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.
