From Barely Touched to Completely Transformed

Tomatoes give us an excellent way to amplify the point I made in Cooking with Water (here). My thought process in creating a new vegetable dish follows a spectrum of possibilities. I ask myself: How much liquid, if any, must I add to these vegetables to make them fully express their flavor?

My first step is to ask if it can stand on its own. Just a drop of olive oil or a splash of vinegar can be enough to make a simple preparation like Tomato Sashimi (here, and on the cover) come alive. It needs just a delicate nudge.

In other cases, I’ll choose to cook a vegetable in a small amount of liquid, allowing ingredients to share their flavors. Take for example, Tomato & Roasted Peach Salad (here). By pan-roasting the peaches and nectarines, even for a minute or two, I generate a light sauce that softens and changes the tomatoes ever so slightly and gives each bite a shiny glaze.

In the progression of increasing liquid, I use vinegar, wine, soy sauce, stock, even water, to simmer ingredients quickly in a weightless sauce that brings together disparate elements. In Tomato & Shrimp Pasta (here), the magic lies in how the pan sauce plays a supporting role to complement the other ingredients.

Further along the liquid spectrum are the wettest dishes, full-on stews and braises, like Ratatouille (here). Some vegetables benefit from a total immersion in a flavorful liquid. There are almost infinite variables: subtle nuances, but possibly, more reward. Time and heat are essential. When things get super-wet—in a broth like Mushroom Hot Pot with Beef & Daikon (here)—the resulting liquid becomes the focal point of the dish. In the final example, My Tomato Sauce (here), the goal is to completely transform the texture, shape, and color of the ingredients.