Stormatoes

STORMATOES
[Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes inspired by a thunderstorm]

16-20 cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup pitted black olives, chopped fine
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in, drained and chopped fine
1 T. fresh basil, chopped
½ T. fresh rosemary, chopped
1/4 cup soft goat cheese
Marinated garlic [store-bought; or see recipe below]

Slice off top of cherry tomatoes, remove seeds and pulp, leaving hollow shells to fill.

Mix the next four ingredients (olives, sun-dried tomatoes, basil and rosemary).
Reserve 3 T. of this mixture.

Mix the goat cheese into the rest of the olive-tomato-herb mixture.

Place a slice of marinated garlic** in each cherry tomato shell. Fill with the cheese mixture. Top with a bit of the reserved olive-tomato-herb mixture. Refrigerate up to 24 hours. Serve cool or at room temperature.

** If desired, instead of marinated garlic pieces, mix 1 clove of raw garlic, finely minced, into the cheese filling.

JOE & THEA’S MARINATED GARLIC
2 Lb. garlic (peeled...put garlic in iced water to facilitate peeling)
½ quart white wine (cheap....er inexpensive)
½ quart red wine vinegar
3 jalapeno peppers (sliced thin with seeds)
2 bay leaves
pinch of thyme and rosemary
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
pinch of salt
3 tbs sugar

Cook ALL of above 3 minutes from light boil. Let sit overnight and cook again 15 minutes from light boil. Let COOL. Fill glass jars, liquid included. Pour a little olive oil over top.
DO NOT REFRIGERATE. Store in cool location. Ready to eat In 3 days if you can wait that long!

This recipe comes from an afternoon at a farm southeast of Nashville, in a hanging valley owned by an Eastwood neighbor named David Wood...Wood’s Eastwood East. Two summers ago, we were walking with friends Joe and Thea when the sky suddenly turned dark and wind swirled into the valley. Huge raindrops splattered as we dashed for cover in the farm’s only dwelling, a shiny sliver Airstream trailer from the 1970s. Crowded close and damp around a tiny formica table, we shook the water out of our hair and settled in to wait out the storm. With lightning crashing and rain pounding the aluminum shell encompassing us, we talked and told stories through a dark, wet afternoon.
Why does food always taste better in the countryside, with friends? We pooled what we’d each brought: black olives, some goat cheese, cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes were a revelation: heirloom varieties of all shapes and colors, grown by Mennonite farmers north of Nashville. Delicious.. but they were (almost) upstaged by Joe and Thea’s contribution: a jar of their secret recipe: melt-in-your-mouth marinated garlic that is legendary among their friends. The flavors of that afternoon–olives, garlic, goat cheese and heirloom tomatoes–inspired this experiment to bring them together, along with some sun-dried tomatoes (since you just can’t have too much tomatocity), along with herbs from my garden. Picnics with friends and family are the best, so I wanted bite-size bits that would travel well, require no extra utensils, and capture a bit of the magic of that stormy Tennessee country afternoon.

Beth Conklin
Nashville, TN