We need to talk

Since I've gotten back to Atlanta, I've heard some great news. More and more friends are gardening, expanding their gardens, or getting loads of produce from parents who have expanded theirs. This enthusiasm for frugality, freshness, and communing with one's food warms a chef's heart.

Yesterday a friend of mine passed on some of the bounty from his parents' garden: a big bag each of squash and okra, and a quart of cherry tomatoes. Having had no good tomatoes in England, I was so excited to get them out of the fridge this morning: Sungolds, little baby red pear tomatoes, all brought back memories of the first summer tomatoes last year at Woodfire. As I cut them for our salad, something seemed...wrong. My paring knife could have been sharper, I suppose, and I used to halve little tomatoes on a cutting board, but it wasn't about the routine, it was the tomatoes. I cursed. The tomatoes were cold.

As we're coming into tomato season, and as I love the tomato with all the tenderness one can lavish on a vegetable, I feel compelled to speak out. Tomatoes are delicate and complex. Their unique, multi-faceted flavor comes from an enzyme system that plays out under the skin as soon as they start to ripen. The interactions between the enzymes give tomatoes their widely variant flavors, their singularly pungent aroma, and that bright, almost sparkling quality on the tongue found only in tomatoes off the vine.

Depending on the enzymes involved, refrigeration either slows or halts the chemical reactions. The smell goes first, then that effervescence, and if the tomato is still cold when you eat it, the tomato itself will taste flat, almost like a supermarket or winter tomato.

When I was taught about the enzyme system, I was told that after refrigeration, nothing can be done. It turns out that's not completely true. Within a few hours, it starts going again, albeit slowly and incompletely. A few days, and it's almost back to normal. I do recall reading that there's one particular enzyme that never recovers, and that may be true.

What's the right thing to do? Store them in a single layer at room temperature: sheet pans are great for this. If you have more tomatoes than you think you know what to do with, here are some ideas:

Make a tomato salad, salsa, or sandwiches.

Roast tomatoes, along with any hard herbs you may have laying around, and freeze them in their oil. Use them later for sauces or to spoon over meat, fish, or other veg.

Can them

Make tomato sauce or paste, and freeze it. Works great for tomato soup too.

Halve them, and dry them on a silpat in a low oven. Keep in oil.

Make tomato jam

Pan con tomate. For breakfast with a cafe con leche.

Give them to me. Maybe I'll give you back a jar of something good.

Any other suggestions?