Cooking club didn’t appeal. I cook at home. I cook at work. I didn’t need to cook at play. But it’s fun, my friend Michele countered, like book group. I’m good at book group: I always bring dessert and never read the book. I figured I could apply the same principles to cooking club. Especially since there is no book.
There is, however, a theme. The first time it was Middle East. The cuisine, not the conflict. I had been baking cherry pies all day, and hewing to my principles — bring dessert, ignore assignment — I brought one.
We ate couscous. We ate yogurt. We ate salad. And afterward, baklava. Sensing conflict, I took my cherry pie home.
I amended my principles to bring dessert, attempt assignment. Fortunately, I was out of town for Japanese.
So when the latest invitation came around, even though my computer refused to open it, I signed up for the sweet slot. I could see from the e-mail chatter that other cooks had volunteered pasta, ratatouille, bruschetta. I figured we were going Italian. I’m always game for tiramisu.
But the theme wasn’t Italian. It was tomato.
I considered going out of town. I considered marzipan, rolled round and colored red. Eventually, I considered trying the assignment. After all, tomato is supposed to be a fruit.
Tomato tart seemed too much like pizza. Tomato granita seemed too much like disaster. I settled on caramelized tomato because a) what isn’t good caramelized? and b) what isn’t good over ice cream?
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Surprisingly, it worked. Even cooking club approved.
Caramelized tomatoes
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Makes: 4 servings
6 plum tomatoes
1 orange
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup orange liqueur
1 pint vanilla ice cream Fresh mint leaves
1. Prep: Peel tomatoes. Quarter lengthwise. Core and seed. Rinse and set on a kitchen towel. Grate the zest from the orange; squeeze out juice.
2. Caramelize: Sprinkle sugar into a medium, heavy skillet. Pour in water. Heat over medium-high heat, swirling now and then, until sugar melts, caramelizes and turns amber, 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Carefully add zest and juice.
3. Thicken: Heat syrup to a boil. Add tomatoes and liqueur. Strike a long fireplace match, stand back and ignite. (Or don’t.) Continue cooking, shaking the skillet, until flames subside and the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes.
4. Serve: Scoop ice cream into 4 shallow dishes. Spoon on tomatoes and hot syrup. Garnish with mint.
Provenance: Adapted from lidiasitaly.com
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Leah Eskin is a Tribune special contributor.