Here are 13 best things you can do with tomatoes:
1. Top pizza dough with crushed ripe plum tomatoes; sprinkle with minced fresh oregano, chopped olives, mozzarella and bake.
2. Stir up a bowl of gazpacho, a soup made of raw vegetables served cold, usually with a tomato base.
3. Garnish a cheeseburger.
4. Make a tomato, mayonnaise and white bread sandwich and eat it standing over the kitchen sink.
5. Construct a New York City steakhouse salad, alternating thick slices of steak, tomato and sweet onion.
6. Simmer a bright red sauce for spaghetti and meatballs.
7. Eat salade caprese on a hot summer day.
8. Enjoy bruschetta — crusty bread slices grilled or toasted, then rubbed with fresh garlic, topped with crushed red tomatoes, and drizzled with olive oil.
9. Re-experience a classic BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich with homemade mayonnaise.
10. Make Panzanella — a bread and tomato salad from Tuscany. Soak crusty day-old bread in cold water. Squeeze out excess. Crumble soaked bread and combine with chunked ripe tomatoes and other fruits or vegetables.
11. Stuff a large tomato with creamed spinach and lots of minced fresh basil; top with grated cheese and bake until bubbly and heated through. Serve for lunch.
12. Eat summer ratatouille — a Provencal “stew” of tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini.
13. Enjoy them at the 34th annual Pittston Tomato Festival, which begins Thursday, Aug. 17 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 20.
