We went down to Bari last week to visit Domenico’s mom and spend a few days at the beach. After two full days of sun, we woke up to rain on Saturday. While part of me was sad we couldn’t go to the beach again, another part was kind of happy I’d get a chance to go to the market.
I love going to the market in Bari. It’s located in this weird sort of nothing neighborhood, on the ground floor of a parking garage. Like much new architecture in Bari, absolutely no urban planning went into this. Which has a charm all it’s own, of course. It’s really Bari.
One of the reasons I love going to the market here is not only because all things vegetal just taste more intense from Puglia, but there are things that never even make it up as far north as Rome.
My favorite stand by far is the tomato stand. This is a stand that has tomatoes all year long. But if you’re thinking hot house tomatoes, or imported tomatoes, you’d be wrong. Even in the deepest, darkest week of winter they always have ‘winter’ tomatoes which are grown in the summer, then threaded and hung up on strings. They look like cherry tomatoes but have a much thicker skin. (If you remember I saw some traveling Pugliese stringing them at Slowfood‘s Salone del Gusto last October)
But since this was July – the peak of tomato season – it was a sort of red heaven. I counted at least eight different varieties. Sweet, not so sweet, for sauce, for salad. Tomato-mania.
It was also cucumber season, which was the only hint of green at the stand. Yet again, these cukes were typically pugliese. Short, fat and stubby, there were not only cetrioli dolce (which are more or less like normal cucumbers) but also caroselli and cucumarazzi which tend to be eaten after a meal, sort of like fruit. They taste more or less like a not-so-sweet melon. But in a good, really fresh, way.
We stocked up big time, getting a kilo each of almost every variety of cuke and tomato to bring back to Rome.
I was all set to include a recipe with this post. But I get real lazy in the kitchen come summer. Which made me appreciate my Bari bounty all the more. Cut up, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, we’ve been eating tomatoes and cucumbers all week long. Is that enough of a recipe for you?
Elizabeth’s Newsletter from Italy
Sign up here for my newsletter! It’s full of fun information, travel tips, links to what I’m reading and doing, advance notice of my culinary tours, and reading events. Premium subscribers also have access to my new podcast, online events, and discounts and offers for some of my favorite tableware.
I am having tomato envy, what great color! My poor plants are suffering from a late start to summer. These pictures make me happy, in a red, tomato way.
I have the same problem as Deborah…late summer. My tomatoes are not even red yet. The pictures are lovely-I can almost smell the tomatoes.
It looks like you went to heaven.
If I show this to my husband he will cry. We cannot get good tomatoes.
I live on tomato, cucumber and red onion salad in the summer. It is one of my favorite things. The tomato season is just getting started in NY. I got my first field grown tomatoes this weekend at the farmer’s market.
Our tomatoes are very late too, up in Umbria. LOTS of fruit, but most of it still green. I head out every morning hoping to see a bit of red.
The tomatoes are late in Connecticut, too. My grapes are in, but the big ones are stubbornly green.
Talk about tomato envy! For now, I’ll just live vicariously through you.
Those colors are amazing! It’s sad to even eat tomatoes here in Florida after having them in Italy. Can’t wait until I’m back there in 4 weeks to fill up on sweet, juicy tomatoes. Yum.
the tantalizing aroma is hitting me
Oh, maybe we need to go to Puglia! Hello, Elizabeth. We’re in Monti, at Piazza della Suburra for 2 months – painting and drawing. We’ve done this a few times – and thank you for mentioning Alle Carrette. I dream about that pizza while in the States. I am not kidding. But we find Roman tomatoes in markets very disappointing. Not really ripe, and not much flavor. It’s counterintuitive. We ask about ripeness, and vendors seem flummoxed. What are we doing wrong?
It all depends on where and when you are buying your tomatoes. Certain tomatoes are sold in Rome for salads, and so are meant to be firm. The big, fleshy ripe tomatoes, that I’m sure you are thinking about, have a very short season. Unfortunately that season cooincides with some of the best markets or stands at markets, being closed. That said you should be able to find them at the market in Testaccio or else even Campo.