Tomato Bliss

The absolute best thing about working in Downtown Crossing again is being close to my Aimster. If you didn’t know, Amy was my first friend in Boston. She saved me a number of times from complete depression when I lived all by my lonesome in Brighton. I recall, in fact, on my very first Derby Day away from Kentucky, I called her in tears. She hopped in her car and came over. Mind you, Amy lived about 30 minutes away from me at the time. I rewarded us both with country ham biscuits!

Due to my relocation, Aimster and I are having lunch walks together just about every day. Today she wanted to go to the Farmers’ Market at South Station, which I was totally up for! We got there and I asked her if she wanted me to create a dinner for her….the showing off again! I just can’t help myself! What she really wanted was tomatoes. For such a specific request, one must go to the Kimball Farms stand. I got into a conversation with the owner one time when I found he had green tomatoes. We discussed the common “yankee” misconception that green tomatoes aren’t ripe! That’s when I found out his farm actually specializes in tomatoes. And let me say, they’re doing a bang up job! The product is amazing! At that point, I commenced the smelling. It’s probably fair to say I had my nose on at least half of those tomatoes. Ooops!

Just Tomatoes

That’s when I decided Aimster was having a tri-colored tomato salad for dinner. After extensive smelling and feeling, I decided on an almost purple, orange and of course….green tomato. That’s when my twisted mind went into overdrive. I decided what she needed to go with this was peaches. She didn’t seem too jazzed, but humored me! Kimball Farms had some beautiful peaches, so I grabbed two white and two yellow. It was then I decided I would make the same for my dinner and proceeded to rinse and repeat!

We walked away discussing how to eat them. What we settled on was cutting everything up in a fairly uniform size, adding chopped fresh basil, salt and pepper and a splash of rice vinegar.

I made it tonight. It was flipping amazing! Josh’s quote, “this is restaurantable”. Not only was it really beautiful, but so delicious. Break this one out to impress your new boyfriend’s mother! A true summer dish!

EXTRA CREDIT

As we all know tomatoes are super good for you…here’s why:

Finished Product

One of the most well known tomato eating benefit is its Lycopene content. Lycopene is a vital anti-oxidant that helps in the fight against cancerous cell formation as well as other kinds of health complications and diseases.

Nutrition Values of Tomato: Per 100grams

Vitamin A : 1,000 I.U.

Vitamin B : Thiamine .06 mg.;

Vitamin C : 23 mg.

Vitamin K : amount uncertain

Calcium : 11 mg.

Iron : .6 mg.

Phosphorus : 27 mg.

Potassium : 360 mg.

Protein : 1.0 gm.

Calories : 20