It's quite natural, tomato is from the same family as the deadly nightshade, and its strong smell is there to remind us of it. There are however huge differences between tomato varieties. Most store-bought tomatoes are crap, for instance, and I believe most American can tomatoes have been selected not to be as acidic as regular tomatoes, so that cans don't rust. Not sure how that would help now that all cans are lined with a petroleum plastic film, so maybe it's for a less acidic taste.

Try an heirloom variety, they're the only decent tomatoes that still taste like tomato. Grow them, because they are quite pricey, being grown mostly by organic farmers although it does not have to be.

There is nothing plain in a plain tomato salad, it really all depends on the ingredients you use: Heirloom tomato, cold pressed olive or sunflower oil, a nice naturally aged red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar, strong (Dijon) mustard, freshly ground black pepper, fresh garlic, Italian or regular parsley for taste, not the curly parsley used for decoration only.

Know how to make a salad dressing from such ingredients and I guarantee you'll enjoy that salad. Alternate slices of tomatoes with slices of boiled eggs or prosciutto ham for a less "plain" tomato salad.

Summer is a great time to bake stuffed tomatoes too when the harvest is bountiful: These are pretty easy to make and keep well in the freezer for winter. The stuffing is basic, about same quantity of pork sausage meat and bread:

• Cut the top of the tomato to form the "lid"
• Remove the inside flesh, remove the seeds and the water, chop the tomato meat
• Basic stuffing: Soak some old dry baguette in warm milk until the milk is absorbed, press the bread in your hand to expel the milk, mix the bread with sausage meat, eggs, some of the chopped tomato meat, garlic, parsley, fresh thyme, salt and pepper
• Stuff the tomato and top with the "lid"
• Use the rest of  the chopped tomato meat and water to make a tomato sauce to serve with the dish.
• Try other stuffing ingredients: veal, pork and veal, beef, chorizo, tuna, shrimp, crab, mussels, carbonara pasta, no meat but cooked millet or quinoa, Philadelphia, feta or fresh goat cheese, rice instead of bread (i.e. Italian recipe instead of French ;), a bit of white wine, basil, rosemary, tarragon, sage, chives or cilantro, fresh sliced red pepper, onions, mushrooms, corn, cucumber, spinach, avocado, grated carrots or celeriac, coleslaw, olive oil, anchovies, capers, olives, boiled eggs, Russian/Olivier salad in mayo, cubed ham/chicken/turkey, cubed fruits, etc.
• If you serve the stuffed tomatoes with rice, use only meat in the stuffing, no bread or rice.
• The cheese/yogurt and chives recipes can be used to prepare and serve stuffed tomatoes either raw or baked. So can recipes using fruits, grated carrots or celeriac, coleslaw or mayo, ingredients that are already cooked and many others, for instance with a tuna, ham, shrimp or Russian salad stuffing. Basically, think of it as a bowl for any salad, not as a fruit or vegetable.
• Stuffed cherry tomatoes (fresh cheese or tuna/mayo or salmon roe/sour cream/lemon) are great as an appetizer before the meal starts (the French apéritif, which is an alcoholic beverage and bits of food)
• You can freeze the tomatoes raw and stuffed, or you can cook them half way for 20 minutes or so before freezing.
• You can freeze them either in oven-ready aluminum trays of 6, for instance, or each tomato separately, so you can portion out exactly how many you need to bake and will reduce your consumption of aluminum, a metal whose mining is quite polluting. Just don't freeze them fully cooked, they don't hold as well and meat stuffing tends to become tough.
• Frozen tomatoes render quite a lot of water. You can add dry bread crumbs or corn grits to the stuffing if you know you are going to freeze them.
• The same stuffings can be used for squash (a good way to use the otherwise poorly edible bigger squashes), bell peppers, potatoes, egg plant, etc.

(Meat-stuffed veggies ready to bake.jpg)

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