Brad Makes Charred Tomato Toast

Hey guys and It's Alive

we're gonna be doin' a little,

oh a little special one.

A little shootin' from the hip, no recipe,

we're gonna do it together.

Just gonna make a real cool open-faced tomato sandwich,

a little ricotta cheese, some tomatoes some basil or garlic,

a little ollie oil.

Real nice, real simple, let's make it.

You know we're just gonna be cookin' together here.

[cymbal crashing]

Oh yeah this is It's Alive right?

[chuckling]

Let me get a cutting board.

[Matt] That's a great intro,

This is It's Alive, right?

[laughter]

[upbeat music]

With tomatoes I like to just,

you know less is more, a little salt, a little olive oil,

maybe a little garlic obviously.

But I mean I don't like to go jazzing them up too much.

When tomatoes are good they just have so much

flavor on their own.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get a little bowl.

No, no, no, we're not even gonna do that yet.

We're just gonna take these over, all right.

I got a little cast iron pan

we're gonna preheat a little bit.

Just gonna add a little bit of oil,

and pop those bad boys right in there.

Oh there we go huh?

Little flavor bombs droppin' in.

[explosions booming]

And then look I got a couple cloves of just garlic.

Boom, we're gonna throw those right in there.

Get them toasty right in there own little skins there,

I like that.

I don't wanna go turnin' 'em into,

where not makin' soup here, we're not makin' you know,

where not makin' grandma's gravy.

But I just wanted to get a little, warm 'em up a little bit,

bring some of those flavors out.

All them sugars kinda pop when they're heated I feel like.

So, like yeah just gonna try and get a little bit

of color on 'em.

If some of 'em pop open and the juices come out that's fine.

We're gonna keep all that, we're gonna

put it in a little bowl, we're gonna let it hang out.

Nice, this is gonna be my breakfast,

me and Matt we're gonna have it for breakfast.

Look at the flame, I don't like saying medium,

just look at the size of the flame,

and that's what we're feelin'.

So, when you're home you can just match it to that flame.

Okay, 'cause a lot of people like to ask,

Oh you know, is it medium?

Everyone's oven is a little different okay?

Oh, I just had a great idea, you stay right there.

[Narrator] Breathe in and out, oh he's back.

This is what I love about cooking,

It's just in the moment, you think of things,

boom inspiration, lightbulbs go off.

Whoo, little chili de arbol from Mexico.

Lovely sugar man Rick Martinez brought me some back.

And look I'm just gonna drop 'em right in there,

let 'em toast up in the olive oil.

Yeah, now we're cookin' bud.

It's been a while, it's been a while.

A little pinch of salt, bam!

[Matt] Little Emeril?

Little Emerald yeah.

I'm always gonna call him Emerald I don't care.

Sohla what are you doin'?

You wanna be in It's Alive it's cool come on!

Awe, yeah little Emerald.

Emerald Lagasse, yeah with a d.

Emerald, don't forget the d folks.

Emerald if you're listening, anytime you wanna come on bud,

I'm ready all right?

Anytime you wanna come on and make a little etouffee,

a little crawfish, etouffee.

I'm here babe.

I'm here blisterin' tomatoes.

[Matt] How about that flame?

What?

[Matt] The flame.

Yeah just a little fuego.

It's fine, as long as it ain't kissin'

my tomatoes that's fine.

It's the oil splat.

And I'm just gonna out those in a bowl

let 'em hang out with the chilies in the bottom.

I'll take the garlic give it a little crush,

turn it into a little paste, it's all comin' together man.

Look at that, come on man don't you just wanna bite that?

Like little candy.

All right we're gettin' to a good spot here,

I'm gonna pull 'em off the heat and just dump 'em

into my little bowl I got okay.

I want the garlic and the chili on the bottom

so it sits in the tomato juices and gets real happy.

Oh that's a beautiful thing, that's pretty huh?

I'm gonna add a little more olive oil to that.

Little more of that sodium, yeah babe.

Beat it.

Okay next I'm just gonna open up this baguette.

We'll do a little halfsy.

Then we're gonna open it up this way okay.

I know that probably makes some of you nervous

but that's how I like to cut.

Yeah bud.

And then we're gonna toast this

right in that same skillet, I think, I hope it works.

[playful music]

So it picks up some of those flavors that we got

from the tomatoes and from the garlic,

and from the arbol.

We're just gonna do it right in there, boom boom.

All right, we're gonna do this on a little lower heat.

What could possibly go wrong?

All right this is what we'll do,

we're just gonna hit it with a little more ollie oil,

just let it get nice, don't go walkin' away all right.

Don't go playin', what's that word game, Sudoku?

What's it called Sudoku?

No, that ain't it, Morocco what's that game, the word game?

Come on you know.

Huh?

[Gaby] The one with the numbers?

Sudoku?

Sudoku.

Is that what it's called?

Yes!

Yes you won Brad!

It's the first time I've ever said something right.

Sudoku, it's with numbers, what did I say?

[Matt] Words.

Same thing, oh that smells so good.

So, it's picking up a little bit of color

from the olive oil obviously but it's also soakin' up

all that tomato flavor and the garlic

and the chili de arbol that we had goin' on

in the pan, right.

Just mop that good stuff up.

I do like my go-to references like,

Would make a great ham sandwich.

But that would make a great ham sandwich.

Little prosciutto cotto, whoo!

All right I'm gonna give it a little flip, kiss the bottom,

let's kick it up a notch huh Emerald?

Gaby what's that meeting we have on Friday?

What is that?

[Gaby] We have a meeting on Friday?

Yeah, it's like you invited me to it.

[Gaby] I did?

Some room holds.

[Gaby] I didn't.

[Matt] No, you invited everyone on staff.

[laughing]

Yeah you did.

Oh yeah, yeah it's the--

[upbeat music]

All right you know what we should do?

Now that we've soaked up all the flavor,

that stuff that's on there is just gonna burn.

Must throw this in the sink.

I'm not happy, I'm not happy,

I want a little more crunch on there.

So, what we're gonna do is I'm gonna get a new skillet

and kinda give it a quick.

Morocco would you, I don't feel like firing up the grill.

Like I don't know--

Get the grill on!

[Brad] Get the grill on.

Wait five minutes, I made some nice coffee,

that's what's gonna bring you there.

[Brad] That's what's gonna us there?

Yeah.

'Cause it soaked up all that goodness but like

the sugar's gonna burn.

[Morocco] Yeah.

[beep] damn grill.

[Matt] Got some ollie oil on the lens.

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

A little ollie oil on the lens?

That's what I'm talkin' about bud.

Oh that just smells like gas, I'm sure it does.

Stand back this might blow up.

[gentle music]

We'll let that heat up, we'll kiss it on the grill.

Pick up a little smokey charryness you know.

Not really smokey, it's a gas grill who are we foolin'.

[gentle music]

[Brad] Just got a nice oil smear over the whole thing now.

What's that cloth?

Is that comin' in?

Is it focusin' or is it a little froggy?

[Matt] No, it's good.

It's good?

There's the dish, just eat ricotta cheese with a spoon

and eat that, boom, you're set.

All right we'll let that warm up, I'm a little impatient.

[gentle music]

So, what I'm gonna do is take the garlic out,

we're gonna take it out of it's little,

you know what I'm gonna start callin' it garlic husks.

I don't know what it's actually called, skins,

but I like husk.

So, they're warm , they're hot.

Yeah they're warm and they're hot that's great Brad.

What I meant to say is they kinda got like a

semi-roasted like softness to 'em which I like

but not completely mushade yet,

and I'm gonna crush it and paste it out.

Yeah, ditch those little germs out of there.

They can be a little vegetal.

That's because garlic, well it's February here,

in lovely New York City.

And you know we couldn't get the best garlic in the world,

but this is nice.

But that's it trying to grow you know,

going into germination.

Ooh, oh that's delightful.

For our next trick Hunzi,

we have a little bowl, stay with me all right.

We got a little ricotta cheese I'm gonna pop that

in there like so.

I'm gonna take our garlic,

just gonna put into the cheese.

Now we're gonna hit it with a little bit of salt.

No I didn't say that, I did not say that.

Hey Dan.

Hey Brad.

You ready bud?

You [beep] ready or what?

All right, a little black pep.

I'm talkin' like Molly lately.

And a little more ollie oil.

Right into there.

So, that's our little cheese.

And we'll come back to the tomato,

open it up let it kinda bleed into that oil.

We're gonna use that tomatoey oil,

as our finishing sauce.

Oh happy things happen over on station one here.

Dan the man drinkin'--

We're talkin' about you

Yeah I know my ears are ringin' bud.

Brad, here's my thing about the show.

I don't--

[upbeat music]

You hear me?

Yeah we hear you Dan, God's sakes.

Okay, now look I'm just gonna take off all the...

[upbeat music]

God that was a tough one.

They smell delightful but not so good to eat.

Now we just got that oil, let that hang out in there.

And then look I'm gonna discard this, the arbol.

All right, we need a pinch more salt,

Then I'm gonna hit it with a little black pepper.

Salt and pepper on a tomato, come on.

It's all these flavor bombs want.

I got the grill goin', these have plenty of oil on 'em,

I'm just gonna kiss 'em on some high heat.

Yeah, we'll start that way down.

Sohla what are you makin'?

A little 'nduja gravy.

Ooh!

Breakfast?

All right this was a good idea Morocco.

It's what needed to be done.

Oh God this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Make me nervous, if that falls into the grill

we got a real bad day.

True.

Flour, very flammable, especially in the air.

A lot of big fires in the old mills,

a lot of people died.

[suspenseful music]

Cool.

Yeah real cool.

Yeah great story Brad.

We all gotta die sometime, Red.

That's all pop, that's all pop,

A little breakfast for me and you.

We'll get Ali some food too.

She earned it.

[upbeat music]

What are you gonna put that gravy on Sohla?

Biscuits, biscuits in the oven.

Whoo, for what just for?

Just for fun.

You're out of control.

[laughter]

See that, that's what we like.

Okay, all right hot bread, whoo!

Hot bread, hot bread, who wants to play hot bread?

Oh Murcle, he'll play a little hot bread with ya.

That old rascal.

And look we're gonna put the cheese right on there.

Oh yeah bud.

Yeah I'm into that.

I'm gonna cut it like this.

All right you guys beat it, beat it.

Hello, hello.

And now we're just gonna take our little tomato mixture

and I'm gonna carefully place these okay, nice.

All right, for all you food geeks you can break out

your tweezers if you want all right, get into it.

Whatever makes you feel good, okay.

As long as you're not hurting anybody, whatever man.

I ain't got time for that you know.

What's this guy talkin' about?

And then look.

Look at that saucy goodness.

Okay, look and I'm just gonna pour this right on.

Saucy bud.

And then we're gonna hit it with a little basil,

you don't need a lot, a little bit of basil goes a long way.

So, every bite gets just a little accent of basil.

I don't want it to be a basil bomb, all right.

It's a flavor bomb not a basil bomb.

Just gonna hit with a little pinch of salt.

Why not?

Just a little black pepper.

That looks so good.

Look at us, would you look at it?

You want me to move that closer to you?

[Matt] Yes please.

[laughter]

[Brad] Why don't you look at it.

All right well let's try these huh?

Look we'll save the beauts okay,

you wanna try one?

I'll try one.

It's so good.

I would happily pay for that.

You know I was really surprised with how flavorful

these tomatoes were.

Personally I've always kind of been the guy,

my head spaces with tomatoes has always been like,

Just give them to me two months out of the year,

in their peak season.

'Cause so many tomatoes in the supermarket

that are just kind of booboo,

and by booboo I mean not so good.

But I'll tell you what, these ones are pretty nice.

And these are the folks over at sunset,

out in beautiful Michigan they're growin' them

in these monster hoop houses.

All right, let's say me and you bud,

let's get on an airplane, let's get out there.

Let's see how they make these little flavor bombs all right?

Let's see what it's all about.

You know you want a middle seat, aisle seat?

I'll take an aisle, I got long legs,

and let's go to Michigan man.

I don't think I've ever been to Michigan.

[upbeat music]

No, no I haven't.

Let's go see tomatoes.

[piano glissando]

All right well here we are.

So, you guys we're in beautiful Michigan.

I'm here with Paulie Mastronardi from Sunset Tomatoes.

So, what kind of tomatoes you guys got growin' in here?

[Paul] So, in here this is actually our flavor bombs.

So, the variety actually found in the South of France.

[Brad] Okay.

[Paul] It explodes in your mouth and it's got flavor

so we're like, it's a bomb, it's a flavor bomb.

[Brad] It named itself.

[Paul] Yeah.

[Brad] I gotta say man, they tasted fantastic.

How do you guys do that?

How do you guys pull that off?

Well it always starts with a variety

and then how you treat the actual variety after that.

So, enough light, enough fertilizer, water,

the right temperature.

So, this is the best way to baby a tomato plant

is actually within a greenhouse.

That allows us to actually bring out the most flavor

and deliver it in the middle of winter when

there's snow flying outside in the middle of Michigan.

So Paul, where in this tomato jungle here,

I gotta say I've never seen anything like it.

And like back home I grow tomatoes in the ground

or in like five gallon buckets.

This is all off the ground.

[Paul] Yeah, it's pretty different.

So, over you know seventy years my great grandfather

came over and we started farming,

we were farming in the soil, tomatoes.

We started growing in the ground in the greenhouses,

but then eventually we realized,

Hey we can control the tomato plants better if we actually

grow out of the ground.

And then we raised the plants and hung them

from the greenhouse structure like you're seeing here.

And this allowed a lot of great things to happen

from getting better airflow underneath the tomato plants,

better for the workers, now people don't harvest

by bending over anymore and their backs.

Everything's harvested now at waist height.

So, what's inside these blocks?

Yeah, so we grow in different media so,

in this one here is something called Rockwool

which is basalt rock.

And we also grow in wasted coconut husks,

'cause there inert and organic and it's great for us to use.

[Brad] That's just they're anchoring system,

makes 'em happy and then you keep 'em surrounded with

oxygen, water, food.

Exactly.

And then you get 30 foot plants.

[Paul] Yeah, the greenhouse is 30 feet tall,

but the plants can go 50 feet long.

So, what we need to do is we need to teach the plants

to lean every week.

So, they come off out of our nursery as about a foot tall,

and then every single week the plant will

grow about a foot.

[Brad] A foot a week?

[Paul] Yeah, and we'll wrap the head and then we'll

teach the plant to lean.

So, a plant that starts here will end up down there

by the end of the year.

All right, so hey man, do you think we could,

I saw a gentleman on one of those little scissor lifts

going up can we go vertical in this jungle?

Yeah, absolutely.

All right, come on Hunzi.

I got you a ticket too bud.

Wow look at that.

[gentle music]

That is unbelievable.

Can I take a picture?

[Matt] Yeah, yeah.

[Brad] This is incredible.

On a tomato plant, the plant usually has what we call

about seven to nine sets of fruit on it at a time.

So, this would be a set of fruit.

And then naturally by nature the top fruit will ripen first,

and the trail fruit last.

[Brad] Sure.

How many tomatoes are usually in a cluster

with this variety?

It depends on the variety, but this variety will usually

have around 20 and we'll prune it back to about 14 and 16

to make this variety taste the best.

So, to grow up this far in the north in the middle

of the winter what we'll have is what we call

supplemental lighting.

A tomato plant needs about a thousand joules

of energy a day,

And on a cloudy day in the north we might only get about

300, to 500 in the middle of the winter.

So, we'll bring the energy level of the plants

up to about a thousand joules.

Okay, can we pick some of these bad boys?

[Paul] Absolutely that's why we're here.

All right, doctor.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna harvest a full vine.

[Brad] Beautiful man, so what kind of colors

are you lookin' for?

What we need to make sure is that the top fruit

are fully ripened all the way down,

and we want to make sure that the trail fruit

at the very bottom isn't green.

Okay.

So, we need to make sure that the bottom fruit is

at least about 50% orange.

A little orange is okay.

And so, then we're gonna cut the vine just right above

the top fruit just like that.

Yeah, full cluster.

Beautiful

All right, see you in 12 hours.

[Paul] Oh that's a winner.

A little snip right here.

[Paul] You got it right there.

Look at that beauty.

I'd be gettin' in trouble Paul, I'd be eatin' them all day.

Two clusters, a little popper for me.

All right, hey I like this!

Well when the video dries up maybe I'll come apply here.

Wow, can I eat one?

Go ahead.

Oh my God that's so good.

I'm not just sayin' this 'cause you're standing by me Paul,

but these are delicious, they are the bomb.

They're the bomb.

They are the bomb.

All right, so I'm gonna factor in a little bit of weather,

I'm gonna hit a little bad weather going through

Pennsylvania they think but I'll make it back to New York

by I'm thinking Monday.

Au revoir.

Not a bad little cruiser bud. [chuckles]

[triumphant music]

Sorry gentleman, we're just out here [beep] around.

Eat some breakfast bud.

[Matt] And we're back.

So, we just got back form Michigan.

Okay.

Should we get rid of this [beep]?

Should we do that?

[Matt] No.

But I mean if that's in the video where it will play.

Right, right, right.

[Matt] Right, all right.

Well we just got back.

Oh you wanted me to say that?

[Matt] You don't have to.

I'm just saying like that's where, in your head--

Well will pick up a outro here?

Oh really?

[Matt] Yeah.

[Brad] It's a live outro?

[Matt] It's a live outro, don't worry about oh we--

[Brad] Don't worry about that at all?

We didn't learn nothin' yet?

[Matt] We did not learn anything.

[Brad] Okay, okay.

[Matt] It's very clear to the viewer that you

have not gone there.

Even in the outro?

[Matt] Yes.

How you're gonna package it, that will all make sense?

[Narrator] And again we breathe in and out.

Same day.

[Brad] You can pretend it's not gonna,

then it will be clear.

Okay I trust you.

All right well that's in man.

[upbeat music]

Yeah, now?

They're doin' a meeting.

Sohla, you're not paying attention.

[Sohla] We're in a meeting!

[laughter]

Dan, bring your coffee over bud.

I bit that one but you can have any one you want.

Okay, it looks like something you'd get at the

like the nicest Italian restaurant I've ever been to.

And bon appetit folks you heard it here.

Food stylist.

Boom Dan keep talkin',

way to redeem yourself after bullying me.

This is good.

Yeah get a bite I'm just gonna watch you, yeah.

It's not creepy.

Yeah you eat that.

It's good!

It's better than good.

It's real good right?

Oh yeah.

Right, like sweet, little hint of heat.

Perfect amount of heat.

Right it just kinda, it's like not even like hot.

It's just like a very welcoming tickle.

It's there and then it goes away like it was

never even there to begin with.

It's called balance babe.

Ready?

What are we doin'?

It's gonna be a great day, are you guys hungry?

No, we're having a meeting.

It's so good though Chris.

Chris it's so good, you're not havin' 'em,

come over Molly.

[Woman In Orange Shirt] We're in a meeting!

Yeah but what are you talkin' about?

Why don't you bring it over here then?

Okay.

[Blond Woman] Bring it over here,

come to the meeting we miss you.

Okay, okay, let me cut some pieces.

Remember when you used to come to this meeting?

That's great, just 'cause I got pulled it into something--

[Sohla] Oh my God Brad, whoa!

This is delish.

What is it?

Some tomatoes--

Tomatoes, ricotta, garlic, olive oil, chili de arbol,

salt pepper.

[Blond Woman] Oh my God!

[Brad] Sorry Morocco.

What did you do to the tomatoes?

[Brad] Nothing but heat.

They're so sweet.

They taste like in season.

Right?

Are they canned?

[Brad] No, fresh.

[beep]

I know.

Hoop house, we're goin' to Michigan me and Hunzey.

That's pretty crazy.

Like my school usually is like tomatoes

two months out of the year.

'Cause most tomatoes in a supermarket are kind of foobar,

these are pretty good.

I'm like really shocked, it's February right now.

You heard it here first folks.

When you have good ingredients you don't need

to use all types of crazy stuff.

Little bit of salt, little bit of olive oil.

Just have fun with it, cook with it.

We made this dish from nothing,

we didn't have a recipe did we Hunzi?

No, not one, we just had a little,

this was like one of them shows where they go,

Get your ingredients and cook

and call it a competition of whatever.

But I'm not a competition kinda guy

when it comes to cooking.

Let's just have fun, let's make delicious beautiful food

and let's eat it, and that's it.

Bon appetit.

Great job Brad.

[upbeat music]

So, I'm dead on the inside.

[Matt] Yeah.

[laughter]

♪ La la la La la la ♪

♪ La la ♪

♪ La la la ♪

♪ La la la La la ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

Who sings that?

[Matt] Hopefully a royalty free artist.

[laughter]

And that's cut.

♪ La la la ♪

♪ La la la la la ♪

♪ La la ♪

Who sings that?

♪ La la la ♪

♪ La la la la la ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Wah wah wah ♪

♪ Woo woo woo ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

You know what I'm talkin' about though?

Yeah.

[Brad] It's one of them songs that everyone knows

and no one knows who freakin' sings it.

So, when you sing a song like that

does that mean you can't use any of this?

Yeah. [laughter]

[upbeat music]