covered with a savory, deliciously salty tapenade, enhanced with capers. Adding capers to olives and anchovies may seem redundantly salty, but they add another layer of flavor. As Meme grew older, her doctor told her to avoid seeds. She loved all sorts of fresh vegetables and typically “worked around” this restriction. I was happy to help her out by removing tomato seeds. Here is my way: halve the tomato crosswise through its midsection with a serrated knife. Use your index finger to scoop out the seeds from each half, then give the tomato a gentle squeeze to draw out any seeds that remain.

I first encountered this sauce while working in Umbria, and it’s one of my favorite summertime pastas. To me, this is Mother Nature’s last blast, her crescendo before fall. This is where you take everything she has to give, all those glorious summer ingredients, and toss them together to let the wonderful flavors marry. Then you just barely heat everything up, never actually letting the veggies cook, so they maintain their fresh flavors. Punctuate this with a salty grate of ricotta salata and say, “Mmmmm . . .”

Where I come from, corn is the epitome of a summer vegetable; we used to drive out to the fields to get ours fresh and just leave our money in a can on the side of the road. So in this dish I combine corn with lovely little cherry tomatoes sautéed until they burst out of excitement, letting their delightful juices flow! Add some bacon and this sauce just steps up, pokes you, and says, “Hi, I’m summer, glad to see you!”

I look forward to tomato season all year—then when it comes, I always eat too many and practically overdose on them! But what’s better than tomatoes with olive oil, vinegar, and a little salt? Tomatoes with goat cheese! What more can I say about an in-season heirloom tomato salad with other fabulous summer stuff thrown in? It’s perfection.

I like taking foods I’ve grown up with and putting an adult spin on them. This knife-and-fork salad contains the elements of a BLT—bacon, lettuce, and tomato—but I replace the mayo with a big wedge of incredibly full-flavored Roaring Forties blue cheese. It’s important for the bacon to be superthick, almost like a ham steak. If you don’t make the bacon yourself, which is so beyond worth it, go to your local butcher and bring home slab bacon. There are only a handful of ingredients in this simple dish, but they are all important and shouldn’t be skimped on.

I’ll never understand why people don’t like beets—they’re wonderfully sweet and have a dense, meaty texture. When buying beets, I focus on what the leafy tops look like. The leaves should be fresh looking and dark green, not wilted. I shy away from baby beets, which I find to be unnecessarily pricey, as much as I stay away from huge rock-size ones. Heirloom tomatoes in a rainbow of colors add to this sunny summer salad—you won’t even miss the lettuce! Like all the vinaigrettes and dressings in this book, the recipe will make a fair amount. Leftover walnut vinaigrette will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for up to five days. It’s pretty thick and is ideal to spoon over grilled or steamed asparagus.

This rustic salad makes a substantial starter or a light lunch, and is especially nice when it’s hot out. As with so much in Italian cuisine, the recipe is very simple; the key is the quality of the ingredients. The main attraction is featuring local heirloom tomatoes in peak season, which is summer to early fall in most places. Luckily, in Miami, we get locally grown tomatoes all winter long! It honestly doesn’t matter how many varieties of tomato you use; the most important thing is that the tomatoes are ripe, juicy, and sweet.

This American classic is available at deli counters year-round, but at ’wichcraft, it’s a seasonal sandwich served only when local tomatoes are at their peak. For us, this is a tomato sandwich, with crisp bacon (be sure it’s good quality!) and Bibb lettuce serving almost as condiments. We use a thick slice of tomato, say 1/2 inch, well seasoned with sea salt, really good pepper, and even a little olive oil. This is one of the sandwiches for which architecture matters, so please pay attention to the assembly instructions. For a special kick, rub a peeled garlic clove over the bread before assembling. A mix of heirloom tomatoes is ideal, combining colors and tones, sweetness and acidity. Imagine a slice of red plum, a slice of green zebra, and a slice of German yellow: summer in a sandwich.

Classic Salisbury steak is a patty made of ground beef and seasonings that is fried in butter or oil and smothered in a brown sauce. Although it was once considered health food by its inventor—a 19th-century English-American physician named James Salisbury—it’s really not. This grilled version, made with ground turkey breast and fresh vegetables and smothered in a low-fat cheese sauce, makes the grade.

Using turkey bacon would have been the shortest route to making over this classic sandwich—but when bacon is the first ingredient in the name of a dish, you have to figure out a way to use the real thing. So I made over the mayonnaise instead.

The Big Mac is a great burger—juicy, delicious, and an icon of American culture. So how do I re-create the grandeur of the Big Mac while stripping away a lot of the fat and calories that go with it? First replace the bun with a nutrient-rich, high-fiber sprouted-grain hamburger bun. My “special sauce” is made with charred eggplant and low-fat yogurt, and the beef is extra-lean. A little low-fat Russian dressing, which I consider to be my special sauce, gives it some zest—and all the rest is healthy on its own. (No cheese needed.)

It's hard to improve on grilled cheese with tomato soup—but that's exactly what the folks at Noca are doing. The restaurant layers red heirloom tomatoes and smoked mozzarella on the sandwich. It transforms the soup with green heirlooms—and serves it cold. The mix of flavors, textures, and colors takes this classic to a new level.

Chef Max Mackissock of The Squeaky Bean in Denver takes a back-to-nature approach to ingredients: He uses produce straight from the garden at his restaurant or the farmers’ market the eatery hosts weekly. With veggies like that, who needs meat? This tasty vegan dish has plenty of protein, plus healthy carbs, thanks to whole-grain, fiber-rich farro.

The rooftop of chef Rick Bayless's Chicago restaurant Frontera Grill is dedicated to growing tomatoes, hot peppers and herbs for fresh salsas. Multicolored heirloom tomatoes can be sweeter than other types, Bayless says, and they offer a hefty dose of infection-fighting vitamin C.

Fresh and colorful, this vegetarian entrée is an ideal bring-along for a potluck supper. Quinoa, a delicate grain with a texture similar to that of couscous, cooks up in just 15 minutes. A complete protein, it's also nutritious. Look for it at supermarkets and natural foods stores. Smoked paprika can be found in the spice section of the supermarket.

Making your own coarse fresh breadcrumbs takes just a minute; see "Test-Kitchen Tip" at the end of the recipe for the how-to.

Spontaneity is the key to this pasta salad; it's not something you can make ahead and chill. The main ingredients can be harvested from a backyard plot or balcony pot, or simply be a reward for your produce-shopping prowess at the farmers market.