Sautéed cherry tomatoes with garlic and herbs
The long dark winter and wet spring was spent sometimes longing for locally grown tomatoes. The wait is over. The variety of fruits and vegetables available at your local farmers’ market is expanding almost logarithmically week by week. Before you know it, there will be 10 or 15 different kinds of tomatoes.
Start your summer with this quick and versatile cherry tomato dish. It’s good with anything for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Recently I learned the term used by real cooks “mise en place.” It means, basically, getting all your ingredients, pots, pans, and utensils ready before you actually start to cook saving yourself the misery of realizing halfway through your recipe that you don’t have saffron threads. I have loosely translated this French term to mean “mess at my place” when I cook.
For this recipe, encourage any available children to de-stem the tomatoes, tear the basil leaves and pick the thyme leaves off the stems. Reserve the mincing of the garlic and shallot with the very sharp 10 1/2 inch chef’s knife for an adult.
This recipe can easily be doubled. So simple yet so elegant.
Ingredients
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, de-stemmed
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 shallot or 4 scallions, minced
- 1 handful basil leaves, torn into small pieces
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
- Heat the olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
- Sauté the garlic and shallot or scallions briefly. Add the tomatoes and herbs.
- Cook, stirring frequently for 3 to 5 minutes until the tomatoes just begin to soften.
- Season with salt and pepper and serve with anything.