Beginning on Sunday, July 31, 2016, and continuing through the entire month of August, Stage Left in New Brunswick, New Jersey, will present a special tasting menu: “The History of the Tomato in Seven Courses.”
A Shot of Tomato Soup and a BLT Amuse: New Jersey has been known for extraordinary tomato production since the Campbell’s Soup factory in Camden gobbled up as many tomatoes as we could grow in the Garden State.
Sun Gold Tomatoes and Hamachi: The first tomatoes to reach the Old World were assigned the name pomo d’oro by Sienese botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli. Pomo d’oro literally translated is “golden apple.”
Varietal Tasting of Heirloom Tomatoes: House-Mad Mozzarella… Roasted Pumpkin Seed Oil… Aged Balsamic Vinegar: The variety of tomatoes available today is extraordinary. This is a direct result of people supporting our local farmers at greenmarkets and demanding better, more interesting, and more local products.
Basil Linguini: Tomatoes, Jersey Corn, Pecorino Romano: The first mention of tomatoes with pasta didn’t occur until 1839 when Ippolito Cavalcanti, Duke of Buonvicino offered a recipe for Vermicelli con le Pommodoro. The sauce was the precursor to the modern Neapolitan tomato sauce.
Berkshire Pork Strip Loin: Classical Tomato Sauce à la Carème: The place of the tomato in Italian cuisine cannot be overstated, but its fundamental to French cuisine as well. Antonin Carème and Auguste Escofier categorized hundreds of sauces that define classical French cuisine. The five “mother” sauces are Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Hollandaise and… Tomato.
Flat Iron Steak: Aztec Sauce, Jalapeño Cornbread: There aren’t many surviving Aztec recipes, so Stage Left is working from various descriptions. The first Western person to write of a sauce including tomatoes was Bernardino de Sahagún, a Franciscan missionary to the Aztecs, who made note of a prepared sauce offered for sale in Tenochtitlán, (today’s Mexico City) sometime before 1590. He reported that the sauce contained tomatoes, hot peppers, and pumpkin seeds.
Candied Tomato Brûlée: Basil & Black Pepper & Balsamic Ice Cream, a Final Shot of Tomato Soup: The dinner story ends firmly in the present with an eye to the future. American chefs are informed by the past but not bound by it. The tomato’s balance of texture, sweetness and acidity, and its existence in the middle-ground between savory and sweet, between fruit & vegetable, provide chefs with an exciting area to explore, delight & surprise us in ways rarely considered – such as Candied Tomato Brûlée with three Ice Creams.
The special tomato tasting menu is priced at $79.00 per person (plus beverages, tax & gratuity. To make reservations, please call (732) 828-4444 or go to http://stageleft.com/reservations/.
Bon Appétit!
TAD
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