If you’ve been to MCM in the past few weeks, you’ve probably caught yourself staring at the beautiful bounty that is the earliest crop of tomatoes from Happy Boy Farms and Tomatero Farm.  A wide variety of heirloom and cherry tomatoes have been making their way into many a market basket! If you’re overwhelmed by all the varieties of cherry tomatoes available, never fear! Just take a peek at this helpful chart from the Happy Boy Farms website and you’ll sound like a pro in no time:

One of my favorite ways to showcase delicious, vine-ripened tomatoes is in a fresh salsa. This recipe is surprisingly simple and easy to create, but do yourself a favor and do not leave out the secret ingredient– ume, or plum vinegar–which adds a sweet tanginess while showcasing the ingredients perfectly. It will most likely involve an extra trip to a specialty store to find it, but you won’t be disappointed by the outcome. I like to use a mix of different tomatoes, to add variety in terms of both color and flavor. Larger heirloom tomatoes are the easiest to dice, but throwing in a handful of a few different types of chopped cherry tomatoes can really add depth and interest to the salsa. Be as creative as you want when choosing your tomatoes.

Garden-Fresh Salsa

1 cup heirloom tomatoes
1 cup tomatillos
1 small green bell pepper
1 small onion
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch cilantro
1-2 jalapeños, seeded and finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1/8 cup Ume (plum) vinegar (can usually be found at Asian markets or Whole Foods).
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 TB coarse salt (crushed with a mortar and pestle if you have one)

Begin by roughly chopping the first six ingredients.  If you choose to use a food processor, make sure you don’t over-chop the ingredients.  You want the salsa to turn out more like the consistency of pico de gallo. Combine your chopped ingredients into a bowl and add the next two ingredients.  I then add the olive oil a bit at a time because depending on how much liquid the salsa has at this point, sometimes it won’t require the full 1/4 of a cup, otherwise it might become too watery.  The last step is to add the salt and taste the salsa, adding more of any ingredient that seems to be lacking.

I like to double or even triple this simple recipe for parties and typically it’s a total crowd-pleaser. Enjoy!