Tomatopalooza is here, and this is how you level up
The ultimate, chef-driven guide to tomato season in New York City
Photographs by David Gurzhiev
I grew up on the tradition of Saturday morning bagels, sourced at 6 a.m. from Murray’s Bagels (which has since, unfortunately, gone downhill) by my dad, year-round. In the summertime—specifically August through September—there’d be tomatoes alongside the cream cheese and lox: juicy beefsteaks and ridged heirlooms with tie-dyed cross-sections. Not long after I flew the nest, as my taste became more refined (i.e., I turned into a food snob), bagels became a seasonal pleasure, and I needed the slab of late-summer tomato—full-bodied in tomato-y flavor, with a hit of acidity, a throughline of umami, and firm yet yielding flesh—seasoned with flaky salt and pepper, laid on top of the schmear and, on a really good morning, finished with a sprinkling of chopped chives and ribbons of basil to make a bagel worth my while.
The moment for this ethereal pleasure is here, and it’ll last for only one more month—six weeks, tops. Which means the time is ripe not only for my beloved tomato bagel, but also for BLTs and tomato-mayo sandwiches, Caprese salad and pan con tomate, gazpacho and bruschetta, spaghetti tangled with fresh tomato sauce, and slow-roasted cherry tomatoes that taste like candy.
Today, The Angel joins the ranks of every last food media website, newspaper, magazine, and Substack, not to mention blogs and TikToks, in celebrating tomato season. For our part, however, I want you to be able to enjoy the best of the best, the peak of the peak—to get your hands on the most extraordinary varietals of tomatoes grown by the tri-state area’s top-tier farmers, and enjoy them with abandon, whether at home or in restaurants. So, I hit up a dozen-plus chefs to ask for their favorite tomatoes that can be found at the Union Square Greenmarket, plus what they’re planning to make with them, either in their own kitchens or at their restaurants.
Here are 14 specific tomatoes you should seek out right here, right now (including Sungolds from three different farms), along with cooking inspiration, and where to eat them in restaurants.
Campo Rosso Farm
Montgomery County, PA
Babymunda Oxheart
“A rosy-colored bell-shaped tomato whose seeds originate from Liguria, they have a drier, denser, and more compact flesh, which makes them suited to eating raw with sliced onion, saffron vinegar, and melon,” says Maxime Pradié, chef-owner of the West Village restaurant Zimmi’s. At Zimmi’s, he’s been stuffing them with lamb and pork and serving them as a component in petit farcis niçois, a Provençal dish of hollowed summer vegetables filled with meat, breadcrumbs, and herbs. He also saves the tomato scraps to make gazpacho.
Datterini
These aromatic baby plum-shaped tomatoes originate from Sicily and are prized for their sweet flavor and meaty flesh. In Italy, they’re often used in salads, to make quick pasta sauces, or preserved for off-season use. Flynn McGarry, chef-owner of the California-inspired fine dining restaurant Cove, preserves them in oil, while Ed Szymanski, chef-owner of Dame, Lord’s, and Crevette, makes a sauce by roasting datterini, then slow-cooking them with olive oil and garlic, and steeping in basil at the end. “To be eaten on toast with slices of lardo, Catabrian anchovies, tossed in pasta, or as the garnish to a nice piece of poached trout,” he says.
