1. Roast them: Core the tomatoes and cut in half horizontally. Place them in a glass baking dish. Drizzle with about a 1/2 cup olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place in a 200 degree oven and bake 2-3 hours. Cool. Refrigerate or freeze with the oil. Roasted tomatoes can be used for pizza, rissoto, and salad dressing.
2. Make a BLT. These are great summer sandwiches. Get some applewood smoked bacon, sourdough bread, lettuce, mayonaise, and of course, tomatoes.
3. Make a super-easy sauce. Core, seed, and dice your tomatoes. Toss with 1/2 cup bottled Italian dressing, 1 Tablespoon fresh minced garlic, and 2 Tablespoons of fresh cut up basil leaves. Mix it all together and serve over hot pasta.
4. Do you have more time? Try making a cooked sauce. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan. Add 1 diced onion and cook until soft. Add 2 tablespoons of minced garlic and 1 cup of chopped carrots. Cook about 2 minutes. Add about 3 pounds of peeled, cored, and seeded tomatoes. Cook on low for about an hour. Cool and puree in batches in a food processor or blender. Return to pot and add 2 teaspoons sugar, 1-2 teaspoons salt, and 1 tablespoon oregano. Cook until sauce is desired consistancy. Use immediately, or cool and freeze.
5. Can them. Peel and core your tomatoes. Leave them whole. Sterilize jars and keep them in a deep pot of hot water. In each quart-sized jar, place 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of salt. Pack tomatoes into the jar, leaving about an inch at the top. Ladle boiling water into the jars. Place lids and bands on. Place jars in the deep pot, cover, and boil about 40 minutes. Turn off the heat, wait 5 minutes, remove jars, and let them cool.
What do you do with your tomatoes?
BLTs!
ReplyDeleteWe make salsa with our tomatoes. By ours, I mean the ones we buy at the store. Just can't seem to grow them.
I've only made salsa once - in Spanish class. Maybe I'll try doing that, too.
DeleteI had started tomato plants from seeds this year. They were doing well until I transplanted them to bigger containers, just waiting to put them outside. They all died on me. : (
ReplyDeleteI'll try again next year, but will start them out in bigger containers, so there will be more room to grow when starting out.
You can flash freeze tomatoes. Wash them and cut out the cores. Place them on cookie sheets and put them in the freezer. Depending on the size, I think no more than 1 - 1 1/2 hours worked fine for me. Then put them in recloseable bags and store in the freezer until future use in sauces and chilies.
I've made salsa in the past, which my husband and son ate up until it was gone. One year I canned over 50 quarts of salsa and it didn't last through the whole winter!
Wow! That's a lot of salsa. Thanks for the flash freeze tip. I'll have to try it.
DeleteGreat suggestions, Sherry. We usually have to look out for deer where we live so we used pots on our deck inside of in ground. Unfortunately another little creature got to them, our two year old who decided to harvest her little heart out a bit too early. Now we're waiting for more blooms. :) Hopefully we'll be able to use more of your ideas next year.
ReplyDeleteAwww. Were you able to at least make fried green tomatoes?
DeleteWe faced this dilemma early this year, when we had a lot of tomatoes, we ended up giving some of them away to the neighbors so that they may all be enjoyed. I did 3 &4 too And oh, they're great for Bruschetta! yum.
ReplyDeleteI gave away quite a few tomatoes, too. The neighbors who don't grow them, appreciate it.
Deletei just ate a delicious tomato sandwich--my favorite way to use them :)
ReplyDelete