We want your best end-of-summer tomato recipes!
Join us this week as we give summer’s tomatoes a juicy send-off. Check in daily for luscious tomato photos, juicy tomato recipes, and tips from the garden plot. And send us your own stories and advice! Tell us, for instance:
What’s the tastiest tomato variety, and the best way to serve it?
What’s the easiest way to can or freeze? Do you blanch and peel? What do you make with them in January?
Did your plants do well? Or did they, like mine, remind you of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree?
Send us your best recipe, tip, or photo. We’ll post them along with goodies from our food and garden experts. (Food ed Margo True gives a recipe for Indian-style sweet-spicy tomato pickle.)
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One way to improve on tomatoes + basil
and more….
photo by Elizabeth Jardina, Sunset researcher and tomato canner
By Sheila Schmitz, Sunset.com editor
Great tip. And so easy.
A friend gave me this tip years ago: wash and core tomatoes and put whole into a plastic bag (three seems about right). Freeze them “like little baseballs” and when you want to use them the skins will slip off as they defrost. Use as canned tomatoes, drop into soup or sauce, or slice and place on pizza crust, etc.–it is hard to keep a winter long supply.
Here is my recipe for Red and gold salad:
Assorted red and gold cherry and large sliced tomatoes
Red and gold sliced bell peppers
Walla Walla sweet onion
Blanched corn cut off the cob
Dressing: seasoned rice vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper, a pinch of sugar
I don’t really measure anything in this salad, just depends on the bounty of the crops! but proportions are roughly 3 parts tomatoes to 1 part peppers and thinly sliced onions.
Dress lightly, the natural sugars in the tomatoes already make it juicy and sweet!
My quick ways to make use of the incredible tomato bounty:
1. Easy sauce. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil, and sauté half a chopped onion, pinch of salt, 1 chopped garlic, basil from the garden, and coarsely chopped tomatoes. Use over pasta, on bread with a little mozzarella, on polenta, or on pizza. Add red pepper flakes to zip it up.
2. Roasted with sole. Rub a little olive oil in a roasting pan, place sole fillets and a little fresh dill on the oil. Scatter cherry or pear tomatoes all around. Roast in 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Serve over brown rice.
I make this at least once a week for a fast, easy dinner.
Great idea, Rose, thank you! I especially love your taste notes about the best eggplant and zukes to use.
Use up the last of the season’s tomatoes and zucchinis at the same time! For an easy Ratatouille, roast them up w/eggplant, red pepper and onion:
Peel & chop 1 eggplant (white is the creamiest) into 1″ chunks, quarter & slice 2 zucchini (light green striped is the sweetest), and cut 1 onion into thin wedges. Mix them all w/olive oil & salt and pepper and spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Chop the tomatoes (cherry tomatoes are OK), spread on a baking sheet and sprinkle with diced red Pepper and crushed garlic, then drizzle with olive oil and mix lightly. Bake for 30 minutes, then mix with the rest of the vegetables. Yum!
My plants reminded me of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree — without the ornaments. For some reason, some of them turned completely brown and died.
However, I managed to get enough to make what has turned out to be my favorite Sunset recipe. Filo Tomato Tart. I saved the recipe for a year so I could make it for our annual Tomato Fest. Everyone loved it.