— cj Bunts

Well let's talk about tomatoes in general. What do they add? Tomatoes, add sweetness. Uh, when cooked as in a minione, they don't add a whole lot of bulk, uh, cuz they mostly break down into the broth, right? Uh, they certainly add some color, and importantly they add acidity. Okay? And acidity might be the most important thing that, that tomatoes add to a dish. Uh, when, when just not served on their own as, as a, you know, sort of a principle ingredient. So in that way, you've got a minione, which is a, basically at this point, a pasta, foli pasta and beans soup made with a really nice broth. And you've got some zucchini in there. You've got some yellow squash in there. You've got, you know, all the wonderful fresh seasonal vegetables of the year. Uh, great. How can you add that acidity in? Well, a shot of vinegar is a really good way to do that. Uh, lemon juice, depending on what dish you're talking about. But to me, a a glug of red wine vinegar is a really, just a really great way to finish. Well, just about anything your saute, zucchini and garlic and olive oil and stove. And just as it begins to release its moisture into the pan, you, you hit it with a glug of oil, a glug of, uh, of vinegar, and start tossing it and tossing it and tossing it. And those juices from the zucchini come out and mix with the vinegar in the oil and emulsify into a sauce. And you end up with a still perfectly al Dante, but seasoned throughout zucchini that just tastes better than any zucchini because it has so much zucchini flavor. I just can't believe it. What's your secret acidity, right? You, you're not making a vinegar dish. You're making a zucchini dish that tastes more like zucchini via the vinegar. So your minione soup, uh, add in some carrots for sweetness. Uh, you, you know, I think of minione is quick cook soups, and you don't wanna necessarily simmer down carrots with the other ingredients to the point where the carrots cook all the way. Great. Get a box grater, carrot, great them down. There you go. They're gonna cook right quick. They're gonna add all of that bright color that the tomatoes, uh, would've added. They add incredible amount of sweetness, and then the vinegar takes the place of that acidity. So there you go specifically to the merani recipes that you, you asked after, uh, that, and again, just sort of talking to what are the culinary points of interest for tomatoes and I, I covered that. So thanks cj, appreciate you.