For some chefs, words like "seasonal" and "local" mean they like to visit the Santa Monica Farmers' Market. For Il Grano's Sal Marino, it means logging hours in his backyard.That's why the next few Wednesdays deserve attention as the last days of Il Grano's tomato tasting menu --and the last chance to take advantage of Marino's own harvest of 36 heirloom tomato varieties.
"I will not serve a tomato salad in the wintertime," says the chef-owner. "No use."
This is the fourth year he's grown tomatoes for his restaurant. His customers' favorite use for them, he says, is the sauce that tops caramele, a handmade pasta stuffed with burrata cheese.
Marino's tomatoes also become an icy Bloody Mary in a gelato machine; pureed, they're gazpacho. Add a little lemon and olive oil to seven different kinds (the minimum, he says) and the salad's simplicity is outstripped only by its perfection.
As a Sicilian, he claims tomatoes are "in my blood." Maybe that's why he says it's no trouble to provide care and feeding for 85 tomato plants. Says Marino: "I start to miss them as soon as they're done."
