Never refrigerate a tomato. Have I said that before? Well, let me repeat myself, never refrigerate a tomato!
In my restaurants, the chefs were often surprised that I would not allow them to refrigerate tomatoes. They taste best when they are still warm from the sun. I even grab tomatoes off the cool kitchen counter and take them out for a sun bath before eating them.
I love ripe tomatoes so much that I took a bath in them! Actually, it was a giant — 200,000 pounds worth — tomato fight. Join the fun at the annual Tomatina Festival in Spain.
On the show, I make several dishes in addition to the ones on the web site. My favorite I call Simply Tomatoes — sliced tomatoes of different varieties seasoned with gray salt and pepper and drizzled with your best olive oil and aceto balsamico traditionale. At the end of the growing season, my family would harvest the still-green tomatoes and cure them in rock salt. Then we'd fry them for a taste of summer all winter long.
