July the 4th continues: tomatoes on the table.

With your bean salad, coleslaw and ham (don't panic: I've not forgotten the breads), serve some tomatoes. They need to be plain and unadorned. It makes me happy to see something which is-- no garnishes; no fuss.

Take the best tomatoes you can find. Summer tomatoes, but large ones, not little cherry ones. They might be lumpy and ungainly-looking and they might smell like old copper coins and grass after the rain. At least, to me, that is what tomatoes smell like.

Just cut the tomatoes into thick slices just before you want to eat and put them on a plate, overlapping. Don't dress them-- although you could put a little jug of dressing on the table to have to hand. I'd like them with nothing on them at all --salt and pepper at most, but put on by those eating them, on their own plates. Lovely. And I've had it drummed into me that you never keep tomatoes in the fidge because it ruins their delicate texture. But somewhere cool, if you can.