Despite being knocked flat on their vegetable asses 10 days ago, the tomato plants made a quick recovery and are busy pumping out loads of big, juicy fruit.
Among the heirloom German Johnsons and Belgium Giants, one-pounders are now almost below-average; every tomato in this picture weighs more than that. The largest so far this year is a 24-ounce Belgium.
We’re in the heart of heavy ‘mater season right now; if you could always count on plants being this productive, we could all live like kings. But alas, the hotter, drier days of July coupled with soil-borne disease often knock the stuffing out of tomato plants and bring a Good Thing to a sudden halt.
So what you have to do is eat lots of fresh tomato dishes, give away lots of them to friends and family and find a way to store the rest for the winter.
Fresh, my favorite is the simple and superb Insalata Caprese:
→ Slice up a ball of good buffalo mozzarella cheese and match it with an equal number of slices of ripe, fresh tomatoes.
→ Pick or buy enough basil leaves to equal the number of cheese slices.
→ Arrange alternating slices around a large plate: Cheese, tomato, basil, overlapping each on the other.
→ Drizzle olive oil (extra virgin only, please) generously over the plate, then do the same with some good balsamic vinegar. Grate some fresh pepper over all of it if you like.
→ Eat up.
For the winter, I’m making big batches of Sicilian Tomato Sauce, then freezing it in about 16-ounce meal-sized portions in plastic freezer bags.
Ingredients:
→ 10-12 cups of fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
→ 2 28-ounce cans of Progresso (or another good brand) Italian roma tomatoes
→ 1 28-ounce can of Progresso (or etc.) tomato puree
→ 1 large Vidalia or Texas sweet onion, chopped
→ 3 or 4 big garlic cloves, smashed and minced
→ olive oil
→ 4-8 ounces of butter
→ 3/4 cup of dry white wine
→ 1 cup chicken broth
→ Your choice of garden herbs. (Today it was a half-cup of Italian parsley and about a half-cup of oregano, with a small sprig of rosemary tossed in).
→ 1 small dried hot pepper, chopped, or a couple of teaspoons of hot red pepper flakes
→ salt and pepper to taste
Method:
→ Peel, core and chop the tomatoes, and load them into a large bowl
→ Generously cover the bottom of an 8-quart pot with olive oil. Heat the oil, then add the garlic and onion. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is almost transparent.
→ Add the fresh tomatoes, the canned tomatoes and puree, the chicken broth and the wine. Stir together, then add the herbs and the hot pepper. Stir again.
→ Let the sauce come to a low boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Let the sauce cook like that for four hours or so, stirring every 15 or 20 minutes. Half way through, use a potato masher to gently break up the whole canned tomatoes.
→ After four hours, stir in the butter and add salt and pepper to suit yourself. I believe you will be very pleased with the result.
→ Cover and let it cool down to room temperature before ladling it into bags for freezing.
And pour some of it out into a sauce pan, add some meatballs or sausage or mushrooms or nothing at all, boil up some pasta and, you know.
