Heirloom Tomatoes $5/#

Okay, so I was at the grocery store and I saw Heirloom Tomatoes.  Cool looking things they are!  They are also over $5.00 per pound.  I HAD to know what makes a tomato worth $5.69 a pound so I bought two large tomatoes.

Now I have these mega expensive tomatoes and I do not know what to do with them.  I have to make this special otherwise I wasted a lot of money on these things.

What makes this tomato so expensive and what is a super cool recipe I can use for these.

Chicken Caprise?  Chicken Caprise with no chicken?  (Vegetarian suggestions are preferred but dead critter is okay if nothing else works.)

TIA

Just found this one by "googling". Sounds promising.
Nancy

Heirloom Tomato Basil Mozzarella Salad Recipe

 

Ingredients

Heirloom tomatoes, sliced
Fresh basil, leaves carefully chopped as not to bruise
Fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

Method

Assemble the salad with slices of tomatoes, basil leaves, and mozzarella slices. Sprinkle extra virgin olive oil over the salad. Add a dash of vinegar and a very light sprinkling of salt and pepper. For a completely different flavor, you can substitute the mozzarella with thin slices of Parmesan.
 

Yep, this is what I will do with one of the huge mega tomatoes!  This sounds great.

I had my surgery in Mexico.  The best ever Italian restaurant I have ever been to is in Mexico! ;o)  I ordered Apollo (chicken) Caprise.  I never really knew what was in the yellow sauce it was served with but it was verrrry good.  I know part of it is Garlic EVOO.

It was also served with steamed broccoli and pasta with Alfredo Sauce.

I think this is very similar to the caprise without the chicken.  I'm going to try it!

Thank you sooo much!

Question... how do you suppose I chop basil leaves without bruising them and how do I know if I bruised them?

I don't chop basil.  I htorw the leaves on the tomatoes whole.

We have a local organic farm that harvests several varities Heirloom Tomatoes.  THey are sweet, meaty, tasty, FRESH, ripe, incredible tomato flavor and melt in your mouth.  I don't generally get around to cooking them because we eat them like an apple!!!

The fresh mozzarella is a unique flavor, too.  I can eat this dish every singe day and not be weary of it.

Enjoy!

You stack the leaves on top each other and roll the leaves into the shape of a short cigar then slice them with a very sharp flat blade knife and they end up flooking like the strips in the picture.

Bruised has a darker green appearance than the rest of the leaf, like spinach starting to go bad.  It does not affect the flavor just the appearance.

I grow heirloom tomatoes at home. They are harder to grow since you grow them from seeds, you just can't get plants at the Wal-Mart nursery area. They are true tomatoes in the sense that they are descendants of species that grew sometimes over a 100 years ago, so they aren't genetically engineered hybrids.

You can't beat a slice of an heirloom tomato on a sandwich or cut up as a marinated salad with oil, vinegar and onion. Enjoy!

Diana

Why do they look so wildly different from a regular tomato?

Some of the varieties go back to Thomas Jefferson, believe it or not. The present day tomatos are bred to have a longer shelf life, look pretty, lower acid sometimes and other "desirable"  traits. The heirlooms are the strongest producers of a strain at least 100 years old. When you keep your tomato seeds for next year, you keep seeds from the best that you grow.

I have never been good at growing tomato plants.  They end up being scrawny, tall, and skinny plants that cannot stand up on their own.  What am I doing wrong?

Believe it or not, plant them in a trench lying on it's side. They will grow upright. Also plant the roots deep, about 6-8 inches. I also use a liquid fish emulsion that you can spray on them which helps them allot while they are growing. I also use wire cages around them which you can get for about $2 a piece or less at Wal-Mart which last for years. Or you can make your own with fencing wire. Can't beat your own homegrown tomatoes.

Diana