A HARTE APPETITE: DON'T MESS WITH TOMATO PERFECTION

The best way to eat a tomato, according to the late M.F.K. Fisher, acknowledged by many as America's foremost food writer, "is in the garden, warm and pungent from the vine, so that one can suck unashamedly, and bend over if any of the juice escapes."

Micah Janzow would probably agree. Micah, a 21-year-old student majoring in secondary education at Southeast Missouri State University, lives with his parents on a 52-acre homestead on the outskirts of Cape Girardeau. There he engages in two of his favorite hobbies, cooking and gardening.

This summer Micah has been busy growing the season's most celebrated vegetable, tomatoes, and, like summer itself, they are now at their peak. (Actually, though botanically a fruit, the Supreme Court in 1893 declared the tomato a vegetable for trade purposes.)

There are well over 150 varieties of tomato, including the well-known Better Boy (there's also a Better Girl), the Abraham Lincoln, and the Mammoth Wonder. There are even purple and striped tomatoes, not to mention green and yellow ones. Micah's crop consists primarily of Beefsteak and Park's Whopper slicing tomatoes and Hybrid Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. This year he'll produce hundreds of them and to dispose of the excess, he's gone into business selling them by the bag.

Though, like most of us, Micah would agree that the less done to a fresh tomato the better, he does have some favorite recipes for this vegetable that over the course of history has variously been considered poisonous and an aphrodisiac. (In medieval times the French called them pommes d'amour or "love apples.") Tomatoes, by the way, are a New World food, indigenous to South America. (What would Italian cooking be had it not been for Columbus?)

Being a fan of Mexican and Caribbean cooking, one of Micah's favorite uses for fresh tomatoes is in salsa. He even has for sale a salsa bag that contains his home grown tomatoes along with a few of the hot peppers that he also cultivates. His favorite recipe, from The Ultimate Hot and Spicy Cookbook, beats anything you can find in a jar on the supermarket shelf and one taste will make you agree with the comment of the gastronome Brillat-Savarin who observed in 1803, when they were still relatively new to French cuisine, that "tomatoes are a great blessing to good cookery."

Micah's Fresh Salad

Ingredients:

1 fresh chili pepper, seeded and chopped

1 garlic clove

1/2 red onion, coarsely chopped

3 green onions, chopped

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped

1-3 canned green chilies

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons tomato juice or water

Directions:

In food processor or blender combine fresh chili, garlic, onions, and cilantro. Process until finely chopped. Add remaining ingredients and pulse on and off until chopped. Salsa should be chunky. Let stand 30 minutes before serving. Makes 3 cups.

Warm Cherry Tomato Salad

Cherry tomatoes are great in salads and probably the best choice in wintertime when larger tomatoes are likely to be flavorless. Lately they have become popular cooked as a side dish as in this recipe from Gourmet Magazine.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/4 teaspoons minced garlic

6 cups assorted vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, some halved

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/3 cup finely shredded fresh basil leaves

Directions:

In a large non-stick skillet, heat vinegar, oil, and garlic over moderate heat until just simmering. Add tomatoes, pepper, and salt to taste and cook, tossing until slightly tender and heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. Toss tomatoes with shredded basil and garnish with basil sprigs. Serves 6.

Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

On a large serving platter, alternate overlapping 1/4-inch thick slices of tomato and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with chopped fresh basil, drizzle vinaigrette dressing over, and season with fresh ground pepper.

Got a recipe you'd like to share with our readers? Are you looking for a recipe for something in particular? Send your recipes and requests to The Harte Appetite, c/o Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, MO., 63702-0699.

~Tom Harte is a professor at Southeast Missouri State University and writes a food column every other week for the Southeast Missourian.