Summer Tomatoes

Try and imagine summer without tomatoes. That would be like thinking about French cuisine without chocolate and vanilla, Irish food without potatoes, or Italian sauces without tomatoes. In the American heartland, tomatoes are as essential an ingredient in the recipe for summer as capsicum pepper is to an Indian curry or paprika is to Hungarian goulash.

My summer food memories include sun-dried tomatoes prepared in a slow oven (200 degrees) overnight. Packed in sterilized jars with fresh basil leaves before being covered with virgin olive oil, they are sun-filled treasures filled with the flavors of summer to be savored once winter arrives and gardens are at rest under a blanket of snow. Plain and simply delicious, summer tomatoes are a sweet taste however you choose to slice and serve them.