Rockaway Caprese Bowl

When I go home to North Carolina in summer, my favorite things to eat are my father's home-grown tomatoes, sliced and served up plain. There's nothing precious about them; he buys the plants from Lowe's and grows them in the driveway in big green plastic bins with wheels on them.  They soak up the infernal July sun and once they are ripe and red as sunburned cheeks, they taste juicy and rich, like summer itself.

I've tried to grow my own tomatoes out here in Rockaway, to little success. It's not that I can't get them to grow -- I can. But they don't taste that good, not to me and not even to the squirrels, who inevitably pluck the juiciest ones to taste, only to discard them on my back porch out of spite.  

And so, when the temperature climbs each year I inevitably start my hunt for a good tomato. This year, the first stop on my quest was the "ugly tomato" from Stop n' Shop on 116th. 

They look the part -- misshapen, different colors ranging from yellow to reddish purple -- and they vary in size too, just like they came from someone's yard (we both know they didn't). At $4.99 a pound they're not cheap, but when it comes to the pursuit of a perfect tomato, price is not the determining factor.

Two days home and it's already beginning to go bad.

I had high hopes for this haul. So I chopped one up and popped a wedge in my mouth. Watery, mild... meh, definitely not my dad's tomatoes. But they weren't terrible.  They were better than the pale deli slices you get with a BLT and passable for a salad.

And that is how the Rockaway caprese was born: Stop n' Shop "ugly" tomatoes, the finest (and sharpest) Irish cheddar, fresh basil and a splash of sherry vinegar and EVOO. As always, 3-5 big grinds of the pepper mill is a must.

Ingredients

1 "ugly" tomato, chopped
2-3 slices of extra sharp Irish cheddar, diced or crumbled
3-4 leaves basil, rolled then sliced thin
Drizzle of sherry vinegar
Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Several grinds of fresh black pepper
Dash of salt if desired

Prepare:

In a small bowl toss the tomato, cheddar, and basil together with the oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Eat at once and don't refrigerate it; it saps all flavor out of the tomatoes. If you're making for a crowd, triple the recipe and let the tomatoes marinate for no more than an hour.