Tomatoes Stuffed with Bulgur Wheat, Raisins and Pine Nuts

Tomato Bounty

August 2014

Tomatoes had a rough and rocky start here in America, but today, according to the USDA, they are the most popular of all fruits, beyond even bananas and apples.

Yes, the tomato is a fruit, botanically speaking.

Of course we eat tomatoes as if they were vegetables and, in fact, the United States Supreme Court has weighed in on this issue. That august body of jurists declared that the tomato is a vegetable, at least for trade purposes.

As a vegetable, tomatoes are very popular here too, beyond all other vegetables except potatoes.

How did this happen?

Credit pizza.

When the Spanish conquistadores brought the first tomato seeds back from the “newly discovered” Americas, England and much of the rest of Europe were not interested. Rumor had it that those red balls of fruit were poisonous (they are related to the deadly nightshade plant). Folks grew the greens for ornamental purposes but the tomatoes withered on the vine.

Some time in the late 19th century, someone in Naples invented pizza, and that was that. From the very start, no one could resist pizza. In addition to becoming wildly popular, pizza proved that tomatoes wouldn’t kill anyone.

And so, tomatoes.

Once you understand what tomatoes have to offer it’s easy to understand why they are so admired. A good tomato is a gift for home cooks. How fortunate we are now that it is August, when local farm and garden tomatoes hang heavy on the vine, red, ripe and ready for the kitchen! Juicy tomatoes, firm, but tender. Fragrant ones releasing their musty perfume. Thin-skinned and even ugly, but tasting of sun and summer, a far cry from the anemic-looking, cottony-textured tomatoes of winter, with their too-perfectly rounded shapes and too-thick skins and no flavor.

There’s so much we can do with tomatoes. Eat one out of hand, sprinkled with a hint of sea salt. Chop it up with fresh basil and a bit of garlic, then spoon it onto garlic toasts, a fine bruschetta! Slice and serve slices with fresh mozzarella cheese, drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil. Stuff that between bread and cook it into a grilled cheese sandwich. All simple pleasures.

Tomatoes are also useful for the kind of easy summer cooking that keeps us out of the kitchen. For example:

1. Quick salsa: chop a tomato, add minced scallions or sweet onion and a sprinkling of chopped fresh herbs (oregano, dill, thyme, basil, marjoram). Add chopped hot chili peppers if you wish.

2. Omelets and frittatas: include chopped tomato, chopped fresh herbs and crumbled feta or goat cheese.

3. Salad: combine chopped tomatoes with chunks of avocado and olives and dress the ingredients with olive oil and lime juice. Add blue cheese or mozzarella if you wish. Or mix chopped tomatoes with diced fresh cucumber and chopped red onion to make an Israeli salad – chick peas, olives or feta cheese would make delicious additions.

4. Stuffed tomatoes: fill hollowed tomatoes with cooked or raw vegetables, cooked whole grains, leftover fish or poultry, tuna and white beans.

5. Tomato sandwich: place sliced tomatoes on ciabatta or other crusty bread, smear with mayonnaise, sprinkle with basil.

6. Sauce: cook chopped tomatoes and onions in olive oil until they are soft and almost liquefied; for pasta or pizza.

7. Soup, chunky with tomatoes and other fresh vegetables or pureed and creamy.

8. Vegetable stew, such as Ratatouille.

9. Homemade ketchup.

Don’t let tomato season pass you by this year. Take advantage of the bounty and use some fresh, local, tomatoes in these: