Front page image: 

Summer has truly arrived. Ramsey’s Diner now has their chicken salad plate on the menu. I look forward to this event every year. It’s not the chicken salad, which is excellent, or the avocados, which are delicious – it’s the tomatoes. Ripe, red, luscious, fresh tomatoes which have been locally grown. There is nothing like them. The smell of a farm-fresh, vine-ripened tomato is the smell of summer, as far as I’m concerned.

It’s sometimes a bit difficult to tell when fruits and vegetables are actually in season, since you can purchase most of them year-round nowadays at the grocery store. But those lovely, red tomatoes you see in the grocery store and purchase, thinking they will be just the thing in your fresh salad are about as tasty as eating plastic vegetables. They were grown in a hot house, picked while they were still green, forced to turn an unnatural red, and then packaged and shipped to groceries all over the country. So, forget those grocery store tomatoes. The absolute best place to purchase fresh tomatoes is at the local farmer’s market. Tomatoes are so wonderful; it’s hard to believe they were considered poisonous hundreds of years ago! I can only guess that some brave soul tried one and was able to tell everyone else that, not only were they not poisonous, they were scrumptious.

I think we can all agree that tomatoes are delicious, but they are also one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat. They are full of vitamins A and C, fiber and are cholesterol-free. Anyone else a movie buff and remember what the dinosaurs needed to reproduce in “Jurassic Park”? Yep, it was lycopene – one of the most beneficial carotenoids (plant pigments known for demonstrating antioxidant properties) found in any vegetable. Although I’m sure you know, of course, that tomatoes are technically a fruit!

Lycopene is found not only in tomatoes themselves, but in everything made from them, which can include anything from spaghetti sauce to ketchup. You can also get your healthy dose of lycopene by eating tomato soup – did you know Campbell’s tomato soup has been around since 1897? It’s one of my family’s favorite foods, along with a grilled cheese sandwich. Cooked tomatoes are actually higher in lycopene than uncooked ones.

Lycopene has been extensively studied by scientists and found to help prevent heart disease and protect against a whole list of cancers. And if you need yet another reason to choose organic vegetables, organic tomatoes have three times as much lycopene as those that are not organic. Tomatoes are also naturally low in calories, which makes them a great choice for lunch with some cottage cheese for those of us on the Weight Watcher plan!

I think the best way to eat tomatoes in the summer is simply sliced and placed on a plate with a little salt and pepper. But I will also stuff them with chicken or tuna salad, cut them up in a fresh salad or dice them for tacos. Years ago, when I went to my future in-laws house, my mother-in-law served fresh, sliced tomatoes – which she had peeled first! I was amazed at this and enjoyed these unusual tomatoes but soon figured out that it was not that difficult to peel a tomato easily. Just douse the whole, cored tomato in boiling water, immediately immerse it into ice water and the peel will come right off with the help of a sharp knife.

I have been eating pasta all winter, tossed with canned, diced tomatoes but now I can liven up this repast with some fresh tomatoes. It’s quick, easy and delicious.

Easy Olive Oil, Tomato And Pasta Salad

Ingredients

• 1 (16 oz) package of your favorite pasta
• 2 fresh tomatoes, diced
• ½ C. olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ C. fresh basil leaves, cut into strips
• Oregano to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Parmesan cheese, if desired

Directions

Cook your pasta, and then toss it with all the other ingredients. Enjoy!

So, enjoy those fresh tomatoes. They should be in season in Central Kentucky until early September so stop by the local farmer’s market and stock up weekly. It will be fall before you know it!