Cherry Tomatoes

It is heavy tomato time. The summer has been hot, dry and quirky, but the plants that somehow survived this year's drought are pumping out fruit in September. Farmers' markets are flooded with a variety of heirloom tomatoes, as is my garden. Some of these are cherry tomatoes, a type of tomato that alternately delights and enrages me. This summer I was pleased to make the acquaintance of Sun Gold, a cherry tomato that has an orangish hue, is about as big as a quarter and has a pleasing, low-acid flavor.

The Gulf of Mexico oil leak gets nastier by the day. MARC trains have shown a tendency to either miss their stations or to stop in the middle of nowhere. The Orioles are mired in the cellar of the American League East. Yet this summer all is right with my world. I say this because, a few days ago, I harvested my first homegrown tomatoes. They were not very big, a handful of cherry tomatoes, Sun Gold and White Currant. But they were a harbinger of good times. Tomato plants are like rabbits; once they start producing, they have a hard time stopping.

Some things taste better burned. One such item is a cherry tomato. I made this discovery by mistake. I left a bunch of cherry tomatoes in the oven too long. I was oven-drying tomatoes, slicing them in half, dabbing them with a little olive oil and sea salt and letting them sit on a baking sheet in a 250 degree oven for hours. How many hours? That is where I ran into trouble. The recipe I was following came from Joanne Weir's You Say Tomato (Broadway Books, 1998). It suggested cooking them for five to six hours.

The number of home gardeners jumped by almost 40 percent last season, but nearly half of them won't be back this year. Most probably found vegetable gardening too much work. Or, because it was a pretty poor gardening season, they didn't have much success. So, in a series of columns, I'm trying to get rookie vegetable gardeners off to a solid start. Last week, we talked about siting the garden, and my advice was to consider constructing a raised bed and filling it with bags of compost.

Time to face the truth: Tomato season is nearly over. But here's something to cheer you up: Cherry tomatoes can be counted on year-round to deliver a bright, sunny, sweet-tart flavor. This pasta dish uses the oven to bake the tomatoes for a short time to exploit their flavor. Menu Suggestion Cheery cherry-tomato pasta Sauteed spinach with lemon and butter Sliced focaccia Tiramisu Cheery Cherry-Tomato Pasta 4 servings -- Total time: 45 minutes 1/2 pound spaghettini 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved 1 tablespoon each: butter, vegetable oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 onion, chopped 1 cup sliced mushrooms 1/4 cup dry red wine 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste freshly ground pepper 1/2 cup shredded fresh basil grated parmesan or Romano cheese Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Like most people who grow them, I blow hot and cold on cherry tomatoes. They are prolific. They climb like weeds; they produce fruit all summer long. And in the fall, their small shape, about 1 to 2 inches in diameter, allows them to ripen even in autumn's shortened sunlight. When the larger tomato plants are kaput, the cherries are still churning. Moreover, they don't require acres of land. You can grow cherry tomatoes in pots on a patio. So cherry tomatoes seem like a good starting point for The Locavore, a new monthly column about locally produced foods.

There seems to be no end to the number of Italian eateries springing up in the Baltimore area, whether they be coffeehouses, delis, or trattorie. Cucina Italiano is big these days.Tomato reigns in this cuisine, and nothing is more gratifying than a robust red sauce over noodles. This nearly instant meal hails from an Old World Italian cookbook and is so nourishing for family, friends and certainly vegetarians. The small, exploded rounds of cherry tomatoes add a dense, interesting texture as a new twist for a marinara.

ON A RECENT weekend I combined a trip to my garden with a trip to one of Baltimore's city markets, and ended up with a feast. The garden yielded ripe tomatoes. The market gave me some salmon steaks. Each venue had presented its challenges. The cherry tomatoes played hard to get. They hid in the thicket of tomato leaves, they ducked under the eggplant and they sprawled like teen-agers stretching their limbs into inappropriate postures. I cursed the cherry tomatoes as they slipped through my fingers, disappearing on the garden floor.

UNTIL THIS summer I have had little to say about little tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes had been, in my view, high on nuisance and low on substance.They have a sweet flavor, almost like tomato candy. But taking the candy from the tomato plants had been tricky. The little tomatoes hid behind the leaves of the plant. Even when I spotted them and got my hands around them, the cherry tomatoes tended to roll through my fingers and disappear onto the dark, leafy maze of the garden floor. That didn't happen with Big Boys or Beefsteaks - tomatoes that were the size of softballs.

INTO EACH gardener's life, some cherry tomatoes fall, as a form of punishment. Picking cherry tomatoes is a pain, often in the knees, which is where the pain hit me recently. I had been bending over and collecting some of the 10,000 or so cherry tomatoes that had ripened, seemingly overnight, in my garden.When you harvest big tomatoes, you can hold them in your hand and admire your work. If you pluck a ripe, well-grown tomato from the vine, you feel like a skilled worker, benefiting from hours of toil.

Like most people who grow them, I blow hot and cold on cherry tomatoes. They are prolific. They climb like weeds; they produce fruit all summer long. And in the fall, their small shape, about 1 to 2 inches in diameter, allows them to ripen even in autumn's shortened sunlight. When the larger tomato plants are kaput, the cherries are still churning. Moreover, they don't require acres of land. You can grow cherry tomatoes in pots on a patio. So cherry tomatoes seem like a good starting point for The Locavore, a new monthly column about locally produced foods.

WASHINGTON - Contaminated tomatoes came from farms in Florida and Mexico, federal health officials said yesterday, as investigators moved closer to identifying the cause of an outbreak that has sickened at least 552 people, including 18 in Maryland. The new, higher toll was announced as Food and Drug Administration investigators tried to determine whether the contamination came from farms or, more likely, somewhere else along the supply chain. Inspectors will be fanning out to the farms, packing sheds, warehouses and distribution centers this weekend, officials said.

Supermarkets and restaurants across Maryland are removing tomatoes from their shelves and menus after federal health officials warned of a widening outbreak of salmonella caused by some varieties of the fruit. Tomatoes have sickened more than 140 people nationwide, and 23 have been hospitalized, since mid-April, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Consumers should avoid raw red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes, but may continue to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes and tomatoes with vines still attached, the FDA said.

I may not be able to bench-press 300 pounds. I may not grasp the subtleties of the international balance of payments. But I can flip a frittata. When I tossed one out of the skillet recently, it was a personal culinary milestone. It was also supper. I am a latecomer to the frittata, which is the Italian version of the omelet. The one my wife and I made for supper the other night, loaded with pieces of Italian sausage, fresh herbs and garden tomatoes, has sold me on the concept. I enjoy an occasional omelet, but it is eggy, soupy and French.

It is heavy tomato time. The summer has been hot, dry and quirky, but the plants that somehow survived this year's drought are pumping out fruit in September. Farmers' markets are flooded with a variety of heirloom tomatoes, as is my garden. Some of these are cherry tomatoes, a type of tomato that alternately delights and enrages me. This summer I was pleased to make the acquaintance of Sun Gold, a cherry tomato that has an orangish hue, is about as big as a quarter and has a pleasing, low-acid flavor.

The inspiration for this main course comes from a fabulous dish I sampled in Paris last month in a neighborhood restaurant. When I couldn't decide what to choose, our waiter recommended the 7-hour roasted lamb. Slowly roasted in the oven until fork tender, the lamb was delectable, but it was the simple, elegant presentation of the entree that caught my eye. Set in the center of the plate on a bed of pureed eggplant, the meat was surrounded by a garland of roasted cherry tomatoes and roasted garlic cloves.

The following quick recipe is from "Country Inns and Back Roads Cookbook" by Linda Glick Conway.Fiesta salad6-8 servings3 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 -inch pieces1 16-ounce package fresh salad mix (see note)8 large cherry tomatoes, quarteredL 1 6-ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained, quartered1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese1 cup commercial salsa1 cup commercial light ranch dressing1 tablespoon lime juiceIn a nonstick skillet cook the bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels; refrigerate.

Easy cheese and pasta is low in fat, high in carbohydrates, and provides important nutrients, including protein. The dish takes about 10 minutes to prepare.Cook fun-shaped pasta like wagon wheels or rotelle. Add frozen peas and corn kernels during the last minute of cooking time. Drain and toss with shredded Cheddar cheese until it melts. Add cherry tomatoes and prepared salsa.Easy Cheese and Pasta8 ounces (3 1/4 cups) wagon wheel or rotelle pasta1 cup frozen peas1 cup frozen corn kernels4 ounces (about 1 cup)

Thick, creamy pasta sauces don't have to be laden with calories, and they don't have to take forever to make. Sometimes it is just a matter of stirring in the right ingredient. In this case, ricotta cheese. To borrow a tip from chef and cookbook author Mario Batali, hot pasta water is blended with the ricotta to "melt" it into a creamier texture. For this recipe, we broiled cherry tomatoes to get optimal flavor, and used their juice to help create the sauce when we mixed in the cheese.