Back in January, I decided to follow in Eater’s footsteps and declare 2024 the Year of the Dinner Party. In reality, this has led to a total of…three dinner parties over the past eight months. But three is more than zero, right? And I found the perfect excuse to throw my most recent one: August marks the peak of tomato season, which I always look forward to enthusiastically. On top of that, I love a theme, and seasonality always lends a sense of occasion and fleeting excitement to any food-related event. So I decided to throw a dinner party to celebrate the tomato in as many forms as possible: in drinks, appetizers, entrees, and even dessert.
My takeaway from my tomato party? More people should throw one. Since simple dishes often showcase tomatoes the most, it’s a low-maintenance, high-reward theme, and also great for vegetarians and pescatarians (even if I couldn’t resist throwing bacon into one dish).
To make the most of a summer tomato party, here’s what I learned, and what I recommend:
*Kick things off with a cocktail. Bloody marys are obvious, but my friends are more of a martini crowd, so I gave the Molly Baz tomato martini a whirl (I’d rather have a classic one, but it was a festive spin).
*An eclectic menu adds variety. While it’s great to pair courses with similar themes (a Vietnamese soup and salad course, for example), you don’t need to do this for the entire meal.
*Showcase the tomato in a variety of forms and preparations: think a mix of cooked and raw dishes. An emphasis on fresh and heirloom tomatoes is warranted, but don’t be afraid to add tomato sauce or paste to the mix. Poaching, roasting, grating, and marinating all add different dimensions.
*It’s great to include a nod to at least one iconic tomato dish on your menu. Pasta’s a no-brainer; I thought about adding panzanella but instead improvised a recipe for a BLT in bruschetta form.
*Don’t complicate your life trying to find a farmers market open on the day of the party — but be sure to store your tomatoes properly if you purchase them earlier. I combined advice from the internet and stored mine stem-side down on paper towel-lined baking sheets, with each stem removed and covered with tape, and had barely any casualties. When you’re buying tomatoes, do your best to plan ahead: I recommend doing a tomato inventory of how many each dish will need.
*Dessert is doable! I was intrigued by old-school recipes for tomato soup cake, but that felt like enough of a gamble that I instead attempted a sundae in the spirit of the sungold sundae at Caffe Panna (my husband made the gelato from scratch), and it was probably my favorite course.
*You don’t have to get too ambitious. I decided at the last minute to make my own baguettes for my crostini. Show-offy, sure — but it added a lot more hassle and last-minute prep work when a bakery baguette would have tasted just as good (and probably looked better). There are plenty of less involved dishes that still look impressive — think tomato tarts with frozen puff pastry, etc. And make sure to balance any a la minute dishes with those you can make ahead; even dishes requiring some cooking in the moment should be fully prepped before your guests arrive.
It may not be the year of the dinner party in your household, but you can still make it a tomato party summer (it’s not fall ‘till late September, right?). Just start your planning spreadsheet (yes, I recommend a planning spreadsheet) soon, before those tomatoes — and the summer — disappear.
