tomatoes

The brief, glorious moment when tomatoes are everywhere marks the culinary apex of summer. This drawn-out, tomato-ey solstice is especially fleeting for heirloom tomatoes, the high-maintenance wing of the tomato clan. Too watery and delicate to preserve, heirlooms can only be enjoyed raw. Which means they must be enjoyed now.

My first kitchen job involved making six gallons of gazpacho every Sunday. This was back when earning your chops meant something, and making that whole batch with just a knife and peeler, no blender, was the most tedious task on my list. It was also the most popular dish on the menu. By the time I’d learned that recipe — straight out of the Moosewood Cookbook — by heart, I figured I knew everything there was to know about cold Spanish soups.