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Tomato Leaves and the Curious Cook

September 2nd, 2010

We got our tomatoes in late this year but the harvest promises a good yield – especially on leaves. One of my favorite fragrances is that of the leaf of the tomato plant.

    

While at the Harold McGee Lectures series at the French Culinary Institute in November of 2009, I was given print outs of many of the Curious Cook columns Mr. McGee writes for the New York Times. One of the many wonderful articles was about tomato leaves in cooking. Now, yes it is thought that they are poisonous, but it turns out that this has never actually been proven. To read the article click here.

I will freeze a few leaves too and see if in the heart of winter I can evoke some summer aromas into my tomato sauce.  I tried putting tomato leaves in jarred pasta sauce and also in homemade.  The results were nice. Overall the Paul Bertolli recipe wins.

To try that recipe click here. You can also put a few of your leaves into pesto. For Harold McGee’s procedure for this click here.

Entry Filed under: Gluten-Free,Grocery Finds,Savory Recipes,Websites/Blogosphere