Roasted Tomatoes

As I prepare to move to Sudan, I'm thinking a lot about what I will miss. Perhaps that's why I've been obsessed with avocados lately. One thing I will NOT miss are American tomatoes. I mean, I'm sure there are good ones out there, but 9 times out of 10, what I find at the store are mushy, watery-tasting tomatoes. Summertime tomatoes are better than wintertime tomatoes, but unless you have your own garden or are visiting a greenmarket, the tomato situation is usually not so great.

Sudanese tomatoes are always fresh. If you don't get them while they're fresh and ripe, you don't get them. No cold storage. No shipments from abroad. And sometimes, when the weather is over 120 degrees for days at a time, there are no tomatoes. Those are sad days, but for the 10 months of the year that tomatoes are plentiful, no American tomato can hold a candle to a tomato grown on the banks of the Nile river.

I eat Sudanese tomatoes happily. Wash, eat, period. Nothing else necessary. For breakfast, tomatoes with a little feta cheese. For a dinner salad, maybe diced tomatoes with onions and a little lime juice and salt. It doesn't get any better.

Here in New York, though, it takes a little effort to bring out the tangy sweetness of tomatoes. I find the easiest way to do that - and also the easiest way to make a pasta sauce - is by roasting grape (or cherry) tomatoes. It's so simple and so tasty that once you try them you'll be roasting little tomatoes constantly and looking for ways to use them!

Roasted Grape (or Cherry) Tomatoes:

• Grape or Cherry Tomatoes (as many as you want)
• Olive oil (enough to just coat the tomatoes)
• salt
• pepper
• garlic cloves (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Prepare your tomatoes for roasting by tossing them in a bowl with a little olive oil. Make sure they're all pretty well coated.
3. Spread the tomatoes in a shallow pan (glass or metal).
4. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper.
5. If you want to roast garlic at the same time, just take a piece of tin foil, place the garlic cloves on it, add a drop of olive oil, salt, and pepper, wrap them up, and throw them into the pan with the tomatoes.
6. Pop the pan into the oven and wait. After a while, you may hear little popping noises. Yes, the tomatoes are popping. You want this to happen so they can release some of their liquid.
7. How long you roast the tomatoes for is up to you. I'd say roast them for at least 1/2 hour. As you roast them longer, they get sweeter and the flavor concentrates more, so check on them every 5 or 10 minutes and take them out when you're happy with what they look and taste like.
8. Pour this over fresh pasta with the tomato liquid that is in the pan, and you've got an easy, delicious and healthy sauce. If you roasted garlic, mash it up and stir it in.

Here's a before and after picture that I did not take. Sorry. No tomatoes in the house!



Notes:

• You can roast other veggies at the same time. Try zucchini, onion (in chunks), and mushrooms (sorry, Toni. Other people like them!) Actually, I love roasted mushrooms.

The Best Salad Ever

Get ready. This may be the best salad ever. I made it once for a school event, and since then, people get mad at me if I show up at without it. "Which salad?" I ask them. Fingers begin pointing, "You know which salad!" Just last week for an end of year pot-luck, I was assigned "THE salad" and given no choice in the matter!

I'm sharing it because everyone should be able to enjoy a good salad. The crisp, colorful veggies make the salad beautiful. The parsley, mint, lime, and garlic create the most tantalizing scent. Your taste buds will be thrilled by the tastes and textures.

THE Salad (a.k.a. Somewhat Sudanese Salad)
Serves 4, or 2 salad-lovers

• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 orange bell pepper
• 1 large apple (Granny Smiths work well, or anything crisp and juicy and tart)
• 1 chayote
• mini salad greens or lettuce torn into smaller pieces
• 1 cucumber
• 1 small onion (or better yet, a quarter or half of a large sweet Spanish/Vidalia onion)
  
• grape or cherry tomatoes
• 1 avocado
• 1 mango (somewhat firm)
• 1 red or green chili pepper (optional)
• 1 bunch of parsley (I prefer flat leaf parsley.) Make sure it's well rinsed to remove sand!
• 10-20 fresh mint leaves

Dressing:

• 2-4 cloves of fresh garlic
• juice of 2-3 limes
  
• kosher salt/sea salt

Here's the deal: Except for the parsley and dressing, EVERYTHING is optional! I choose fresh vegetables and some fruits that look good, are crisp, smell good, and are colorful. Use whatever you like! I like to add some ingredients that are sweet, some tart, some spicy...

1. Chop chili peppers finely.
2. Dice everything else to about 1/2 inch square/cube.
3. Cut your grape or cherry tomatoes into halves or quarters.
4. Finely chop the leaves of the bunch of parsley and throw it in with the rest of the ingredients in large salad bowl.
   
5. Chop and mash the the garlic with a little salt. Work it with your knife until it is a paste.
6. You're making enough dressing to just coat your salad. Make the dressing by mixing the garlic paste and the lime juice together in a small bowl. If your limes aren't that juicy, you might need more. Add salt to taste, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon should make your mouth water like a salt and vinegar potato chip!
   
7. Don't dress the salad with your dressing until you're ready to serve it because the salt will make all the pretty veggies wilt! OR leave the salt out of the dressing completely, dress the salad with the lime juice and garlic and add salt to taste just before you serve.
8. Mix it all up... toss it well... Hands and a large bowl work best for this.

Some notes:

• Add feta cheese, crumbled - YUM!
• Throw in a handful dried cranberries or rasins.
  
• Mix (natural) peanut butter into the lime and garlic mixture until it's a smooth, soupy paste. Add lime and peanut butter and salt until you like the taste. Dress your salad.
• Be bold - add some red chili powder to the lime/peanut/salt/garlic mixture :)
• Be Sudanese and pour a little sesame oil over the top to finish it off.

ENJOY!