Summer is the season of red gold: entire fields cultivated with different varieties of ripe and juicy tomatoes. The variety of uses for tomato in recipes is practically endless – from the classic traditional dishes to the most innovative of recipes! This is a fact our chefs at La Scuola de La Cucina Italiana know very well, so they’ve prepared a collection of recipes for us to try – from appetizers to dessert!
For example, you can use tomato as a basic ingredient for a granita or a savory sorbet, to accompany raw fish or meat. It can also be sautéed in a pan with a little oil and garlic, sliced in a salad or filled with many ingredients – from bread to rice; cheese to tuna; or even embellished with a few slivers of bottarga. Or use tomato as an intermezzo between one dish and another to cleanse the palate. Given its slightly acidic freshness, tomato is the perfect ingredient for restoring balance in the mouth.
To cool off on hot summer days, why not make a delicious Bloody Mary cocktail? Or perhaps a nice tomato soup? As an ingredient, tomato allows your imagination to run wild! Summer is also the perfect time for sauces with cold ingredients: Simply boil some ripe tomatoes for ten minutes max to blanch and peel them more easily without cooking them – so the tomato retains its freshness. Then gently squeeze and cut the tomatoes into pieces, adding basil and extra-virgin olive oil for an irresistible sauce to season your pasta!
Finally, when it comes to main courses, tomato can be used in recipes like goulaches and fish soup. And for dessert? Tomato reveals its sweetest notes served at the end of a meal, where it also contributes a little acidity and is used as a base ingredient or as a garnish, like a tomato confit.
Recipe: Tomato Sauce with Clams and Cucumber
Ingredients for 4 people:
For the clams:
1 lb clams, Garlic clove, Parsley, Red pepper, White wine
For the sauce:
16 oz cherry tomatoes, 11 oz cucumbers, ½ red onion, Salt, Extra-virgin olive oil
Method:
Wash the clams and remove the broken ones. Place them in cold water and let them purge in the fridge for two hours. Then wash them once more. Heat half the oil, garlic and very little red pepper in a saucepan. Add the clams. Then cover and stir, adding white wine to cook for about 2 more minutes. Shell half of the clams and then filter the cooking broth using a fine strainer. For the fresh sauce: First wash the tomatoes and cut. Blend the tomatoes with ½ red onion and season with salt and oil. Wash and clean the cucumbers, remove the inner seeds. Chop finely and mix all the ingredients together for a typical brunoise. Once all the ingredients are ready, compose the dish and serve.