SOMETHING SIMPLE: Marinated Tomatoes

I’m a novice gardener at best, and for each of the last five or so years, I’ve done the same uncertain dance with my backyard tomatoes.

I start seeds in late March, always on my mother’s birthday, dutifully poking the tiny pods into the potting soil with the end of an ink pen. They then live in my basement in nursery pots until it’s time to transfer them outside.

Although I tend them carefully every day for that first week — placing them on heating pads under grow lamps and sprinkling them with water — I always feel the same sort of hesitant skepticism. The little pots look as if they could hold dirt and nothing else. It’s so cold in the basement, and the seeds are so small. What if nothing ever grows?

Each year when their little green hands finally break through the surface of the soil, I feel like I’m witnessing a magic trick.

Still, I continue to nurse doubts well into the month of June, even after I’ve transferred the plants to raised beds in my backyard and they’ve grown as tall as I am, their stalks thick as my index finger. Have I pruned them enough? Have I pruned them too much? Are they getting enough sun? Will the fruit ever turn?

So far, my plants have always made a fool of me, such that I’m nearly drowning in tomatoes by the time September rolls around. I eat them at every meal. I give them away to the neighbors. I cook them into sauces and soups and slice them into salads and sometimes eat the little ones by the bowlful, like popcorn.

I freeze them whole or blanch and peel them to pack into canning jars for my ­December self, who will have forgotten the warmth of summer and will need a jar of something to remind her.

This is a recipe for that moment in September, when my freezer and canning shelves are full but the tomatoes are somehow still coming in faster than I can eat them. I love how simple it is. I can mix it up in the morning and, after little effort, have something to eat just a few hours later.

I also love the timing flexibility: I can be eating marinated tomatoes within an hour, or if I have more tasks to attend to or more ingredients to prep, I can let them hang out on my counter for up to a few hours. You can stash your marinating tomatoes in the fridge if you like; just be sure to bring them to room temperature before you serve them, because they’ll have a better texture and flavor without the chill.

This recipe is especially good for end-of-season or underripe fruit. Given a little olive-oil bath and infused with garlic and fresh herbs, even subpar tomatoes will turn juicy and flavorful.

Sometimes I’ll add a bit of fresh basil and stir the marinated tomatoes into cooked pasta, farro, or barley. Or I’ll toss them with spring greens, chickpeas, and crumbled feta cheese, using the tomato juices and olive oil as a kind of salad dressing. You could spread some ricotta or avocado on sourdough toast and make a pile of marinated tomatoes on top. Or eat them (as I’ll eat nearly anything) with an over-easy egg or two.

Consider just spooning them straight from the bowl into your mouth, because it’s still tomato season and the only rule is to not leave any behind.