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Simon Gault: What to do with tomatoes

From sliced to seasoned, Simon Gault demonstrates myriad ways to use tomatoes.
Simon Gault Tomatoes

Tomatoes are healthy and delicious – we really should be eating more of them!

A recent study showed Italy had lower rates of cancer compared to New Zealand. They eat a lot of tomatoes over there, while we’re low consumers of them. Perhaps there is a connection.

Either way, we should be eating them regularly – they go with just about anything.

You can have them roasted on a slice of Vogels for breakfast, in a salad for lunch, and in a main dish for dinner.

Right now, I’ve got a couple of different varieties growing in my garden. One is the Black Zebra tomato, named because of its stripes. Looking at them, I thought they may be quite tart, but they have a delicious sweetness to them.

I’m trying to grow a tomato-potato hybrid called a Potato Tom at the moment. The plant produces both tomatoes and potatoes, obviously, with different harvesting times.

The tomatoes are ripe now so I did a little taste test with the regular varieties and couldn’t really taste a difference between any of them. So, now I’ve got these potatoes hidden away to enjoy when they’re ready – it’s pretty exciting! They’re a great space saver and something a bit different to try in the garden.

My favourite ways to enjoy tomatoes:

  1. Roasted

I love to cut them in half, sprinkle over my SG Home Cuisine Italian Seasoning and roast them in the oven at about 180°C until they’re soft. Cooking them this way really brings out those sugars and the flavours of the herbs.

  1. Paired with mozzarella

There are lots of quality mozzarellas available in New Zealand now – Clevedon Valley makes an excellent one. Take it out of the fridge and wait until it’s at room temperature. Cut a wedge, slice your tomato and serve with a quality extra virgin olive oil, some balsamic vinegar and basil for a traditional Caprese salad.

  1. In a salad

Add tomatoes to a salad of finely chopped red onion, rocket lettuce, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

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