Recipe: Savory Tomato Crisp {the food matters project}

Here's a secret that I thought I would take to my grave.

 (you people with your wily ways and big puppy dog eyes really do have a knack for prying these tidbits of personal information from my {future. very, very future.} cold dead hands.  really.  you're worse than Mr. Grey with your seductive capabilities.)

(also, parentheses inside of parentheses?  totally a doable thing.  see above.  let's make it a trend.)



For the first 21 years of my life, I was convinced that tomatoes were really some kind of devilish incarnation.  In fruit form.

That really, though we've all thought for hundreds of years that Eve ate an apple from the Tree of Knowledge...

...it was actually a Vine of Knowledge.  And that red sphere that she chomped down on with reckless abandon...was totally a tomato.  Had to be.  No questions asked.




So suffice it to say, whether raw, cooked, or cut up into itsy bitsy pieces and mixed with basil and garlic atop a slice of crusty Italian bread (swoon).  (<-- see what I mean?  Lust. Totally one of the seven deadly sins.)  I wanted nothing to do with them.

Which was vaguely problematic given that the only meal my mother ever cooked with any regularity was pasta in marinara sauce. 

Oh how times have changed.



Somehow I woke up one morning in my 21st year of life and decided that maybe, just maybe, the ooey gooey seedy juice that oozes out of tomatoes when you cut into one...isn't so bad.  That maybe the trifecta of tomato, basil, and garlic is kind of...elysian...in its own right.

I really can't explain it with much more than a shrug of the shoulders.  Tastes change?  It happens.

My mother was eternally grateful. (Until I stopped eating meat.  Now she's just...bereft.)

And given how delicious tomatoes are (especially heirlooms at their summer peak!)...so am I. 



This savory tomato crisp is a dish that would have sent my under-21-year-old self running for cover.  I like to think, though, that by eating it en masse...I'm just making up for lost time.

I found it to be especially tasty on the first day, especially when topped with crumbled queso fresco and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, but not quite as tasty in the days to follow.  (The.Boy. was not such a fan of the leftovers that I tried to feed him, though he tried. He really did!)  If I were to make this again, I'd add some basil into the mix, as well as some balsamic and mozzarella chunks.  For good measure.

However, once tomatoes are really at their peak, I think this would make for a great summer side dish, served warm.

For the recipe, head on over to The Giving Table and so see what other Food Matters Project participants thought of it, check out The Food Matters Project website.