One of my favorite summer memories is back in college when I spent two summers living with my grandparents down in Ocean City, Maryland.
They had a small hotel that they ran, so I’d help them with cleaning the rooms when I wasn’t busy working at a local pizza place. We’d eat most dinners together – just the three of us – and often had fresh fruits and veggies from a nearby farmer’s stand.
That is where I first had tomato sandwiches.
Now, for most people the sandwich would be missing the lunch meat… but for me this was the perfect combination of toasted bread, tomato, a little mayo, salt and pepper.
It’s been almost 20 years since I lived down in Ocean City and looking at a fresh, red tomato brings me right back. However, every time I go to the grocery store all I see are lame pink tomatoes that don’t look like they taste like anything. I actually have thought about trying to grown my own tomatoes, but with my black thumb I figured it would be a waste of energy.
This is why when my friend reached out to ask if I’d be interested in trying tomatoes from Tasti-Lee, I jumped at the chance. According to their press release, while all tomatoes are high in heart-healthy nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin A, biotin, potassium, fiber and the antioxident lycopene, the Tasti-Lee tomatoes have the highest levels of lycopene in any tomato variety in the United States.
A couple days later, I got these in the mail… 20 tomatoes!
I figured I’d try them out by making two of my favorite (and super easy) tomato recipes: the tomato sandwich and tomatoes & fresh mozzarella.
First up, check out my tomato sandwich:
I swear, it is exactly like the ones I had almost 20 years ago!
I also threw together some sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, coarse salt and pepper:
YUM! I don’t know how those food blogger-types do it, because both these treats were gone within about 2 minutes of taking the photos.
Now I need your help — I still have a bunch of tomatoes left and I’d love to know your favorite tomato recipes!
Also, if you want to learn more about the Tasti-Lee tomatoes, you can find them online, on Facebook and on Twitter.
Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by Tasti-Lee. I received the tomatoes to try and loved them so much that I wanted to tell you all about them. All thoughts, opinions and super easy recipes are my own.
You could make a jar or 2 of fresh Salsa. It would keep for a while in the fridge if you store it properly in jars.
Same goes for tomato sauce. A small batch would last in the freezer for a long time.
Oooh, good idea. I LOVE salsa!
Salsa is like Omelettes. You can basically put in whatever you want. If you let it sit a day or 2 before using it gets even better because the flavors merge after time.
YUM. I also love tomatoes. I love tomato sandwiches, tomato with mozzerlla… I even eat them like apples sometimes (just bite into them). SO GOOD. Reminds me of gardening with my mom, sister and Pop Pop 🙂
YAY, I’m so glad it’s tomato season! =)
You could make a delicious homemade tomato sauce. My favorite is-
Put the following ingredients on a foiled wrapped sheet pain
1 bulb of garlic with the top cut off, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. then you wrap up with foil.
1/2c-1c carrots (I usually use baby carrots or you could cut to that size)
1 medium onion peeled and cut into 1-2 inch chunks
2lbs or so of tomatoes cut into 1-2 inch chunks
drizzle olive oil over all on the sheet tray. sprinkle with salt and pepper. place foil wrapped and prepared garlic in the corner.
Roast in a 300 degree oven for 2 or so hours until they start to shrivel. After you take them out, throw them in the food processor. You can add chicken stock or beef broth for consistency, but I usually don’t.
It’s seriously so good!!!
Nicole – that sounds AMAZING! Thanks for the recipe! =)