Weekend Cooking...Tomato Redux

We are not quite done with the tomatoes yet, I realized this week. See, on Tuesday, I went to a farmers market down in West Cape May and happen to buy some lovely heirloom variety tomatoes. A pink one, a green one, a purple one, a yellow one..and a red one. The young man working at his family's stand told me the varieties, but honesty, I forget. All I know is, I had to think of some more, fairly simple tomato recipes. And then I remembered that I had neglected to share one of my grandmother's and mother's recipes favorite recipes for a nice ripe tomato..Fried Tomatoes.

Now we are not talking here about Fried Green Tomatoes, famous in the South and key to that great Fannie Flagg book. No, this is something different, something I always assumed was an Amish recipe.
My maternal grandparents were from the coal mining regions of Pennsylvania and the Penn. Dutch influence found it's way into a lot of my grandmother's favorites. So I googled it and yes, there it was, usually called Fried Tomato with Gravy or Fried Tomato Gravy.

Fried Tomato with Gravy
1 or 2 ripe tomatoes, cut thickly
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 TBS, chopped fresh basil
olive oil to lightly cover the bottom of a pan

While the oil in the pan is heating, mix the flour, salt, sugar and pepper together. Dredge the tomato slices in the flour. They will be moist enough to make the flour stick. Add the slices to the hot pan and saute until lightly browned, flip and brown on other side.

As soon as they are browned, remove the slices to a plate. There should be some flour left in the pan and brown bits in the pan..is there is not, add some of the leftover seasoned flour from the dredging, at least a good tsp. or so and cook for a minute in the remaining oil. If the oil is all absorbed, add a bit more oil, or even better, a bit of butter. When the rawness of the flour has cooked out, add a bit of milk and cook until quiet thick and bubbly. At the last minute, add in the chopped basil and pour over the tomato slices.

All those measurement are very loose, because I have never actually measured them

Also, the basil is my own addition, something my mother never added, but I love basil and nothing goes as well with a tomato as basil. Also my basil is doing very well in the garden this year.
Do not get upset if the slices fall apart, especially once you take them out of the pan and they sit a minute. That is what you get for using ripe tomatoes. They get very soft once they start to cook but it does not effect the flavor one little bit. And what a flavor it is!

This is excellent with a piece of broiled fish or a grilled chicken breast.
Or one of my favorite ways to eat it is just on top of some white rice.
Or just with a spoon.
Yum.

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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