[.ca] Great Tomato Book (ISBN 1580080480)

Tomato culture and recipes for those who want to grow them:
This was sold as a companion book to Carolyn Male's "100 Heirloom Tomatoes." Dr. Male's book is pretty complete for a home tomato grower, but this book has extra tips for growing those love apples, and a lot of recipes, too. So I am reviewing this primarily as a cookbook, though it is half cookbook, half gardening guide. The recipes range from soups to desserts such as a tomato granita (frozen sorbet.) There are of course spaghetti sauces. And here's where the book surprised me. The recipe for Bolognese sauce (tomato and ground beef gravy) is excellent, in fact, one of the best I have used. At home I have a taster who compares all things Italian to "Ma's". (Ma was born in Sicily, lived to be 100 and routinely cooked for a crowd of invading Visigoths on a Sunday.) The sauce lived up (almost) to Ma's unachievable heights. It was meaty, but balanced with plenty of fresh tomato and bolstered by canned sauce and paste. The addition of carrot and celery provided natural sweetness to offset the acid of the fresh tomatoes. No sugar was needed. We used farmstand plum tomatoes (my homegrown were dwarfed by the draught.)The directions for peeling them (bowl of boiling water, bowl of ice water) worked well. In no time, I had the fresh tomatoes peeled and seeded. A handful of fresh opal basil was substituted for some of the dried herbs. The proportions in this recipe are what makes it work so well. A huge, huge success. The tomato growing tips add more information and lore than in Dr. Male's book. If you are deeply into growing tomatoes, I still would recommend "100 Heirlooms" but this book is stands alone for useful recipes and great hints.

The Great Tomato Book:
This is NOT a cookbook. It has a few recepies. Most of the book covers different types of tomatoes and how to grow them.

Great overall book:
Great book to learn which ones to grow and what soil should be ammended w/. Best all around tomato book i have and i have 15.

Great Tomato Lover Book:
I thought this book was a great general book. You get a little o everything. I love the part where Gary is talking about his favorite tomatoes. The information on the festival is inspirational!

Gary Ibsen has done it again!:
This is a beautifully illustrated, beautifully presented book depicting the tomato in all its glory. Much of the full-color photography was done by the author himself, who, among other things was the editor and publisher of a high-quality slick magazine in the Monterey, California, area, when I lived there. Gary Ibsen was a good customer of my commercial art business, and we were friends, back in the 1970s. But, this book is not about Gary. It's hero is the tomato (Fruit, or vegetable?) in all its forms and varieties. The book contains tips on planting and growing tomatoes, as well as an education on the differences between the varieties, and recipes from notable chefs on how to use them and enjoy them. And, of course, it is replete with a great many fine full-color photographs, all well-presented and illustrative of the fruit, for the tomato is a fruit--the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to the contrary notwithstanding. Well done, Gary Ibsen! Joe Pierre former owner of Publisher's Art Service