Rutab & Summer Tomatoes With Sizzling Brown Butter
Rawaan Alkhatib
Photo by Food52
- Serves
- Starter or side for 4, with bread
A revelatory flavor combination, this recipe has, hands down, the highest reward-to-effort ratio in this book. If you make one recipe, try this one. When dates are harvested in late summer and early fall, they are at what is known as the rutab stage, with flesh that is custard-soft and lush. Where I live in the northeast Unites States, it's also tomato harvest season, my favorite time of year. This dish is transcendent when made with peak-season rutab dates and summer's finest tomatoes, but you can make it with hydroponic midwinter cherry tomatoes and regular Medjools and still find yourself greedily mopping up the buttery remains.
Use just enough yuzu kosho to add fragrance and a breath of heat without overwhelming the other flavors. If you can't find yuzu kosho, don't let that stop you: This dish is good with just the butter! Sometimes I like to omit the kosho anyway and stir a tablespoon of good red wine vinegar, along with an extra-generous pinch of flaky salt, into the hot butter instead; other times I go with red pepper flakes and lime zest. Not the same, but differently delicious.
—Rawaan Alkhatib
Excerpted from "Hot Date: Sweet & Savory Recipes Celebrating the Date, From Party Food to Everyday Feasts" by Rawaan Alkhatib, © 2025. Published by Chronicle Books. Photographs © Linda Xiao.
Ingredients
- 12 dates, the softer and more luscious the better
- 10 oz [285 g] tomatoes
- 4 tbsp [55 g) butter
- 1/4 - 1/2 tsp red yuzu kosho
- Flaky salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Bread, for serving
Directions
- Step 1
Tear open the dates and remove the pits. Arrange on a serving plate. If using cherry or grape tomatoes, cut them in half. Otherwise, cut the tomatoes so they're roughly the same size and shape as the torn dates. Arrange the tomatoes on the serving plate, cut-side up and interspersed with the dates.
- Step 2
In a small, heavy pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Continue cooking the butter until it starts to darken and sizzle, about 5 minutes. It should smell nutty and fragrant and turn a deep, beautiful caramel brown. Stay close to the pan while doing this; browned butter can go from delicious to burnt in seconds. Immediately remove from the heat. Stir the yuzu kosho into the butter until completely dissolved. Pour the hot butter mixture directly over the dates and tomatoes-they should sizzle! Sprinkle with a big pinch of large-flake salt, like Maldon, and a generous grind of black pepper. Serve with bread to mop everything up.