Heirloom Tomato Toast with Fresh Ricotta

The tragically short season for heirloom tomatoes is upon us. I delightedly picked up a few pounds of these inbred fruits at my local farmer’s market. I actually had never tried heirloom tomatoes before, so I decided to do a little research as to why foodies, locavores, and naturalists have all deemed the heirloom tomato superior to its much cuter cousin, the regular tomato.

Heirloom tomatoes lack a genetic mutation that makes a round, uniformly-colored fruit. However, the genetically-mutated “pretty” tomato has lower levels of carotenoids and a decreased ability to make sugar within the fruit. That means that it’s less healthy AND less tasty! The “food industry” started favoring the mutant in the 1940s. Sounds a lot like the waxy, unappealing red delicious apple, right?  It kind of makes sense that the food industry wanted the more dull tomato, as the heirloom tomato not only has a short season, but they are prone to bruising and have an exceedingly short shelf life.

I picked up a variety of these non-mutant tomatoes–“brandywine,” “grandma’s pick,” “Indian Cherokee Red” and a few others. The more I learn about the heirloom tomato, the more beautiful they become.  I wanted to enjoy these tomatoes in all of their splendor, so I settled on a simple ricotta toast.  I picked up a loaf of multi-grain bread at the farmer’s market as well, which made the perfect companion for my tomatoes.