We’re on a high with cooking at my house. Pretty much everything we’re eating is from one farmers’ market or another, because glorious summer produce is upon us. It’s heavenly. The fresh, fully formed flavor of ripe, in-season fruits and vegetables makes cooking exciting — and easier.
Take, for example, hothouse tomatoes. In winter, they require a fair amount of intervention to taste like much, whereas ripe summer tomatoes need little more than a sprinkle of salt and a splash of extra-virgin olive oil.
It needn’t be as simple as that, but the summer first course here isn’t much more complicated. It takes a cue from bruschetta and panzanella, both Italian favorites that feature tomatoes, bread, garlic, basil and oil.
In this variation on the theme, a multicolored mix of well-marinated cherry tomatoes are served spooned over toasted sourdough bread to catch all the delicious juices. The key is, after dressing them, to let the halved cherry tomatoes sit for half an hour or so, to meld with the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and garlic. Of course, these marinated tomatoes could also be tossed with greens for an easy salad or spooned over grilled fish.
For a main course, I wanted something akin to clam chowder.
