The really great thing about my relationship with Tony is that we motivate each other to try new things. He eats new things, I cook new things. It's kind of a win-win scenario. Since Tony's a little picky, it can be hit or miss. Recently, we had a miss.
Let me explain. Tony dislikes tomatoes. I feel like this is a terrible thing because tomatoes are one of my favorite foods. Sometimes, I like to just eat sliced tomato with salt and pepper. Tony's jihad on all of the foods I like can make it tough for me to cook (I repeat: HE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE CHEESE!), so I recently got him to try tomatoes again. He'd only ever tried one variety, so I thought maybe if we tried it again with a different variety, he could change his mind.
I chose Kumato tomatoes. I'd had them at a dinner party a few years ago, and I loved them. They had such a unique flavor. I remember being really impressed about them. Being such a tomato fan, I was eager to find a way to use them in my repertoire, but they can be expensive so I was never really able to justify to myself their purchase. Until now. So I'm not entirely sure if choosing Kumato tomatoes was for Tony's benefit or for mine, but either way they were going to be consumed.
He was nervous when he got a look at them, but to be fair, Kumato tomatoes do look a little unconventional for tomatoes. They've got this sort of green/red/purple hue. The packaging for the tomatoes that I purchased describes them as brown, but I don't know that I'd say they're brown. The thing I like about them is that they're a little bit sweeter than your average tomato. They have this extra little dimension of flavor. The thing about some kinds of tomatoes is that they can be quite bland if you have them on the off-season--or even during the regular season, if we're being honest. Kumatos are still really flavorful because they're just a more flavorful variety of tomato.
The way that I served Tony Kumato tomatoes was in bearing the principle of simple foods often being best in mind. He only like mozzarella cheese, but he's only had the shredded kind. So I thought we might try killing two taste birds with one stone, and I made him a Kumato caprese to go with the frozen skillet pasta meal we were having for dinner. (Don't judge me! We are busy, lazy people, dammit!)
It was your standard, run-of-the-mill caprese salad. Fresh mozzarella that I sliced and layered with slices of tomato and basil. I then drizzled on some olive oil and balsamic and added just a dash of salt and pepper.
He didn't care for the caprese, but I'm happy to report that it wasn't because of the tomatoes. He seemed a little bit surprised that he didn't hate the tomatoes, actually. The downfall of my foray into the world of caprese with Tony is that he didn't like the fresh mozzarella (he prefers the dried out, shredded, terrible variety), and he doesn't care for balsamic vinegar (which I didn't know). The sweetness of the Kumato tomato was what he really enjoyed. It adds an element to caprese that's really pleasant because it meshes well with the other flavors.
While it didn't work out this time, the simple act of having a meal with the man I love was really what I enjoyed about this experience. It's that kind of simplicity that I think people need more of. Or maybe that's just me. It's definitely that kind of simplicity that I need more of. And, to make a case for simplicity in food, I'm going to just leave this picture of my avocado toast right here...
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| Multigrain toast, avocado, Kumato tomato, lemon juice, salt and pepper. |
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