Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard: Tomatoes

It's tomato time in my garden!

First up in the tomato cooking spree is some oven-roasted tomatoes:

I take the Yellow Pear tomatoes, cut them in half, drizzle them with some olive oil, throw in some garlic and basil, and then cook on 225 for about 4 or 5 hours until they are shriveled up.  These are like candy to me.  I want to freeze some to have for pizza toppings after tomato season has ended, but I keep eating them!  Maybe the next batch will make it to the freezer... maybe.

Next on the tomato cooking frenzy is sauce... wonderful, yummy tomato sauce.  I've got to figure out a way to plant more tomatoes because I want more sauce!

My sauce recipe:

4 lbs tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup basil
a few parsley sprigs
1 tsp salt

Heat the olive oil in a large sauce pan, add onions and cook for 2 minutes, add the bell pepper and cook for 2 more minutes, add the garlic and basil and cook for 1 minute.
Add the tomatoes, parsley, and salt.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 2 hours until the sauce thickens.  I usually puree about half of the sauce because J is not a fan of chunky sauce.

Finally on the tomato cooking spree was salsa.  I used this Easy Blender Salsa Recipe, but I have no cilantro in the garden and was to lazy and splattered with tomato juice and seeds to go to the store.  I wonder if frozen cilantro would work?  I must remember to freeze some cilantro this winter when cilantro grows around here.  Without cilantro, the salsa was just ok.  I put it on bean burritos and completely forgot to take a picture.

That's what has been cooking in my kitchen.  If you want to peak into other kitchens and see what others are cooking, head over to Thursday’s Kitchen Cupboard at the Gardener of Eden.