Eating
October in December
Part
2
Tomatoes,
tomatoes, tomatoes...
Yesterday,
I took on the problem of old squash. Today I'll address the more
universal problem of the tomato glut of early fall.
I
usually plant too many Italian plum tomato plants, but I expect to
freeze their fruit for the winter, so don't worry too much when my
counter is covered with red orbs come the end of October. In the
past I've made sauce and froze it and roasted halved tomatoes and
froze them, but the fall produce season usually produces a glut of
produce and not enough time to process it all. Over the years I've
fallen into taking the easiest and least time-consuming way of
dealing with all the tomatoes, a tip given to me years ago by a woman
who had ten kids. (Note: Always listen to tips given by women who
have ten children. They have learned how to become incredibly
efficient in most areas of their lives, especially in the area of
food storage and preparation.) This woman would pick and wash her
tomatoes, cut out the stem end of each tomato and freeze them as is
in freezer bags or plastic storage containers. I started doing this
just to get the tomatoes off my counter before November. I also
found that a frozen tomato, with a hole cut in the stem end, could
easily be skinned by dipping the tomato in some lukewarm water for a
minute and simply squeezing the tomato out of the skin. The
remaining frozen orb could be thawed slightly, chopped and then thrown
in soups or stews or chili. My favorite use of the frozen tomatoes in
my freezer, however, is for a roasted tomato sauce. Below is the
recipe. I just take the desired amount of frozen tomatoes out of the
freezer, usually enough to cover the bottom of a roasting pan, put
them in a bowl of lukewarm tap water, slip them out of their skins
and put them into the roasting pan. Then follow this recipe:
Roasted
Tomato Sauce
Desired amount of
skinned, frozen plum tomatoes, enough to cover the bottom of a 13”
x 9” roasting pan
2 - 4 cloves garlic,
chopped
4 tablespoons olive
oil
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly
ground black pepper
oregano and/or basil
(optional)
Preheat
oven to 425°.
Put skinned, frozen tomatoes into a 13” x 9” baking pan. Add
garlic, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast until sauce
is thick and jammy, about 40 - 60 minutes (sometimes longer if the
tomatoes are very juicy). The consistency should be thick and saucy,
but not dry. Add oregano and/or basil during the last ten minutes of
roasting, if desired. Toss with pasta or use as a sauce on pizza.
This sauce is easy and
really tastes like summer.
***
About that 20-inch
zucchini I mentioned yesterday?...well, I hacked off a piece of it,
skinned it, cut out the seed area, thinly sliced it and popped it
into the sausage tortellini soup I made for Christmas Eve (which also
contained some of the skinned frozen tomatoes). No one knew I was
serving them two month old zucchini. I think I'll shred the
remaining piece and make a batch or two of mini-loaves of zucchini
bread for the freezer...to keep the rest of the frozen tomatoes
company...
If
more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold,
it
would be a merrier world. - J.R.R. Tolkien
