Tomato

This rustic salad makes a substantial starter or a light lunch, and is especially nice when it’s hot out. As with so much in Italian cuisine, the recipe is very simple; the key is the quality of the ingredients. The main attraction is featuring local heirloom tomatoes in peak season, which is summer to early fall in most places. Luckily, in Miami, we get locally grown tomatoes all winter long! It honestly doesn’t matter how many varieties of tomato you use; the most important thing is that the tomatoes are ripe, juicy, and sweet.

I’m crazy about farro’s chewy-grainy goodness; this bright refreshing salad is the perfect complement to Grilled Leg of Lamb (page 163) and also makes a great little vegetarian lunch on its own.

Similar to ratatouille, this Sicilian classic is a vibrant stew made with eggplant, roasted bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, raisins, and olives mixed together with lots of good olive oil. It’s one of those dishes where the final product exceeds the sum of its parts. Fruity olive oil is essential to the success of this dish; it is the facilitator of all the ingredients. Caponata can be served warm or at room temperature, as an antipasto, a side dish, or a topping for Crostini (page 27) or pizza.

With only a handful of ingredients, this Tuscan peasant soup is deceptively simple, but tastes so rich and decadent, you’d swear there was cream in it. Heads up: blending the soup with olive oil is an important step to produce its velvety texture. The bread becomes suspended—almost like a custard—in the silky tomatoes; the basil adds a subtle perfume. Paired with nutty, gooey-smooth Fontina cheese sandwiches, this comfort food classic pushes all the right buttons.

Marie called most any dish that she added wine to “French,” and her French pot roast was a star of the genre. The paprika and bell pepper are additions from the late writer Laurie Colwin, who along with Marie would top my list of people to eat pot roast with.

Quick-cooking red lentils have a sweet, mild flavor that pairs well with rich paprika.

This is a good idea for an abundance of tomatoes that are threatening to rot. The juice keeps refrigerated for several days and can be frozen for up to 6 months.

My mom makes these delicious baked tomatoes as an entrée in a vegetable-plate dinner or as a side dish for grilled meat. Make a double batch of the seasoned crumbs, if you’d like; they freeze very well and can be used with equally good results on many summer vegetables.

This keeps for several weeks in the fridge and is good with spiced basmati rice, grilled chicken or lamb, or a creamy corn stew.

We had too many seedlings to plant and so Monica also used them for the dessert for a tomato dinner: sweet tomato gelée and cream garnished with the tiny leaves. The tomato soup here also gets an assist from larger stems and leaves that are removed at the end, but very small, tender leaves from young plants (or volunteer seedlings) make a nice garnish as well.