By early afternoon the light had gone flat and white and the number kept climbing past anything the week before had managed. A hundred and six by three o’clock.
The tomatoes had no opinion about the heat. They had been coming on hard for days, more than the counter could hold, more than the windowsill could hold, and today was not going to be the day they sat in a bowl going soft while everyone waited for the kitchen to cool down.
Dealing with them meant nothing that made its own heat. No burner, no oven. Salt does the work instead, and salt does not mind a hot kitchen at all.
Makes about a quart
tomatoes, about 3 lbs, ripe salt 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 1 bay leaf black pepper olive oil, enough to cover
Core the tomatoes and cut into rough quarters. Salt them well, more than seems reasonable, and set them in a colander over a bowl.
Leave them for three or four hours, longer if the kitchen allows it. The salt pulls the water out and the tomatoes collapse a little, losing most of what made them watery in the first place.
Pack the tomatoes into a clean jar with the garlic and bay leaf tucked between the layers. Pepper as it goes in. Pour olive oil over the top until everything below the surface is covered.
Leave the jar somewhere out of direct light. By the next day the tomatoes will have given up a little more liquid into the oil, and the oil will have taken on the color.
This keeps for weeks in a cool spot, longer in the refrigerator. Good stirred into something else entirely, good on its own, good remembered in October when the actual tomatoes are gone.