cooking4carnivores

Have you joined a CSA? Is your share starting to include juicy tomatoes? Have you created your own backyard garden? Are your tomato plants overflowing with red jewels? Or can you just not walk past these bright beauties at the grocery store without putting a few in your cart? In any case, if you are like me this time of year is one of your favorites - when tomatoes taste like tomatoes.

Sure thanks to modern farming you can get them year round, but there really is no substitute for the real thing in the summer. I could eat them straight like apples. Or, another southern staple - the tomato sandwich - is a big hit around here. If you are unfamiliar, it involves thickly sliced tomatoes, white bread, and not much else. That's because, in the words of my father, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

So, if you have your hands on a few of these fresh fruits let me suggest you keep it simple. Try this real quick recipe. Slice your tomatoes thick. Pair them with large sections of red onions. Coat these with kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper. Drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil. Top with a few oregano leaves (from your herb garden). And enjoy the real taste of summer in its purest form.

I made this on a muggy summer night recently when the carnivore was grilling chicken. We had our secret summer squash pasta and fried okra as sides.