Eating European Tomatoes with The Tomato Sisters

 

Disclaimer: I’ve recently partnered with The Greatest Tomatoes from Europe, working to publicize their canned tomato products. I am not being paid for my participation, aside from some wonderful canned tomato products from Europe–and some Italian pasta. Any views posted are strictly my own. 

It’s 8:41 am. I am eating lukewarm Kung Pao Beef. Is this breakfast? Early lunch? I’m not really sure.

I am exhausted. My husband has been unwell. There’s been a lot of lifting. A great deal of laundry. And not much sleep.

The clothes dryer died. So did the van lift. My husband claims the bathroom lift is acting up, but I haven’t seen this myself.

Christmas? I haven’t bought gifts, baked cookies, or acquired a tree. I’d just as soon cancel the whole damned holiday.

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Amid this grim scenario, Marlena Spieler invited me to join the Tomato Sisters. Along with Marlena, Carolyn Phillips, and Kathleen Hill, I will sing the praises of European tomatoes*. **

*an unpaid gig, save some lovely Italian pasta and a few cans of European tomatoes.

**No actual singing will occur.

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Last Friday your hostess found herself in the studios of KSVY radio, where tomato sister Kathleen Hill has a weekly show. She had invited her sisters in tomato to sit in.

Or so I thought: we had actually been invited to speak.

Now, Marlena has authored over seventy cookbooks, most recently A Taste Of Naples. Carolyn has written The Dim Sum Field Guide and All Under Heaven. Her memoir, The Jade Labyrinth, will be published in 2020.

I, on the other hand, have fewer accomplishments to my name. It took a few moments (Okay, ten minutes) but I managed to dredge up my photographic career at Shutterstock….this blog…the calendar now available at Lulu.com…How I began cooking to feed my skinny husband, who is no longer skinny. I managed all this on the air in complete, coherent sentences, though I missed Marlena’s frantic mouthings: “Instagram!”

Damn!!

We then repaired to Kathleen’s beautiful home, where we cooked up a storm.

Kathleen’s home houses the Kathleen Hill Culinary Collection, which she graciously allowed me to photograph. A few photos are below. An entire wall holds vintage cookbooks, culinary knicknacks, and photographs.

The remaining wall space, floor to ceiling, is hung with kitchen implements.

Under Marlena’s instruction, we set to work making spaghetti with meatballs and pasta e fagioli.

My kitchen is small and lacking in amenities: electrical outlets, counter space, a dishwasher. This means I seldom cook with others–much less cookbook authors. I fetched bowls and opened jars and took pictures. But most of all, I watched.

I watched Carolyn dice an onion in seconds flat.

I watched Marlena assemble an entire meal without consulting a single recipe.

I watched Kathleen smile calmly as three people–one a complete stranger with a camera–invaded her beautiful kitchen.

I realized, among other things, that my knife skills need work, that I rarely cook with friends, and that ground turkey is not the enemy.  Also that canned tomatoes from Europe are excellent, mitigating my heartbreak over being unable to can my own last summer, when my back was out.

John ate the leftovers.

Which were dispatched in seconds.