Tomatoes: intense, sweet and prime for eating

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Until someone invents year- round summer in Oregon, the time to enjoy local sun-ripened tomatoes is now. They are truly one of the season’s blazing triumphs — plump and colorful to the eye, aromatic and juicy to the other senses. To say this blessing from nature represents the best of summer is hardly an overstatement — especially in Oregon, where they seem particularly intense and sweet in character.

By the time our summer hydrangeas have begun to fade, we find ourselves up to our eyeballs in tomatoes. My favorite short-term approach hasn’t changed in umpteen years: two slices of a whole-grained bread, toasted to perfection, slathered with a silky layer of mayonnaise then piled high with tender sheets of lettuce, crisp ribbons of bacon and thick slices of juicy tomato still warm from the afternoon sun.

Beyond a bounty of BLTs, there’s gazpacho by the gallons, decadent pinwheel platters of juicy tomato slices with fresh mozzarella and endless bowls of plump Sun Golds. Life is good.

Indeed, there are plenty of fresh options to occupy your appetite for one of summer’s finest, most savory fruits. And I’m going to share a few of my favorites today.

One such candidate is a spinoff of a bruschetta preparation I shared with you last summer. It’s one I only make when the tomatoes are sweet and local and the garlic fresh and juicy. I roast the garlic and turn it into a flavorful puree that I spread on the toasted bread before adding the tomatoes. Then I drizzle on an intense balsamic vinegar reduction and tiny drops of fresh pesto. It’s a heavenly approach!

But it’s not a recipe to be taken lightly. There are a few extra steps you’ll need to take to achieve perfection. Your reward, however, will be a satisfying round of groans from your fellow diners. This truly is one of the most exquisite bruschetta preparations you’ll ever encounter.

And for wine, I highly recommend serving either a medium- to full-bodied Oregon pinot noir or a well-crafted syrah.

What makes it work so well with these two wines? For one thing, there are no sharp edges to contend with: the garlic puree is mellow and caramelly, the balsamic vinegar reduction is onion-laced and syrupy and the local tomatoes are vine-ripe and flavorful. So, like I said, there’s no acidic edge to conflict with the pinot’s or the syrah’s fruity character.

I keep last-minute preparations to a minimum by making each of the components — the Roasted Garlic Puree, balsamic vinegar reduction and pesto — ahead. All three mixtures will keep in the refrigerator for weeks! Then it’s a simple matter of assembly.

— Jan Roberts-Dominguez is a Corvallis food writer, artist and author of “Oregon Hazelnut Country, the Food, the Drink, the Spirit” and four other cookbooks. Readers can contact her by email at janrd@proaxis.com, or obtain additional recipes and food tips on her blog at www.janrd.com.