Recipe from the Garden: Tomatoes, Blue Cheese and Herbs

Can you tell I love cheese? I don’t think I can go a single day without some sort of cheese. For some girls their weakness is chocolate, for me it’s cheese. Put any kind of cheese in front of me and I’ll eat it. I used to HATE blue cheese. Really hated it. Then all of a sudden one day I liked it. Now I love putting it in salads. I’m especially fond of this buttermilk blue cheese that I can get at Wegmans. That’s what I use in this recipe.

Tomatoes, Blue Cheese, and Fresh Herbs.

This started out as a recipe from my “Grow” magazine, originally from “Fine Cooking” magazine, but I didn’t have all of the ingredients so it’s a simplified version. For the full version go to the recipe on “Fine Cooking.” Here is my simple version:

Tomatoes, Blue Cheese and Herbs

Ingredients
• Tomatoes
• Blue Cheese crumbles (or Gorgonzola)
• Balsamic Vinegar (I have found it is worth it to splurge for the good kind)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Chopped fresh herbs (I use Parsley and Chives, as well as a bit of Garlic Chives)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions
Slice the tomatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle a little balsamic and extra virgin olive oil. Instead of chopping my herbs, I have found they bruise less if I use scissors to cut them up right on top of the tomatoes. Then top with the crumbled blue cheese.

The tang of the blue cheese is pretty awesome with fresh tomatoes and also goes well with the balsamic. I am sad to say that I have yet to get ANY tomatoes from my garden this year, other than a few grape-sized ones. I have heard other people in my area say the same thing. Too much rain – the tomatoes just aren’t ripening. These tomatoes came from my favorite family-owned farm stand, Hunter’s, which I have mentioned before since they have the world’s best corn on the cob. Luckily I have PLENTY of fresh herbs in the garden to top this off. This is a nice alternative to Caprese salad, which is something else I have blogged about and eat often.