Summer tomato recipes: Cracker Salad and Garlic Fried

We’ve been eating some good tomatoes lately, and the ones we’re growing in the backyard will be ready soon. I’m ready for a tomato sandwich and more BLTs. I ran across this tomato salad recipe the other day and it looks good and has all the flavors of a tomato sandwich so I’m sure it’s good. Very few ingredients.

This salad will go soggy pretty quickly so make it and serve it immediately. The recipe says to seed the tomatoes and lay them out on paper towels to soak up some of the moisture.

Tomato Cracker Salad

4 medium garden-fresh tomatoes

3/4 cup mayo

1 sleeve saltine crackers, coarsely broken

Salt and pepper

Seed and coarsely chop the tomatoes. In a medium bowl combine the tomatoes and mayonnaise. Add the broken crackers and toss lightly to coat. Add salt and generous amounts of black pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Here’s another easy baked tomato recipe that would make a great appetizer with a loaf of crusty bread. Actually this could be an entire meal at my house.

This recipe calls for fresh mint, but you could easily substitute fresh basil or a combination of both which is what I would do.

Garlic Fried Tomatoes

4 to 6 large vine ripe tomatoes, about 2 ½ lb

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

10 garlic cloves, finely chopped (not crushed).

2 to 3 fresh green chilies, finely chopped

1/2 tsp salt

Small bunch of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped

Using a sharp knife, slice each tomato horizontally in half (through the equator). Arrange the tomato halves cut-side down in a frying pan large enough to fit the pieces snugly. Pour the olive oil over the tomatoes and set the pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Flip the tomatoes over and scatter half the garlic and chilies on the tomatoes and the other half in the oil (in the pan). Sprinkle with the salt, cover the pan, reduce the heat, and cook until the tomatoes have started to soften but still retain their shape, about 15 minutes. Check on the tomatoes several times while cooking and, tilting the pan, spoon some of the oil mixture over the tomatoes, cover the pan and cook for another minute or two.

When almost done, sprinkle the mint over the tomatoes, cover them and cook for another minute or two. Remove from the heat and serve immediately with fresh bread to mop up the delicious juices.