It’s tomato season. I’m growing 3 varieties: cherry, roma, and a slicer. You know how the cherry tomatoes are prolific as usual and always tasty. They ripen first, so they also do a great job of keeping us calm until the slicers ripen. Don’t we count the days until we can wallow in BLTs and onion and tomato sandwiches?

And my romas are so far, disappointing. Pretty mealy. And the few slicers that have ripened so far have those cracks on the top. (I have a lot to learn about growing tomatoes, obviously.)

So anyway, when I saw an article on one of my favorite sites, Food 52 (www.food52.com) about making good food from bad tomatoes, I thought there might be a few of you that would find this interesting. Heck, we’ll likely be glad to have this information come winter when we’re stuck with those nasty store-bought tomatoes, don’t ya think?

First there’s the over-ripe or busted tomato. Because they have maximum flavor and are soft, they’re perfect for stuffing and baking. Any of your favorite rice/ground beef recipes serve this purpose well. The natural tomato juice flavors the rice nicely, too. Remove the tops and most of the interior of your over-ripe tomatoes and mix this into your cooked rice and ground beef medley. Stuff your tomatoes, top each with some toasted bread crumbs and bake in a shallow baking dish for about 10 or 15 minutes—until heated through.

Then there’s the crunchy tomato. It’s red enough, but the interior leaves lots to be desired. These are terrific when deep fried, though. Either breaded or battered—because they are hard, their structure will hold up to frying. Try garnished these with yogurt for real spizzaz.

And don’t despair if your tomatoes are watery. From these you can make a really thick classic gazpacho like they make in Córdoba with lots of bread to thicken and make it creamy. Also squeeze them for juice and use it as a risotto base or to serve fish in the Neapolitan style (poached in tomato water and herbs).

Seedy tomatoes have their place, too. The sack around the seeds—which also has the most lycopene—is very flavorful. Use these for finely diced salsa, or a summer pasta where you toss hot spaghetti with finely diced, raw, marinated tomatoes (adding garlic, salt, lots of olive oil, a splash of vinegar, and the herb of your choice).

While mealy tomatoes in and of themselves are a real turn-off, they can be rescued by grating them on a box grater for quick access to skinless pulp and juice. It's much easier and faster than blanching, peeling, and dicing, which can get tedious. Grated tomatoes are useful for everything from summer tomato sauce to salsa to the base for a vinaigrette. And it's also really good with lots of lime juice as a fish marinade.

And now how about those rock-hard beefsteaks and romas from the grocery store? Sara Jenkins, the author of the Food 52 article mentioned above, suggests these techniques:

• Slice them into thick wheels and roast them in a hot oven with salt and olive oil. Then bake them in a tart. 

• Or chop the roasted beefsteaks and use them in a salsa.

• Or just dress hot spaghetti with them.

• Or pair them on a plate with other summer vegetables like roasted or grilled zucchini.

• Slow roast them with lots of olive oil and herbs and serve with grilled steak or on top of grilled bread/crostini with mozzarella. Slow-roasted tomatoes break down and are rich and soft.

Finally, what about the sometimes-tough grocery grape tomatoes? Well, these are really my secret vice in January when I'm craving tomatoes. They’re great when halved and salted and tossed into salad greens with some sort of cooked grains (such as faro, brown rice, barley, quinoa, etc).