Tomato Trick

Do you like tomatoes?  mmm, beautiful ruby, sweet tomatoes.  There is something so amazing about biting into a fresh tomato right off the vine.  Why is it called a vine anyway?  Tomato plants grow more like bushes or trees.  Anyway, tomatoes taste wonderful.

If you are tired of just eating tomatoes like apples right off the vine, try a little fresh mozzarella, olive oil and basil.  

Also known as Caprese salad if you want to sound fancy about it!

Here, in the February version of Central Indiana, there are not to many back yard tomato plants, or basil for that matter!  Grocery store tomatoes have to do for now.  The Heirloom variety are more expensive, but add a splash of variety.  (the photos are regular though)  I used some garden basil that had been dried and crumbled.  It's not the same as fresh, but it beats paying $3 for about an ounce of fresh stuff!

Ok, here is where the tomato trick comes in.  Tomatoes can be tricky little buggers to cut.  You know the apple corer you have in the drawer?

Slice off the top of the tomato, just so there is a flat surface for the blades to cut into (you can see my sliced off top by the plate in the picture above) and position the apple slicer over the tomato and slice.  Done.

Simple?  Yep.

Now, there are 8 slices, and they are kind of fat.  For the caprese salad I sliced the tomato wedges in half length-wise so that they would be thinner wedges.  This makes a nice thickness for sandwiches, too.

Enjoy your super easy caprese salad!

~JiMele