Easy Gardening

Part 1: Tomaquet, Catalan Tomato Bread

When people interview me about my childhood growing up on the first organic farm in America, they seem to have an endless fascination with what I ate. I know the stereotypes by heart (and have since first grade): Tofu, brown rice, carrot sticks. NOT! Well, maybe some carrot sticks. Here is a CLASSIC Ardie Rodale (my mother) dinner from the summertime. I can’t tell you how many times we had this exact meal: Steak on the grill, corn on the cob, some potato thing like baked, scalloped, or mashed, AND broiled cheesy tomatoes. I don’t know if it has an official name. And I’ve seen something vaguely similar (without the cheese) on a traditional English breakfast plate. But as far as I know this was all my mother’s own and now, thanks to the miracle of the Internet, it can be yours, too. It’s so easy, and totally yum.

Broiled Cheesy Tomatoes

Ingredients:

3 ripe tomatoes

1 small onion (white or yellow is traditional) or a half of a bigger one

3 Tablespoons butter

3 Tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup bread crumbs

½ cup grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Wash and cut the tomatoes in half, and place into a pan that can go under the broiler.

2. Turn on the broiler.

3. Chop the onion and sprinkle on top.

4. Grate the cheese and sprinkle on top.

5. Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top.

6. Add a pat of butter and a dose of olive oil on top of each tomato (you can skip this step

if you want, but honestly, why would you want to?)

7. Stick this under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and golden—5 to 10 minutes at MOST. The tomatoes should still taste fresh, but the cheese should be gooey and delicious.

You can serve this with steak on the grill, but even vegetarians can love this one! (Sorry, vegans…although I guess you could try it with organic soy cheese and no butter.)

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