Celebrating tomato girl summer's final days

...and welcome to my newsletter!

Welcome to my newsletter! Over the past few months, one thing I have learned from my small and dedicated following over at @hangrytohappyy on Instagram is that you all are most interested in ideas for what to cook during the week. Lucky for you, I am constantly thinking about what to make for dinner and start to make preparations pretty much as soon as I wake up in the morning. In my free time, I am reading cookbooks, watching cooking shows, and scouring the internet for what recipes I want to make next.

Once a week in your inbox on Monday afternoons, you can expect recipe ideas for weeknight dinners, weekend splurges, sweet treats, and everything in between. There will be some bits of totally solicited advice, local recs, and stories too. If you know me, you know I love food, and I love talking about it too, so I am very excited to now share this space with you all.

This first newsletter is dedicated to the final days of tomato girl summer.

You wouldn’t know it from the way I have extolled BLTs at length on my Instagram, but I actually didn’t like tomatoes until later in life. It all changed once my dad started growing his own tomatoes in his backyard in Virginia. We’re not talking about a tomato plant or two on the deck — his garden has over 20 plants per summer with numerous regular tomato and cherry tomato varietals. Herbs, okra, sunflowers, peppers, radishes are often sprinkled into the mix too. My dad has kept a garden journal for over 12 years documenting each year’s harvest, so his methods are tried and true. They are truly the best tomatoes I — and many others — have ever had. I also have him to thank for a lot of the photos in this newsletter!

As we enter summer’s tomato season’s final weeks, here are a few things I think you should absolutely make if you can still get your hands on some delicious tomatoes.

BLT Sandwich

It’s hard not to love a BLT, and truthfully this simple but intentionally crafted sandwich is, in my opinion, the optimal way to enjoy good tomatoes. My rules are straightforward — slightly toast soft bread, there must be mayo, tomatoes must be salted and piled on as thick as a hamburger patty, and lots of bacon is heavily encouraged. What you do from there is up to you! NYT Eric Kim’s furikake-laced version is worth a try too.

Raschiatelli with a Tomato Red Pepper Sauce

I recently won an Instagram giveaway from Cento the canned tomato brand, which came with SO many incredible goodies, including the Pasta Grannies cookbooks. I made my first recipe from the cookbook this weekend: Maria’s Raschiatelli with a Tomato Red Pepper Sauce from Basilicata (Youtube video of Maria making the dish found here). You don’t have to make your own pasta for this, although making this shape was quite fun and not too difficult, but you should absolutely make this sauce. The sauce was so delicious because of the freshness of the ingredients — it only requires fresh tomatoes, red peppers (I used “Korean red peppers” from H Mart which worked well as slightly-more-flavorful bell peppers), olive oil, basil, garlic, and salt.

And here are a few tomato recipes I’m trying to make before summer’s end:

• Wishbone Kitchen’s Heirloom Tomato Galette — From the private chef in the Hamptons who has captivated us all on TikTok! This tomato tart is gorgeous and is a great way to improve my savory pie game. This would be such a nice thing to bring to an at-home brunch with friends! Or even a dinner party.

• NYT Hetty Lui McKinnon’s Dumpling Tomato Salad With Chile Crisp Vinaigrette — I am so intrigued by this dumpling dish that is reminiscent of a pasta salad. Chile crisp vinaigrette and fresh herbs?! YUM. Need to make asap.

• Cafe Hailee’s Tomato Chili Salmon — Everything Hailee touches is gold, and I am obsessed with her and her boo Chuck’s TikToks. She’s a very good recipe writer, and everything I have made from her turns out extremely tasty, like a similar recipe she has for Chili Tomato Butter Grilled Shrimp.

On a different note — my favorite lunch these days

When I don’t pack or make my own lunch, the thing I’m getting is an Italian sub, which, in my eyes, is an elite lunch. Even when I was a “vegetarian” for two years, an Italian sandwich was always one of my exceptions. There are places in the city that make them very well and for relatively cheap as far as DC lunch spots go.

My favorite places to get one are at my favorite neighborhood Italian store A. Litteri for their Classic Italian, the amazing cafe by my office Aroma Cafe where I get their off-menu Italian Supreme, and Capitol-Hill-classic Mangialardo’s where I get the “G” Man. I love eating them with either dill pickle or salt and vinegar potato chips (and put some of the chips in the sandwich).

Classic Italian from A. Litteri

Italian Supreme from Aroma Cafe

The “G” Man from Mangialardo’s

I would love to know your favorite ways to enjoy tomatoes, how you plan to spend the rest of tomato girl summer, where you get your Italian subs in DC, and your go-to bargain lunch spots around the city. Thank you for reading, subscribing, and continuing to follow along at @hangrytohappyy on Instagram and @hangrytohappy on TikTok! See you here next Monday! Xoxo 🍅