I wait for them all year: the first tomatoes of summer. I’m likely to take a big bite of one right there next to where it came off the vine. Warm from the summer sun, the juices drip down my chin, and their exquisite flavor sings in my mouth. This is the taste of summer.
This week, my City Commons CSA box holds five lovely, ripe, luscious tomatoes. There are also radicchio, dill, cucumbers, carrots, Swiss chard, curly kale, nasturtium flowers, and new red potatoes.
Because I was out of town for four days last week, I still have some of the week 5 box to use, so we’re in veggie heaven. I will freeze this week’s kale – so fabulous in fall and winter soups and braises – and will probably make refrigerator dill pickles from the cucumbers. Here are some other ideas using this week’s abundance:
- cucumber & tomato salad
- quick refrigerator dill pickles from Smitten Kitchen
- dilly beans
- new potatoes and beans with pesto
- Tuscan potato pizza: white pizza, thin sliced potatoes, drizzles of pesto
- summer squash and chard gratin
- summer pasta with fresh tomatoes and Brie
- tuna salad with fresh tomatoes and cheese muffins
- tomato gratin – photo to come, I promise!
- fresh tomato tart
- tomato beef (fake a stir-fry!)
- tzatziki