I’ve got 2 nice tomatoes to use up. Anyone have creative ideas?
We bought a few to make BLTs so that’s done now. What else can I do with a tomato?
Ooh, make a steak salad with sauteed mushrooms and onions, lettuce of your choice, tomatoes, goat cheese (or blue cheese if you are afraid of goat cheese), basalmic dressing, and sliced hot steak. Something about this combination just makes my mouth water for more.
Grilled cheese sandwiches with sliced tomatoes on the side. Nothing better. IMO
Slice the tomatoes, put salt and pepper on them, and just eat. Delicious!
Sliced with salt. Adding a thin slice of prosciutto and fresh mozzarella is optional.
Fried (your arteries won’t thank you, but your taste buds will)
Best with green tomatoes, but also good with ripe: Shake 1/3” slices in bag with seasoned (salt/pepper/garlic powder/basil) self-rising flour, bathe in buttermilk, dry till tacky, shake again in bag with remaining seasoned flour, fry in peanut oil, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve with Sweet Baby Ray’s Secret Dipping Sauce (don’t tell anybody…it’s secret). Use same process with eggplant, mushrooms and onions.
I make it with 1 used grocery store bag (it makes Earth smile). I don’t worry about germs; Any bacteria that survives 375 degree F peanut oil earns the right to make me sick.
Buy more tomatoes. Skin and squeeze out the seeds and juice and toss them out. Chop the tomatoes, layer in a colander with kosher salt. Set aside.
Sauté onion and fresh garlic. Add lots of fresh basil and oregano. Add tomatoes and simmer a few minutes. Salt to taste.
Spoon the sauce over cooked angel hair pasta. Add freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Broil some garlic bread and butter. Serve with a fresh green salad with tomatoes. Pour a glass of red wine. Enjoy.
What makes this dish special is all the fresh ingredients.
Pan de tomate! Toast some crusty country bread, rub half a garlic clove over it. Cut the tomatoes in half across the middle and grate them with a box grater. Add salt to taste and a bit of sherry vinegar. Spoon over your toast and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on top.
Stuffed tomatoes. Stuff them with anything, but a traditional approach is some ground beef or sausage meat. Saute the meat with onion and garlic and your favorite herbs. Core the tomatoes from the top, and if needed take a thin slice off the bottom so the tomatoes will stand upright. Salt and pepper the inside of the tomatoes and stuff them. Cut a vertical slit at the top and insert a bay leaf for both flavor and decoration. Cover the top with grated cheese if you like. Cook in a 400F oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
Only two? The theme of my garden this year is “Oh my god. It’s full of tomatoes.”
A BLT will use one, slice the other and eat with salt. I eat four at lunch to try to keep up.
I found some good cherry tomato recipes, one for a spaghetti sauce and one that is a sauce for chicken breast which use up a pint and a half each - two days worth of production from my volunteer plants.
I like to stuff mine with tuna salad, put two slices of mozz or provolone on top, and pop under the broiler. Mmmmmm…
Make a tomato pie. My mom used to make great ones, but I no longer have the recipe. Find an online recipe you like.
**Caprese salad
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Get a ball of mozzarella or burrata and some fresh basil leaves. Cut the tomatoes and the cheese into ¼″ thick slices. Lightly salt the tomatoes and arrange the cheese and tomato slices in alternating layers.
Sprinkle torn basil leaves over the top (I like to use oregano too). Drizzle a bit of olive oil or balsamic vinegar over the salad and add a few grinds of pepper if you like it.
For the best flavor let the dish rest for 30 minutes so the flavors have time to meld.
**romansperson **has the correct answer. One can also make bruschetta topping by dicing the tomatoes, adding a little minced garlic, chopped basil, wine vinegar and olive oil. Salt the mixture and let it sit for a few minutes so that the tomatoes will exude some juice. Toast thick slices of Italian bread and spoon the topping over them, making sure that the bread gets soaked with the olive oil/tomato juice combination.
To repeat: romansperson has the correct answer. That is all.
Alternative: Lean over the kitchen sink with the tomato in one hand and a salt shaker in the other, and go to town. Less messy if you quarter the tomato first.
This is delicious. I don’t throw the juice out though, I simmer it down until it is nothing but flavor (this takes a lot of patience) and add it back in. I like to add mushrooms. Sometimes, I add sausage, but that’s usually just to satisfy others who insist on meat.
Edited to add: I know what I’m making for dinner this weekend. Thanks for the reminder harmonicamoon!
I love tomatoes in any way shape or form. Been eating them like apples since I was little (no leaning over the sink- careful initial bites keep squirts and drips to a minimum). Many, many years ago I became aware that people salt tomatoes before they eat them, so I thought “I like salt, I like tomatoes, it’s going to be great!”
It was just a salty tomato. 
I just didn’t get any extra flavor or experience from it and it really seemed to mask the inherent tomatoey goodness in a fresh from the field fruit. So now, I just eat them unadorned.
Almost nothing better, put the slices of tomato in the middle of the sandwich between slices of cheese. Grilled Cheese and Creamed Tomato Soup in one delicious item.
Pairing the tomato with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches is one of the highest callings possible for both cheese and tomato
Or, just cut the tomato into wedges lightly salt and pepper and eat as is