Buying:

The scent: Tomato plants have an entirely unique smell, which lingers at the base of the fruit for a few days after it’s picked. Take a whiff of the tomato’s core (that rough spot where the fruit connected to the plant); you should be able to smell the faint woody-yet-sweet scent of the tomato plant if the tomato is fresh. 

The weight and color: The best way to know if a tomato is ripe is to hold it in your hand gently (don’t squeeze it! How soft it is won’t tell you if it’s ripe) and feel the weight. It should be heavy for it’s size. Compare the weight to a few other tomatoes and choose the heaviest. When it comes to tomatoes – heirloom or not – you want the ripe color, whether it is red, orange, yellow or green – to go all the way up to the top of the shoulders. A bit of green at the very top, near the stem, is natural, but you want the color at the very bottom of the tomato to go up the sides of the tomato and cover 80 to 90 percent of the skin.

The skin: Heirloom tomatoes aren’t as uniform as their year-round grocery store cousins, so it’s completely normal for their skin to have splits or small blemishes. However, you want to avoid tomatoes with wrinkled skin, which is a sign of age.

Timing: It’s best to shop for tomatoes a day or two before you plan to use them, so that they can finish ripening naturally to total perfection. Most farmers bring tomatoes with a range of ripeness to market, so ask them to help you pick out a tomato based on when you’ll be eating it. If you’re making sauce or soup, ask the farmer for tomatoes that are maybe one or two days past their prime: they’ll likely be on sale and it won’t make a difference when you’ve whirred them into liquid.

  Storage:

Tomatoes should be kept at room temperature, uncovered. Never put whole tomatoes in the fridge. If you have a large tomato and won’t eat all of it, you can wrap the uneaten part in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge. The texture will suffer in the fridge, so keep that in mind when using the second half of the tomato. 

Heirloom tomatoes are prone to cracking. If the crack has scarred over, simple cut that part away before eating. Any tomatoes that are cracked and show the inner flesh should be eaten that day. 

Skillet Squid

10 squid, cut into ½-inch rings and tentacles

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

  Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the squid generously with salt and pepper and add it to the pan. Keep moving the squid with a wooden spoon as it will cook very quickly, in about a minute or two. Cook it just until the squid is opaque (you can also taste a ring of squid to make sure it is cooked through). Take it off the heat and serve immediately.

  A few serving ideas:

As an appetizer

This is the perfect dish to make for guests who are waiting for dinner. In two minutes you can have a hot appetizer in front of them. Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over top (or some homemade cocktail sauce: horseradish, ketchup and lemon). Squid prepared this way goes perfectly with wine that is cold and bubbly, but not too sweet.

With a Thai Flair

Add a bit of garlic and thinly sliced Thai birds eye chile pepper to the pan while the squid is cooking. Finish with a squeeze of lime, a few cilantro leaves and a splash of soy sauce.

For Pasta

Squid cooked like this is excellent for pasta. Toss the squid with the pasta and finish with a bit of lemon zest, red chili flakes and a bit of fresh garlic if you like.

Chilled Calamari Salad

Cappellini with Broccoli Rabe, Anchovies, and Burrata

Makes 2 servings

3 tablespooons olive oil

8 ounces broccoli rabe

3 oil-cured anchovies

1 garlic clove

Sea salt

½ pound cappellini (angel hair) pasta

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon crushed chile flakes

1 wheel burrata

  In a nonstick skillet over medium-hot heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add half of the broccoli rabe; let char for a few minutes, then flip and continue to char for another 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the broccoli rabe to a cutting board and repeat with the remaining broccoli. Cut the cooked broccoli rabe into 2 inch pieces and transfer to a bowl.

Using a mortar and pestle, crush the anchovies, garlic and ½ teaspoon salt until it forms a paste. Add the paste to the broccoli rabe and stir to coat.

Bring a salted pot of water to a boil. Add the cappellini and cook according to the package instructions. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water, and return to the pasta to the saucepan. Add the broccoli rabe mixture, lemon juice, chile flake and an additional ½ teaspoon of salt to the pasta and stir to coat. Break up the burrata with your fingers (almost like you’re shredding chicken) and add to the pasta, along with the reserved pasta water, and toss to coat. Divide the pasta between bowls and serve. 

(Photo: Gizella Otterson) 

Storage:

Keep your burrata in the fridge, preferably in the water in which it arrived. If you’ve spilled or drained the water, sub in some salty water of your own (if you use tap water, make sure it has a neutral flavor).

Store it whole; once cut it becomes a gorgeous, milky mess resembling a Rorschach inkblot and you might as well just finish it off. 

Best By:

Since burrata is a fresh cheese, its shelf life is shorter than most. Many dairy products have "best by" or "sell by" dates, but I choose to ignore most of these. I use my sense of smell and taste as judge. You'll know if something is off or rancid: it'll have a revolting sour smell, might resemble nail polish, might smell like cheese in a way that's improper for the product. Dairy is a living product and as such is still ripening and developing. One day your burrata might be light, milky and mild, the next day it's more like rich butter. One more day might take it over the hill; it might show a slight sourness or bitterness in the finish. To sum up, enjoy it while it lasts.

Serving: