Food: Seven delicious summer recipes for tomatoes

NOf course, tomatoes are available all year round. But who would seriously want to compare the miserable clones available in most supermarkets with the wonderful variety that can be harvested in season between mid-July and mid-September? To make others aware of this variety, Austrian tomato farmer Erich Stekovics likes to play a little guessing game with his many visitors: How many varieties are there actually? 50? 150? 500? No, probably more like 10,000! In Burgenland, Stekovics grows 3400 varietiesHe has archived the seeds of a total of 7,000 varieties. Nowhere else do you learn better than here that not all tomatoes are created equal. There are red, green, orange, black, yellow-striped ones. Large and small, sugary-sweet and tart, dry and moist fruits. Some, like the tiny blackcurrant tomato, are actually reminiscent of berries when eaten on their own, others like the pineapple noir have tropical fruit aromas, and others like fleshy Macedonian oxhearts or juicy Valencia tomatoes are particularly suitable for complex sauces. The good news is that a single good variety is enough to bring tomato happiness on the stove. Having your own garden is of course a luxury, but you can also find a good farmer or ask at a trusted market stall. The great thing about the season is that you can extend it indefinitely. If you preserve tomatoes now, all you need to do in January is open a jar to remember what a sunny August day tastes like.