Tomato Season!

Jul 23, 2022,18:51 PM
 

We are not in Italy, Spain or France but we do have one of the world's best climates for tomatoes. Every summer there are weeks when we have a surplus. Or the neighbors have a surplus and bring them to us.



These are all photos I have taken of our local crop.




We grow basil too.



Once in a great while I am moved to buy a few at the store:







We can deal with a dozen cherry tomatoes a day, but 20-50?



 No way.



And we can manage a few big ones per day. But not multiple vines full of large tomatoes!



So this year I decided for the first time to melt them down into sauce. That entails removing the skins first.



I read that you can put them in boiling water for a minute, then in ice water, and the skins slip right off. My mother never told me these things (yes the one with the nose got cooked too).



Usually I separate the gold from red ones.



This week I realized I can throw pasta in the boiling water when the tomatoes are lifted out, and use that hot water productively to cook the pasta. 
After ten minutes or so, I take the pasta out, throw it in a bowl with olive oil, and pour out the water.



The skins are off the tomatoes by now, so back into the hot pot they go (minus the water & pasta), with some basil, garlic and olive oil -- and maybe a bit of wine 



or like this.



They start to look saucy in about 20 minutes. I have a stick blender but don't really need to do much blending as the tomatoes melt down nicely on their own. Maybe 45 minutes on low is enough.



In the meantime if I am super-organized, I am taking fresh bread out of the oven.



To use in consuming the sauce.


In this case I took the golden tomato sauce and put it on the pasta with some shrimp with lettuce underneath.



My wife gave it two thumbs up.

This is easy -- you can do it too.

Cazalea

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✅✅

 
 By: Michael Reilly : July 23rd, 2022-19:21
Yummy 🤤
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Nice!

 
 By: mkvc : July 23rd, 2022-21:34
Relevant to us, as we are also experiencing an onslaught of ripe tomatoes.
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Beautiful produce!

 
 By: matto1 : July 23rd, 2022-22:00
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Tomatoes are delicious

 
 By: Concord : July 24th, 2022-00:06
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All too good to eat..

 
 By: Centurionone : July 29th, 2022-17:56
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