Tantalizing Tomato Harvest Recipes

Gardener and chef Signe Langford shares tips for cooking homegrown tomatoes.

We get an update from gardener, chef, and author Signe Langford on her hay-bale garden, and then talk about tips for using fresh tomatoes in the kitchen.

Langford, the author of the book Happy Hens & Fresh Eggs: Keeping Chickens in the Kitchen Garden, has joined us on previous episodes to talk about keeping chickens and growing vegetables in hay bales.

Cook Homegrown Tomatoes

Langford suggests using fat to soften the acidity of fresh tomatoes. She likes mayonnaise, olive oil, or butter.

Some people use sugar to soften the acidity…but she prefers fat—and says her favourite fat to use with tomatoes is with butter.

“It’s a lovely way to soften the acidic bite of a tomato sauce.”

For a quick, easy tomato sauce, Langford suggests mashing fresh tomatoes, adding basil, and butter (a “generous knob” of butter). Add salt and pepper, and then heat and serve.

“Fresh tomato sauce is a wonder.”

Langford suggests rubbing the fresh tomato against grilled bread to capture the tomato flavour in the bread.

Using Bread with Tomatoes

Bread, she says, is part of the “Holy Trinity” of enjoying tomatoes. The other two ingredients are cheese and the tomato itself.

Langford’s bruscetta tip: For the best bruschetta, use fresh basil—and fry the bread in olive oil.

Soggy Sandwich? Langford says a common failing in a tomato sandwich is that the bread gets soggy from the liquid in the tomato. The simple solution is…more butter. The butter (or mayo) she explains, is a barrier that keeps the bread from absorbing the juice and prevents a sandwich from becoming a soggy mess.

Slices of grilled bread are perfect for serving tomato. Rub tomato against the grilled bread before topping it because the bread acts like a microplane, capturing tomato flavour as the tomato rubs against it.