Sunday, August 25, 2013

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!




Tomato season is coming on strong and I am SOOO excited. It's been a little hard this  year since we moved after planting our garden and we only potted a few tomato plants and they don't grow quite as well in the pots- but hey, I'll take any I can get. (And gladly take them off the hands of anyone who has more than they can handle.) Last year we had tomatoes for daaayyyzz and I didn't think we could eat them all, but we DID and I loved every second of it. I discovered lots of new recipes to use them in, so I thought I would share some of them with you! Here goes!

Cherry Tomatoes.




Every year my cousin brings this Salad for Thanksgiving. She is not even allowed in the house without it- but it's good anytime of year! Beware though, when you add the dressing it only lasts so long before it starts to get a little soggy, so if you have a large amount of salad and not so many people to eat it then add the dressing to each serving, instead of all at once. 

 
 I discovered this salad looking for general pasta salads, and liked it so much I kept using it! I only use 1/2 a cup of olive oil because I like mine on the more acidic side. With fresh mint AND basil in my garden... Ive been using this recipe a lot this summer!



Another recipe that is healthy, and delish at the same time (in my opinion) is this one. You have to like Avocado though! So, there are a few for your cherry tomatoes. Now a couple for your heirlooms. (these are considered sacred in my garden)


I love this pasta, I found it in a martha magazine long ago, and have been using it ever since! Don't try to find the croxetti pasta though, I'm lucky enough to have had it before and it is REALLY good but you can't find it in stores. You have to order it (so good ahead if you want to try it, it's worth it!), but you can just get a flat pasta like pappardelle or I've even used linguine- but be careful with that because that pasta can easily overpower the other flavors because you want to get a bite with all the ingredients at once and sometimes you get a fork full of just linguine! 

Next, I love a good Margherita pizza, I mean who doesn't?? I've used several recipes but mainly you just want to have good fresh ingredients because you only put a few things on there and it makes ALL the difference. Make a simple pizza like this, or for really good strong flavor soak the tomatoes in the olive oil with garlic for an hour or so and it will just infuse them with such good flavor! Use your fresh heirlooms, fresh basil (you can borrow some from my garden if you need it), and a rich olive oil. You'll just die.


For Heirlooms and all other tomatoes you can make delicious Salsa, Guacomole, Pico De gallo,  and some killer chunky tomato soups.

I have LOVED this Salsa recipe, I got it from my friend Steph, the Mexican food Queen. I tend to always blend all these ingredients together, but you can make it chunky as well. Both are good.

 2 8 oz cans of tomato sause
2 cups of sugar sweet tomatoes quartered 
2 cups peeled tomatoes (dropped in scalding water)
1 T oil (not olive)
1 t red wine vinegar
1/2 t dried oregano crumbled
1/8 t garlic powder
1 bunch of cilantro 
4 green onions diced
2 limes squeezed 
1 yellow onion diced
serano chili or jalapeno diced 
Add salt
(spice and salt to your taste)

For blended salsa just throw in the bigger tomatoes with everything else and blend, for chunkier salsa add the diced sugar sweet tomatoes and blend tomatoes separately then mix everything together. enojoy!



For guacamole just smash avocados, add chopped tomatoes, lime, garlic, onions (washed), cilantro, lots of salt and some pepper. I just do everything to taste. If it looks pretty even then you are good! (unless you are Callie... then call me and I will give you an EXACT recipe)

Pico De Gallo is pretty simple as well, but my Pico mirrors this recipe pretty well. Let it sit and soak for at least 10 mintues. It brings all the flavors together with the tomatoes.  (if you can resist scarfing it down for that long.... my husband never can)

For some Tomato soup recipes check out my previous blog post on these soups! Ok, that should tie up some of your tomatoes for the season, but if you are still having a hard time then you should can them, then you can make these recipes all year long! Also, anyone who has good tomato recipes post them! I love any good recipes I can get, and I'm always looking for a good bruschetta recipe.

There you have it. Did I really just do a whole blog post about tomatoes? 
Yes, yes I did.