Cúrate (https://curatetapasbar.com) is a favorite local tapas bar restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina. More than simply a “tapas bar” it has become an institution and a “must go to” place for visitors in the area. Besides the tapas bar, Katie Buttons (https://katiebuttonrestaurants.com), the owner, has several other enterprises and best of all for the Cúrate aficionados a published Cook book.

Recently one of my daughters visited me in Asheville and, perusing the Cúrate cookbook, hit upon a page describing a picnic. Since we had planned a picnic that day and had a basket of fresh local tomatoes, we would make grated fresh tomatoes and slather the mixture into our sandwiches. A great plan, and the results were delicious.

I hardly ever do follow recipes verbatim, but in the last couple of summers I have made my own version of fresh grated tomatoes. It had NEVER occurred to me to process tomatoes this way, but I followed directions and was amazed by the results.

Ingredients:

1. 2-3 ripe tomatoes
2. 3 garlic cloves, minced
3. 2 sprigs of rosemary
4. 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil
5. salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place the minced garlic in a large enough bowl to hold the box grater. Bruise the rosemary sprigs with the back of a knife and and add that to the bowl.

Cut the tomatoes in on the “equator”

Next,using a box grater begin grating the tomato. I was reluctant to do this thinking I would scrape my hand, but it worked beautifully. You end up with scraped tomatoes, tomato peeling, and an intact hand.

Discard the tomato peel and add the olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours so that the flavors meld.