Category is...Night of 1000 Tomatoes

This dinner party menu salutes all things tomato by featuring the fruit in a diverse line up of dishes ranging from carpaccio to cake.

This week on Hardcore Supper Club, the category is…Night of 1000 Tomatoes. I’m outing myself as a Drag Race fan with this title. If you know, you know. In reality, it’s probably more like “Night of 9 Tomatoes”, although those cherry tomatoes do add to the count considerably. So maybe, we’re closer than I think.

Featuring sun-dried, heirloom, cherry, and grape tomatoes in dishes ranging from carpaccio to cake, this menu highlights the fruit's considerable versatility. The evening kicks off with a Clarified Spicy Caesar paired with a “Fried” Green Tomato Carpaccio. That’s right, even the underripe have a seat at this table. The main event is Mozzarella Schnitzel with Tomato Chili Salsa. And on the side, we have Sundried Tomato Pappardelle with Dijon Compound Butter. What I love about this pairing is that it’s essentially mozzarella sticks with buttered noodles, but made bougie. Proving my point that it is impossible to outgrow some foods - they’re certified bangers for a reason. And finally, we close out the menu with Brown Butter Tomato Cakes topped with Swiss Meringue Buttercream and, you guessed it, tomatoes. These cute cakes are a seasonal riff on the Depression-era tomato soup cake, but we’ll get to that.

Clarified Spicy Caesar

Playing with people’s expectations is a favorite pastime of mine. And nothing messes with people’s heads more than looking at one thing while tasting something else. This cocktail is crystal clear. It looks vaguely like ginger ale, but one sip will tell you you are delightfully wrong.

This cocktail starts life as a puree. I piled fresh tomatoes, celery, clam juice, hot peppers, and even anchovies in a blender and blitzed them to high heaven. From there, I gave the mixture a couple of passes through some coffee filters. I’m going to warn you right now, patience is a virtue when it comes to this technique. Make sure your setup can be left undisturbed for several hours. Luckily, this can all be done well in advance. So your kitchen won’t look like a chemistry lab or eccentric coffee shop when your guests arrive.

Caesars tend to be over-the-top. Heck! I’ve seen entire grilled cheese sandwiches parked on top of them. This Clarified Spicy Caesar is different. We’re stripping the drink down to its essence, and that applies to its garnishes as well. The glasses are modestly dressed with a gochugaru rim and, as a final flourish, a single heirloom tomato half is skewered and casually added to the drink.

“Fried” Green Tomato Carpaccio

I grew up in Nova Scotia, where chow chow reigns supreme. If you are unfamiliar, chow chow is a green tomato relish. We put it on everything, but it is especially incredible on fish cakes. All of this is to say, I know the power of an underripe tomato. This “Fried” Green Tomato Carpaccio is a loving and deconstructed riff on fried green tomatoes. In the traditional recipe, the tomatoes are soaked in buttermilk before being breaded in cornmeal and fried to golden perfection. They are usually served with a buttermilk-based dip as well.

Here I shaved my green tomato thin on a mandoline and arranged it on a large platter. The tomato is then dressed with a Buttermilk Chive Dressing and covered in crushed corn chips. These are Neal Brothers’ corn chips, and they are legitimately the best. I do think that is a hyperlocal recommendation, so if you’re like, I’ve never seen that brand, then you’ve likely never seen that brand before. And if this is you, regular Fritos are a good approximation. The dish is finished with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and an assortment of microgreens and marigold petals. The visual impact of this surprisingly refreshing dish can not be oversold.

Sundried Tomato Pappardelle with Dijon Compound Butter

If there’s one thing kids are absolutely right about, it’s this: Buttered noodles are an elite snack. I don’t care how grown you are, how sophisticated your tastes may be - carbs drenched in melted butter is just plain good. But I know what you’re thinking, I want more. And yes, I did sing that in my head a la Ariel. Your taste buds are fully developed, your palette educated, and we can do more from this insanely delicious starting point. Enter this Sundried Tomato Pappardelle with Dijon Compound Butter.

This dish features homemade pasta spiked with pureed sundried tomatoes and tossed with garlic butter heavy with Dijon mustard. The dish is finished with microgreens and edible flowers because we’re grown-ups, goddamnit! The result is a dish that delivers the texture your inner five-year-old will love, but the umami? Well, that’s for the well-seasoned, worldly person you currently are.

Mozzarella Schnitzel with Tomato Chili Salsa

As usual, I’m not going to go into much detail about this dish because I already did. You can read my (overly?) thorough explanation of the dish here. You will be rewarded with the recipe for your pains. Essentially, all you need to know is this is a grown-up version of mozzarella sticks because, well, do you ever really outgrow them? Not to toot my own horn, but these are far better than deep-fried cheese strings, and I think the secret is the homemade garlic breadcrumbs. Oh! And hot tip! If you do make the breadcrumbs, try to use leftover sourdough - it adds the best tang to the crust.

Brown Butter Tomato Cakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream

These little cakes are a riff on the Tomato Soup Cake made famous by Campbell’s Soup during the Great Depression. The cake fell out of favor following the 1960s, but it still pops up every so often at theme parties and on retro menus. This cake works a lot like a carrot cake. The cake gets an extra boost of sweetness and moisture from the condensed soup, a true cake-saver during lean times when sugar was scarce or outside the buying power of the average household.

In this rendition, I swap the can for fresh, overripe heirloom tomatoes. And in place of softened butter and/or vegetable oil, we have brown butter. This addition does require an extra step and another dirty dish, but this is THE way to add depth to a cake. Plus, you don’t have to wait around for your butter to soften, which, if you’re me, is a huge bonus. Forgetting to take butter out of the fridge is my number 1 mid-bake sad realization.

These little loaves are finished with a squiggle of Swiss Meringue Buttercream, because it’s simply the best. To the frosting, I added marigold petals and heirloom grape tomatoes to hint at the cake’s nearly undetectable central ingredient. It’s hard to recognize the tomatoes as tomatoes in these cakes. There is a background note of earthy umami, further emphasized by the brown butter, but you won’t feel like you’re tucking into a marinara or anything.