As Harry Styles might say, “it’s chewsday.” It is also tomato season. The fleeting weeks where our tomatoes don’t taste like watery nothingness. They’re giving us tang, vibrance, flavor, acidity, umami, juiciness. This is exactly what Pitbull, Ne-Yo, and Nayer were singing about in “Give Me Everything Tonight.”
I’m writing this newsletter on my return flight to NYC with a bounty of California tomatoes, figs, and passionfruit nestled in my carry on. Nothing will stop me from a California farmers market, not even TSA. There’s currently a can of tomato juice on my tray table, my beverage of choice on flights. When we’re on airplanes, our palate changes, and one of the few flavors that comes through nicely is umami (source). Tomato juice tastes better than other options on flights as a result, and this is also why most flights with a meal service have a red sauce pasta on the menu, which is basically guaranteed to give you more flavor!
Tomato season is best summarized here:
I wish that it was more socially common/acceptable to eat tomatoes the way we eat apples and bananas. Straight to the face, no slicing or dicing, sprinkling salt with each bite. They’re technically a fruit and people seem to do this with grape and cherry tomatoes so I don’t see why this should be controversial. Speaking of controversy, a family friend once told me a tomato plant would grow inside me while watching me eat the seeds of a grilled tomato as a small child — please note the recipe for grilled tomatoes is below if you want to skip my trauma. I became completely distraught, nearly ruining this party at my parents house (lol) with screams and tears. I didn’t finish my food and spent roughly a year avoiding tomato seeds as a result, asking my mom to seed tomatoes for omelette (recipe also below) and making concerned faces whenever I had to encounter seeds, each encounter a gamble on my body, life, and future. Joking with children is a delightful pastime but there’s a fine line between trolling and actively scaring a small human, and that’s my PSA for today. Twenty-some years later, my mom (a Leo) is still resentful of this person for doing this.
Sharing five favorite + simple tomato recipes below:
Grilled Tomatoes: Iranians love a grilled tomato with other grilled meats and vegetables, particularly as a pairing to kabob and rice. If you want to be legitimate, metal skewers are the way to go and I guarantee will make you feel like a cooler, more advanced grillmaster and amateur fencer. Regular skewers should work but might feel flimsy, coming with no arbitrary guarantee from me. Wash some tomatoes and stab them onto the skewers, treat this as a cathartic exercise, then throw them on the grill for a few minutes until you have char on both sides. My dad recently cut tomatoes in half, and added oil, salt and sumac on them pre-gilling which was glorious. You can pair these with truly anything but there’s nothing like fresh basmati rice with a pat of butter melting throughout, and a chopped up grilled tomato with your protein of choice.
Baba’s grilled tomatoes, onions, and jujeh kabob This classic Iranian breakfast is just called “omelette” (pronounced ohm-LET). It’s simple, it always hits the spot any time of the day, and requires minimal ingredients. My mom’s golden ratio is usually one tomato and two eggs per person. Heat up some olive oil over medium, chop some tomatoes of any variety (used canned in the off season!), and let them cook down with some salt and pepper until they’re mushy. If you want extra tomato flavor (diverging from the traditional recipe), throw in 1-2 tbs of tomato paste and let that cook until it’s dark red (2 mins). Whisk your eggs until frothy and light in color: don’t be afraid of getting in in there. In classic Capricorn fashion, I have yelled at my fiancé for not being aggressive enough while whisking eggs, so picture me yelling at you if your eggs aren’t a little bubbly or still have some streakiness to them. Throw the eggs in the pan, let them set for about a minute, then slowly start pushing the outside edges of the eggs towards the center as they cook. Scramble as much or as little as you’d like, cook until done to your liking, top with salt and pepper and you’re done. Feta, herbs, and warm flatbread are delicious pairings.
Salad Shirazi: I really wasn’t expecting to give you so much Persian Pride™️ and didn’t think tomatoes were such a part of my culture but here we are. Salad Shirazi is an everyday Iranian staple salad, you’ve likely had this in a restaurant. Dice up cucumbers (Persian preferred lol), tomatoes of any kind, and red onions. Throw a bunch of lime juice and olive oil on there, along with dried mint and any fresh herbs you might have.
Ina Garten’s Summer Garden Pasta: Fresh cherry tomatoes macerate in a mixture of olive oil, garlic, salt, and basil for a few hours and get tossed with angel hair. Simple and heavenly.
Roya’s WFH Plate: There will be a subsequent Consumed on the WFH meals that have sustained me but here’s a seasonal one. Get the most delicious tomatoes you can, salt them on both sides and let them sit while you crumble some feta up with your hands, chop up herbs (I like chives and scallions here!), pick out anything you want for flavor or texture (olives for more salt; pickled jalapeños for acidity and heat; labneh for creaminess; crushed up tortilla chips or toasted breadcrumbs for crunch; cucumbers for a healthier crunch, etc). Generously add lime. Here are two photos of tomato season WFH plates:
Tag me in your tomato photos. See(d) you Friday.
Roya