Help! I have too many tomatoes.
Between my CSA and my farmer's market addiction, I have way too many tomatoes and need to use them up. Any ideas aside from pasta sauces and gazpacho? Thanks.
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nfo
Jul 20, 2006 05:51 PM
A nice alternative to fresh salsa, that takes 20 minutes and lasts a while in the fridge:
Roast a panful of tomatoes skin up under the broiler, with some onions (until they blister, about 15 minutes). Toss in a chipotle or two, some of the adobo sauce, add salt and pepper, maybe cilantro or whatever you have on hand, and process.
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Junie D
Jul 20, 2006 02:58 PM
Every summer night I finely dice a tomato or two and mix with piquant olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper and basil. We eat it on bruschetta or plain bread, as a sauce on grilled meat, over fish, with polenta, plain, spooned over green salad, as uncooked sauce for pasta, etc. This is also a good way to use up those tomato "shoulders" leftover from slicing tomatoes.
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Kitchen Queen
Jul 20, 2006 01:26 AM
Parboil then freeze. You'll kiss yourself later when, in the fall, the market varieties one buys are tasteless! :)KQ
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PamelaD
Jul 20, 2006 01:17 AM
There is no such thing as too many fresh garden tomatos!
Love all these ideas...
Here is another: spread the summer joy and give those garden jewels to friends and neighbors!I have a backyard (9 plants) full of green ones now and can't wait!
Enjoy,
Pam -
Bruschetta.
Tomato, potato, and green bean salad with vinegrette (can add chicken or hard boiled eggs if desired).
And of course the already mentioned salsa and BLTs.
I guess yours are already ripe, but if it was a question of tomato plants overproducing, I'd head some of it off by making fried green tomatoes. (Has anyone tried doing this on the grill instead of frying? I'm trying to be healthy -- I suppose you can grill these?)
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re: Candy
Oh dear god, yes. I made some last year – my own tomatoes won't be ripening for a few weeks yet, but we had some of last year's jam on hamburgers tonight. My advice is to make as much of this as you possibly can:
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Davwud
Jul 19, 2006 09:06 PM
Well, really all you really need to do is chop some tomatoes, put them in a dutch oven (Add garlic or red bell pepper) and simmer them for about an hour. Run them through a strainer or food mill or something like that (removes the seeds and skins and stuff), return the liquid to the pot and reduce to the consistency of tomato paste. When you get there, season it with salt and pepper. Don't season it before since the salt will concentrate as you cook it down. Jar it up and process.
Most home canning books have recipes and a quick look at google showed a lot of hits.
DT
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We are using up all of our garden tomatoes on heavenly open faced broiled sandwiches. The recipe is so simple it doesn't seem worth posting, but it is so delicious and so summery it is ALL I want to eat these days - breakfast, lunch and dinner - at least while the tomatoes are hanging ripe on the vine and there is fresh basil growing in the garden. We get our bread from the local artisan bakery, and biting into one of these little sandwiches makes summer living just plain great.
The second recipe is more of a salad than a main dish, but with a glass of chilled wine and some fresh bread, on a hot day it might suffice, especially if you have dessert.
Layered Summer Tomato, Gouda and Basil Broil:
1) Select great bread, cut in thick slices (Rye, Sourdough, French, Multi-grained all work well) for as many broils as you want.
2) Layer with thickly sliced garden tomatoes - big slicers are perfect, but I also slice up and use our Sungold cherry tomatoes for this if that's what I have in the garden
3) Top tomatoes with slices of Gouda to cover tomatoes (or other favorite cheese - we used Goat's Milk Gouda)
4) Broil until bubbly
5) Top with shredded fresh basil and cracked black pepper to taste.
Simple? Yes. Heavenly? Even more so.
Cold Tomato/Mango/Basil Salad
1) Cut ripe tomatoes in wedges
2) Slice up equal amount of ripe mangoes
3) Gently tear up fresh basil
4) Toss all ingredients into a bowl with a dressing of great balsamic vinegar and olive oil, add seasonings to taste
5) Add fresh mozzarella if you want a heartier salad.The last idea for warm weather main dishes is to grill your own pizza on your grill if you have one out of doors. Just get a lump of pizza dough, roll it out very thin, brush both sides with olive oil (to keep from sticking on the grill) and add lots of sliced tomatoes, herbs and little dabs of goat cheese....or add more of those CSA veggies - thinly sliced zucchinis work well on grilled pizza, as does fresh arugula.
Enjoy your ripe tomatoes - 'tis the season!
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I hope to have this problem in a couple of weeks! I plan to slow-roast them in the electric smoker and can the excess in olive oil. With luck we should be feasting on smoke-roasted tomatoes through winter.
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re: cheryl_h
Funwithfood
Jul 19, 2006 08:54 PM
My (25) tomato plants are *finally* starting to ripen. I wonder if/how I could do something similar to this in my gas BBQ. Does anyone have experience with this?
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re: Funwithfood
I don't know why you couldn't do it over indirect heat on your gas grill. It would take a bit more work - you'd have to check on the charcoal fairly regularly, but it's much the same as doing pulled pork or brisket. You'd need to check the temperature so the tomatoes will roast slowly and not burn, but that's about it.
Cookshack has recipes for smoked tomatoes on their website which is why I think my idea will work. This link gives some details and the rest of their recipe index is good too:
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