I thought I knew how to make some pretty good gazpacho until I bought a quart of Sylvia Ganier’s fantastic, silky tomato soup from Green Door Gourmet. It turns out that I was just making watery salsa all along.
It wasn’t completely my fault. You can’t make a superior dish using inferior products, and just about any tomatoes you or I have purchased so far this year have probably been relatively flavorless and mealy. That’s why it’s so exciting that we’re finally reaching the beginning of peak tomato season, and it’s time to celebrate!
On Saturday, July 15, at the Nashville Farmers’ Market they’re staging a big event to honor the humble pomme d'amour as part of Tomat-O-Rama from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. The farm shed will be filled with purveyors offering up their finest tasty red orbs, and the market will have a tasting table set up so that you can sample 14 different varieties of tomatoes before you buy.
Many of the restaurants and food trucks on-hand will be offering tomato-themed specialty dishes along with Bloody Marys, Bloody Marias and wine pairings. A winner will be named in a salsa and pico de gallo contest, and the crowd will be entertained by music from Giovanni Rodriguez and his crew of salsa musicians, naturally.
Tomat-O-Rama is free to attend, and the crowds will probably be large, so give yourself a little extra time to make a parking plan or avail yourself of public transit. More than a half dozen WeGo Nashville buses pass within a block of the Market, so take any bus to the Music City Central hub enjoy a green way to shop for some red beauties!
