It’s a cherry tomato bonanzaThere are many uniquely human experiences. Of the more infuriating ones is to look high and low for your cellphone or sunglasses, to strip your couch to its frame and turn your backpack inside out, only to sheepishly find that they were laughably within reach all along. The phone is in your pocket. The sunglasses are on your head. I feel similarly during tomato season. The first few weeks of July, I survey the tables at the market for heirlooms, ruby like the month’s birthstone, and grow increasingly frustrated when they don’t materialize. The cherry tomatoes that cover those very tables, meanwhile, look back at me with pity. The cherry tomato’s delights have been blunted by their ubiquity, a forgone conclusion to anyone who frequents a big grocery store. No longer! Whether you’re growing them yourself or picking them up from a farm stand, the best cherry tomatoes are abundant right now. Kayla Hoang’s new burst cherry tomato orzotto is a one-pot pasta built for this moment. It’s a little risotto-y, a lot tomato-y and just the light meal a summer evening necessitates. “The orzotto is only as good as the tomatoes you use,” Kayla writes, “so be sure to use the best ones you can get your hands on.” You heard her. Burst Cherry Tomato OrzottoIt is the latest addition to what I’ll call the New York Times Cooking burst tomato canon — recipes that soften these firm, tangy orbs into sweeter, softer slumps. In my mind, Ali Slagle’s five-star crispy gnocchi with burst tomatoes and mozzarella has long been the pre-eminent entry, as its more than 13,000 reviews should prove. It’s one-pan. It’s pantry friendly. It’s baked pasta, technically? It’s sorta pizza, if you squint? It’s dinner tonight, if you dare. That familiar combination of creamy dairy and slouchy, juicy tomatoes is again on glorious display in Ham El-Waylly’s cherry tomato labneh dip. The fruit are simmered in olive oil to “the brink of bursting,” which transforms them from bright and acidic to savory-sweet. The cherry tomato plays just as well with mellow cheeses and yogurt as it does with saltier, sharper counterparts, like the thick slices of halloumi in Nargisse Benkabbou’s crispy halloumi with tomatoes and white beans and the thick slices of feta in Ali’s sheet-pan feta with chickpeas and tomatoes. Each uses only one pan, sports cherry tomatoes and hearty beans and is highly adaptable to whatever you have on hand. But hold the cheese and break out the tofu for Yewande Komolafe’s masala chickpeas with tofu and tomatoes, where cherry tomatoes are blistered rather than burst, and maintain a bit more of their natural bite. This dish’s textural charms are many: The tofu is torn, rather than cubed or sliced, so all of that warming spice finds as many nooks and crannies as possible, and the chickpeas are sizzled in ghee, lending a bit of richness. Melissa Clark steers the tofu and tomato template toward a different flavor profile with her recipe for crispy tofu with balsamic tomatoes. It’s really an exercise in oven-crisped tofu, using cornstarch to get you there. But softened cherry tomatoes and red onion, tossed with garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and oregano, can’t help but steal the show. And if those warm dishes don’t resonate when it’s devil’s-den degrees outside, there is always Hetty Lui McKinnon’s cold tomato and kimchi soba noodle soup, gazpacho’s kicked-up cousin. Cherry tomatoes are puréed with cucumber, vegan kimchi and vegetable stock until smooth for a punchy base for nutty noodles. You’ll reserve and chop a handful of tomatoes for topping, so you don’t forget they were there all along.
Crispy Halloumi With Tomatoes and White Beans
Masala Chickpeas With Tofu and Blistered Tomatoes
Cold Tomato and Kimchi Soba Noodle SoupOne More Thing!Not that it’s a popularity contest, but the No. 2 recipe on our list of our 25 most popular recipes of the year (so far)? Vegetarian. There are eight meatless wonders on there, 10 if you include a dessert and a dressing. And, would you look at that: Nargisse’s skillet halloumi, tomatoes and chickpeas from above came in at No. 8! Thanks for reading, and see you next week. Email us at theveggie@nytimes.com. Newsletters will be archived here. Reach out to my colleagues at cookingcare@nytimes.com if you have questions about your account.
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