The Tomato Thread
 

Call me weird... I HATE tomatoes... but I can eat tomatoes in most other forms.

OUT
-- Whole tomatoes
-- Sliced tomatoes
-- Juice

IN - Everything else!
-- Pico de gallo
-- Salsa
-- Bruschetta
-- Sauces
-- Soup
-- Fried and green.

I'm weird.

I know other people that way. You're not as weird as you think.

To me, there's nothing better than a good fresh picked tomato with a little salt... unless it's sliced onto a BLT!!

I love a good, fresh tomato (on a sub, in a salad, with mozzarella cheese) & tomato sauces. Doing anything else with a tomato is wrong (soup, catsup, ketchup, salsa, etc.). Also, don't give me a cherry or grape tomato - they are just not the same.

I feel the same way about peanuts! A whole peanut (roasted please, not boiled - yuk) is a treat, please do not turn it into peanut butter.

This is funny! I am sitting here eating a small bowl of cherry tomatoes "on-the-vine" and saw this thread.

I love tomatoes! I always wanted to make a fresh tomato tart. Pastry topped with some ricotta/gruyere/parmesan/mozza cheese or whatever, and then a layer of fresh tomatoes. Basil, garlic, shallots, or onions, perhaps. Maybe a swift spray of olive oil and then bake. I see recipes for this type of tart from time to time and it sounds so good, but I wonder how they actually turn out.

AMEN, I do as well, anyway/anyhow, bring them on.

I just had a tomato tart while traveling, can't recall where. No cheese, just flakey pastry, delicious sliced slightly softened tomatoes, with a bit of fresh basil and olive oil. YUM !!!

By the way seeing as it getting to be garden time, anyone use an upside down tomato planter? I've seen a few types, one example here: http://www.gardengrapevine.com/TomatoUpsideDown.html


--

Was it served hot or cold, by the way? Would you have enjoyed it as much the other way?

I'd never heard of this, but when I Googled it, I see it seems quite popular. It looks like quite a bit of work, though, to make your own pots for larger tomato plants. I have grown cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets but that's pretty tame, in comparison. :)

Tomatoes rule !

Whole, sliced, baked, cooked, whichever way is good !

On the other hand I know a guy who's actually *scared* of tomatoes... :eek: :D

Mmmm... Spanish tomates, rows of them growing on bamboo frames, the smell of sun warmed earth and vines, and tearing off huge, bulbous deliciously uneven fruit, as big as my fist, streaked with green, gold, orange-red, perhaps some flecks of white. And eaten then and there, with just a touch of salt, seeds and juices dribbling down my chin, smearing my fingers. I don't think I'll ever grow out of this pleasure, even hand picked grapes, strawberries and peaches pale in comparison to my delight in the freshest tomatoes.

I never understood why the tomatoes in England were always so lucklustre and insipid, wraithlike even, and then I found out that very few of those that are sold commercially here ever got the chance to spread their roots and feed on real soil.
They're almost all grown hydroponically in this stuff:td:

Oh how I'm going to gorge on tomates next time I'm in Spain in July....

Being part of the plant family that contains belladonna/deadly night shade, tomatoes are always controversial.

We grow them year-round and I love them.

http://www.tomatoesareevil.com/tomatohealth.htm

"Red is the colour of a tomato but also the shade most associated with blood and death - coincidence?"

Yep, that belladonna family includes potatoes - and they're obviously evil, being white and all :rolleyes:

Nobody who's picked more than a handful of tomatoes would even think of having anything to do with the vines - it's where most of the 'tomato' fragrance is, but prolonged contact isn't recommended. Not nice to handle. (Although if you put some cleaned vine in with cooked cold tomato sauce and leave them in the fridge together for a couple of hours, the sauce will become more 'tomatoey' and you can then remove the vine and reheat the sauce - it won't work if you just drop the vine into hot sauce though)

I LOVE tomatoes!

And for you alcoholics, if you are making tomato sauce, add some white wine to it for added flavor, tomatoes contain additional flavors that can only be tasted with presence of alcohol... something I learned on the foodnetwork! :p

It may help enhance the flavor of the food but the actual alcohol burns off... so I must ask, how exactly does this help we alcoholics?

I guess you haven't seen the egg thread. ;)

I adore tomatoes. I have 3 plants in my backyard right now, and I eat the tomatoes regularly.

And fried green tomatoes are my favorite after getting a Southern girlfriend :D

Okay - what do you do to keep the white flies off your plants? I've got somewhat of a green thumb, but those pesky .......s consumed my last harvest.