Farmers' Market

Don't you just love tomatoes? During July and August, the Farmers' Market overflows with wonderful tomatoes of all kinds. On my most recent visit, I found bushels of green, orange, yellow and black tomatoes, as well as all kinds of red ones. Shown above are Bradley tomatoes (grown in Ridgetop, Tennessee!). Because my mom was Italian, we ate tomatoes in a lot of different ways. My grandmother used to make Panzanella, a wonderful Italian salad made with day-old bread, tomatoes, and cucumbers. After she passed away, neither my mom nor my aunts made it again, so I forgot about it until I had it at a special luncheon recently. What a great thing to remember just in time for the tomato harvest!

If you want to try it, all you have to do is cube day-old Italian bread (Crusty breads work great!), a couple of tomatoes and a cucumber. If you want, you can add a sliced onion and some black olives. Toss all of them in olive oil and vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and you're ready to go.