
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 3, 1994                   TAG: 9408040011
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By ALMENA HUGHES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GARDEN GOODIES

It's that time of year when offers of free prolific produce abound. Heading the list are tomatoes and squash, which is not a problem. The two crops easily steal center stage in an array of interesting forms from easy to elegant.

On the easy side, there are freezable relishes made with prepackaged pickling spices that allow you to preserve some of summer's abundance without the bother of actually pickling. Then there are tomato "tosses," which involve chopping up room-temperature, juicy-ripe tomatoes, combining them with other ingredients as you wish and tossing everything together with hot pasta. Quick and delicious.

For elegance, take your pick from among the collection of recipes in Jesse Ziff Cool's "Tomatoes: A Country Garden Cookbook" (CollinsPublishers San Francisco). Possibilities include a cream of roasted tomato soup with parsley croutons; fresh oysters with spiced tomato concasse'; or Greek Islands seabass. Although impressive, Cool's recipes generally use easy-to-find ingredients and tend to be simple to follow and to prepare. The book, enticingly illustrated with photographs by Deborah Jones, accurately warns that it could turn tomatoes into an obsession.

Like the few line-drawings illustrating it, Mable Hoffman's "The Complete Tomato Cookbook" (HP Books, New York) is geared more toward simple recipes, such as pizzas, salsas and sauces, but does include a rather "elegant" flan; crabmeat and brie stuffed peppers; and a two-toned vegetable pate. It's basic, but not at all boring.

An unexpected source of excellent recipes for tomatoes as well as other vegetables is a garden catalog from Shepherd's Garden Seeds. The company's catalogs emphasize fresh ingredients and encourage kitchen projects like growing herbal teas and spices, making vinegars, or crafting with everlasting flowers and ornamental corn and chiles. The latest catalog is free, or a companion cookbook, "Recipes from a Kitchen Garden," is $11.95 plus $1.95 shipping and handling. Order from the company at 6116 Highway 9, Felton, Calif. 95018, (408) 335-6910.

Incidentally, if you've ever debated whether the tomato is a vegetable or a fruit, a report from the Olive Garden Italian Restaurant says the tomato is a fruit but many years ago was classified as a vegetable in order to avoid being taxed when passing through ports.

Recipes:

SUMMER SQUASH RELISH

SPICED TOMATO CHUTNEY

CORN, TOMATO AND SUMMER SQUASH SOUP

FRESH TOMATO TART

FRESH TOMATO SALAD DRESSING

BENJAMIN'S GREEN TOMATO MINCEMEAT z ZUCCHINI SAUSAGE PIZZA

OVEN-DRIED TOMATOES

ZUCCHINI PANCAKES WITH GOLDEN TOMATO CONCASSE

GREEN TOMATO BROWN BETTY

TOMATO GINGER UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

WARM PASTA AND TOMATO SPINACH TOSS

by CNB