Simple Is Beautiful

Pretty profound for a blog entry title, no? I think it can be applied to many things. In this specific instance, it was applied to something to eat with cheese. Always a noble cause, to be sure.
A tomato was included in my Boston Organics box. It was perfectly really ripe and smelled so good and I had about 5 minutes left before it turned into a rotten, organic mess. It needed special treatment. As always, with something that is good on its own, the most special treatment of all is letting it be. So with that in mind, I dressed the tomato with balsamic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and home grown basil, and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I had a moment of clouded thought that morning. In a panic that I would lose this tomato to time and rot, I put it in the fridge till I got home from lab. D'oh. Never ever is one supposed to put tomatoes in the fridge. I know this. Everyone knows this. They lose all their flavor, apparently in as little time as half of a day. Lisa later told me that if you put a tomato stem side down, it will slow the ripening. Wish I had known that...
It wasn't the worse thing I could have done. The tomato, cold shock and all, was still far better than what is normally sold at supermarkets. It was very juicy, with a very thin skin, and silky texture - there was non of the granular weirdness that store bought tomatoes sometimes have. The basil was deeply flavorful and the leaves were very tender. The baby leaves practically melted - there was much less chewing involved than with the adult, non home-grown and loved variety. Good olive oil made all the difference as well. So, you see, this was so very simple but so very good. Now I wish I could make over everything else in life in the image of this simple tomato...
~AK