Tomatoes, Tomatoes,Tomatoes
When I go to the grocery store, I always ask for their boxes, because I pick sooo many tomatoes at once. I also save plastic containers to pick my precious cherry tomatoes. We have so many tomatoes that we have been having a lot of bruschetta for dinner. My favorite bread to roast is Panera, but I also use ciabatta from our local bakery. I top the bread with whole milk ricotta (life is too short to use part-skim), then some imported prosciutto (I like prosciutto di Parma because it has a nuttier and saltier flavor than other types - well worth the extra money), and then top it with the piece de resistance - a mixture of different types of small diced tomatoes, a little cracked pepper, a little kosher salt and chopped basil. I hope you are growing tons of basil! I don’t use any balsamic because I think it masks the complex flavors. I inevitably make too much and so I just eat it out of the bowl later that night. My friend brought some home the other night and used it the next day on top of chicken. I never thought of that; she is so smart!
The tomatoes at both gardens are coming in like gangbusters! The critters seem to have stopped chomping on them, and so I have been waiting until they are perfectly ripe to eat the same day. OK, sometimes I eat a few cherry tomatoes while I am picking them! And I go back the next day and there are even more to enjoy. They are like eating sunshine! My gardening buddy from Elmhurst stopped by for a quick visit, and we had bruschetta and then picked some tomatoes for her to enjoy at home. She recently moved and so her garden is taking a little longer to produce, but she has a green thumb and soon her garden will be exploding with goodness I am sure. If you come visit me, I will give you some too!
Every year I get a “boy” tomato. I don’t know why because nobody else gets one; not even my friends who grow tomatoes from my seedlings. Maybe it’s because I don’t have any boys of my own. It makes me laugh every year!
OK, so we can’t eat fresh tomatoes EVERY day, so it is time to make some other tomato based dinners as well as save some for the cold winter months. I made a big pot of homemade tomato sauce the other day. It is simple dimple! Here is how I do it. I core and coarsely chop my tomatoes and put them in a big pot and cook them for awhile until they are “mooshy”. I use the skins & seeds too. I add some kosher salt, cracked pepper, oregano and garlic powder (I grow oregano just because I think I should but I only use it as a garnish because I think it is way too potent to use as an ingredient) and garlic powder and cook it on medium.
When the tomatoes are mostly wilted, I blend batches of the hot mixture and then add it to the pot. I do this until the seeds are completely crushed and the consistency I like. Then I strain it just to double check that there aren’t any leftover skins or seeds. Make sure to keep tasting it so that you like the flavor.
It is also time to can grandma’s soup! I will can soup several times between now and the end of September. I usually can the equivalent of about 15 quarts. I can a mixture of quarts, pints and half pints depending on how much soup I make at one time. This way I can use the appropriate canned amount depending on how many people are eating soup; waste not want not! I can’t give you the recipe (it is a Gundrum family secret from the farm which is now four generations old). But because I have 153 tomato plants between both gardens (yes, you read this correctly!), I anticipate canning ALOT of tomato based foods. I should even have enough tomatoes to can some new things too. Fingers crossed! I canned 7 pints of soup the other day.
I hope you are enjoying the lovely weather, your garden, your tomatoes and other produce. I hope this post inspires you to use (and share) each thing you grow. Please also visit your local farmer’s market (or better yet in my opinion) farm stands on the side of the road (take a drive through rural America to find some) to help support the people who love the land as much as you do. You can never eat enough vegetables. Hope to see you all soon!
Then I add tomato paste to thicken the sauce. I let it simmer for about one hour without a cover so that it thickens. When I use it, I add some fresh basil. I also freeze some. Even though the sauce thins a little when you thaw it, that is OK, because I can always add more tomato paste or better yet, parmesan to thicken it and then simmer it again. I save parmesan rinds in my freezer (an old Sicilian trick) and sometimes add them. The parmesan attached to the rind melts into the sauce. Then I take out the rind (and nibble on any left over bits that don’t come off) and throw the rind away.