Tomato Stacks

Have you ever had an heirloom tomato? What about a kumato tomato?

If you've never seen or heard of them they're the tomatoes that look nothing like the traditional red tomato.  These tomatoes are uniquely different in color and in taste. They're green. They're brown. They're red.  They're orange. They're sometimes yellow and more often have a funky shape.  Sounds weird right?  It's not. Actually the more tomatoes don't look like the iconic round red tomato the tastier they are. 

This week I was able to spend some QT with one of my oldest gal pals (since first grade!),  Dawn.   We caught up over dinner this week. We started the night with some tomato stacks. They're super easy to make and go down well with wine. 

Make'em yourself!

Ingredients:

• 4 kumato tomatoes
• 1 ball of mozzarella cheese (who knows how much it weighs!?!?)
• 1 bunch fresh basil
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• handful of mini heirloom tomatoes
• handful of wild arugula
• salt & pepper

Make it:

1. In a small sauce pan heat balsamic vinegar and sugar together until it is reduced to half the original amount. Let cool.
2. Slice tomatoes and cheese so that they match in thickness.
3. Chiffonade the basil.
4. Make a stack alternating between tomato, mozzarella and basil until each stack is a few layers high.
5. Spear a toothpick with a mini heirloom tomato.
6. Spear the entire stack with the tooth pick to hold it all together.
7. Arrange stacks on a bed of arugula. 
8. Halve remainder of mini heirloom tomatoes and arrange around stacks.
9. Season stacks with salt and pepper.
10. Drizzle balsamic reduction and olive over each stack and the surrounding arugula.