I love Tomato Season. I love Tomato Season so much that I grant those two words capital letters. Tomato Season is not yet here, but oh, it’s a-comin’.

If there is one thing I know that makes me a Southern girl down to my bones, is my love of a good tomato. On a hot summer day, a tomato sandwich on good bread with lots of black pepper and a thin slick of mayo (preferably homemade) is worth its weight in gold. When I discovered heirloom tomatoes a couple of years back—bright and exotic colors speared on toothpicks and glossed with grassy olive oil and cracked pepper—I thought I had found heaven. So you can imagine my excitement in realizing that within a few scant weeks, Tomato Season will be in full swing, baby.

Yesterday I picked up some not-too-shabby lovelies from my local grocer’s and set to making a super simple pasta sauce for dinner. Along with some garlic bread that could kill Dracula, the luscious sauce (finally using that lemon-pepper linguini lurking in our pantry) was super yummy. My only notes on this recipe was that I omitted the fresh flat-leaf parsley because my plants aren’t producing yet and they didn’t have the proper kind at the grocer’s. Also I used up a bit of pasta sauce I had in the fridge to thicken it up a little.

Dessert was some artisanal chocolates picked up from Grandbois Chocolatiere in Montreal. While I can’t point out to you which flavors were which, I can tell what they were:

* pimento (i.e., peppery)

* balsamic reduction (which I quite like)

* sea-salt caramel (hands-down the winner!)

* hazelnut (nothing exceptional yet still tasty)

Gourmet chocolates AND exquisite tomato sauces??? Oh, summer, I think I may fall in love with you!

Tomato, Caper and Basil Sauce

1 tbl. olive oil

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 cups seeded and chopped fresh plum tomatoes

1 28-oz. can tomatoes with Italian herbs, drained

3 tbl. capers, rinsed

2 tbl. minced garlic

2 tsp. dried basil

chopped flat-leaf parsley for garnish

freshly grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Heat oil in a Dutch oven. Add onion; cook 8 minutes or until softened. Add all tomatoes, capers and garlic. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until thickened. Stir in basil; cook 2 minutes. Garnish as desired.