When Annie posted this recipe, I thought to myself, “What the heck? Annie suggests it. I’ll try it. But I don’t think I’ll like it!” Boy was I ever surprised! First of all, start to finish, this takes less than 20 minutes to make. If you burn the butter and the fire alarm goes off and you can’t figure out how to turn the fire alarm off and you have to stuff the alarm into the couch cushions to silence it, it may take 25 minutes. But if you don’t have fire alarm issues, I promise, it’s a super-fast meal. Weeknight dinner? I’d say so! And it’s healthy. And it’s delicious. It’s a new favorite in our house that I’ve served several times in the past few weeks! Try it with our summer tomatoes. You’re going to be delighted!

My garden has been more prolific than usual this year, and those of you who read this blog often have seen more than your fair share of posts featuring tomatoes as a result. We harvested about 150 pounds of tomatoes this year, and figuring out how to use those requires a fair amount of creativity.

Every summer I make a bunch of roasted tomato soup and can it for winter. It’s easy to make since it does not require peeling the tomatoes. It’s also absolutely delicious and makes a great quick meal when I am hungry and crave comfort food. After making five gallons of soup last year, I learned that we do not need five gallons of soup. Even if it is the best tomato soup around, that’s just way, way, way too much soup for our little family of two. So, after turning our first 40 pounds of tomatoes into jars of soup for our family (plus a few to share!) I declared a moratorium on tomato soup for the season.

Last year I also canned almost two gallons of pasta sauce to eat throughout the winter months. Given how much I love pasta, this was a fabulous choice and the amount was perfect for us. The problem with pasta sauce is that you have to blanch the tomatoes, throw them in an ice bath, peel off the skins, dice them, and *then* you can make the sauce. Oh, so much work! But I did it. About a month ago, I blanched and cooled and peeled and diced for 3 hours one night while playing Princess Bride in the background (“Inconceivable!”) and getting tomato juice and seeds all over every possible surface in my kitchen. It was a real tomato sauce making party.

The next day, my mom told me she had picked out something for my birthday but wasn’t sure if I wanted it. This is a problem when you have a daughter who is a kitchen gadget collector. How do you track all the toys she keeps buying? Mom hemmed and hawed and finally decided to just tell me about the gift to make sure it was something I’d want. I took one look and said, “I have that! It’s a fruit and vegetable strainer for my KitchenAid. It’s how I make gallons of applesauce every year when my tree dumps apples faster than I can bake with them.” My mom looked at me utterly perplexed. “Then why didn’t you use that for your tomatoes last night?” I stared at her blankly. Then it dawned on me. Oh my gosh. This is a fruit and veggie strainer. That’s what it does! It strains out the icky stuff! Oh my gosh… Oh my gosh. Oh. My. Gosh. Hours and hours and hours wasted on a task that could have taken minutes. I could have kicked myself. My dad suggested that instead of buying me nice things for my birthday, they should just buy me instruction manuals. Ha, ha, Dad. Very funny.

No worries, though. My garden had one more 40 pound tomato harvest, so I decided to give it a try. It took a few tries to figure out how to maximize the results, but let me tell you, this is a breeze compared to the way that I used to puree tomatoes! Do you have so many tomatoes that you don’t know what to do with them? Here’s how to puree them with minimal effort. I made a batch of pasta sauce immediately with my puree based largely on this recipe. I adjusted the sugar and spices to taste since I was not using the traditional canned tomatoes. The sauce was so awesome that I canned even more jars for winter. More pasta for us!

tomato puree

1. Place as many racks as you can in the oven evenly spaced apart. Preheat oven to 500 degrees with convection turned on. If you do not have convection, you will need to rotate your pans as you cook.
2. Cut your tomatoes into chunks or slices and place on a pan. Don’t worry too much about how big the pieces are (I just halved or quartered my tomatoes, depending on their size) and certainly don’t bother with making them pretty. They’re about to be pureed. Save the pretty stuff for later.
3. Place the pans in the oven and cook (rotating after 7 minutes if you don’t have convection) for 10-15 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft and the skins are bursting a bit. Remove and place in a bowl. Refill the pans with any remaining tomatoes and cook again.
4. Ladle the tomatoes into the feed chute of the food mill and watch as the water and puree pours into one bowl and the “ickies” (stems, skins, seeds, cores) plop into another.

Some notes that you should most definitely read:

One, you’ll notice in my set up above that my bowls are all stacked kadiwampus. That’s necessary because the ickies tend to fall backwards into the bowl of puree that you’re making. It’s a bad product design, but there’s nothing I can do about it now, so I have this system set up to ensure that my puree stays pure.

Two, if you don’t heat your tomatoes first, you will lose a lot of the good stuff to the “icky” pile. Just cook ‘em first like I suggested and you will be happy.

Three, my tomatoes are very, very watery. Yours might be too. If that’s the case, boil the puree along with a can or two of tomato paste on medium low for as many hours as it takes to thicken up to the consistency that you’re happy with. If you need to do this, stir the mixture every 30-45 minutes to ensure it doesn’t burn to the bottom.

Four: I would not add flavorings like onions, salt, garlic or any other spices until you want to cook something with your puree. Other than the puree that I reserved for use in pasta sauce, I canned the remaining puree without any additional seasonings so that I can add it to soups and stews later and then adjust seasonings to taste at that time.

Tomatoes. Yeah. I know. We’ve talked about this already. I have a lot of them. You see them featured every other day on my blog. Deal with it. I just processed the last huge batch (a blog post on that coming soon!) so I promise to let up soon. Then we’ll move onto winter squash. If you thought I posted a lot of tomato recipes, wait until you hear about the pumpkin and butternut squash!

This is a pretty basic recipe, and when you want the flavor of your heirloom tomatoes to shine, basic is exactly the type of recipe you want. It would make a great side dish or appetizer at a party. It’s pretty, it’s easy to eat, and it’s delicious!

On Saturday, my husband and I harvested the tomatoes from our garden. There is are few things that give me more pleasure than picking produce out of my own garden. I was jumping up and down like a kid in a candy shop. “There’s one! Over there! Get that one!” It was like playing “I spy” except that everything I spied was some shade of red. I have been to birthday parties that weren’t this fun.

I planted 16 tomato plants this year. This weekend we picked 26 pounds of tomatoes and I know for a fact that this isn’t the end of our harvest season. We are desperate to find delicious ways to use all of these tomatoes, and if you’re a fellow tomato gardener, you’re probably in the same boat. Here are some recipes listed in order of the ones that call for the most tomatoes. And good news! I’m trying even more amazing tomato recipes this summer so I’ll be able to add to this list next year!

roasted tomato soup – This soup is a favorite among my friends and family alike. Usually I can about 4 gallons of this to last us through the winter. My friend Stacy says that this is the only tomato soup that her boyfriend will even touch. Yes, it’s that good.

roasted cherry tomato pasta sauce – This sauce will make your tastebuds sing. Slow roasting the tomatoes brings out their sweetness. Nearly a quarter cup each of garlic and basil enhance their flavor. This sauce has forever changed my expectations of an amazing pasta dinner. (Pardon the old photos… they don’t really do this justice!)

pasta with fresh tomato sauce – this is our go-to pasta dish on a hot night because other than boiling water, there is no cooking involved. You could easily throw some grilled chicken or rounds of a spicy chicken sausage into this to give it more kick!

tomato salad with corn and basil – This is my favorite summer salad. My husband drools a bit whenever I mention that it will be on the dinner menu.

out of this world bruschetta – a new post here at Dishing the Divine that is worth repeating again and again and again. I’m starting to make sure I have dried bread on hand just so that I have excuse to toast it and serve it with this bruschetta.

grilled pizza – Grilling pizza is scary at first, until you actually try it and realize it’s no sweat. This pizza is delicious and the fresh tomatoes on top really are a must!

big tomato sandwich – Our favorite summer sandwich is loaded with slabs of tomatoes as well as roasted peppers, turkey, avocado, fresh mozzarella and plenty of pesto and vinaigrette!

What are YOUR favorite tomato recipes? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!

out of this world bruschetta
loosely inspired by www.annies-eats.net

12 oz tomatoes, heirloom preferred
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp good quality balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp packed chopped basil leaves
1/4 tsp salt
a couple grinds of fresh pepper

Dice the tomatoes and place in a strainer while you prep your other ingredients. In a medium sized bowl, add the garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper. After the tomatoes have released some of their juices, add them to the bowl and mix thoroughly. Let sit for 10 minutes for flavors to combine. Meanwhile, toast small slices of french bread until just starting to turn golden. Brush some of the juices from the bruschetta mixture onto the toasts. Top with bruschetta. Serve immediately.

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I found this recipe in a cook book a couple years ago and photocopied it for later use. This summer was the first time we tested it and Brant ate it up. Literally – he ate the entire platter, by himself, moaning over and over again that this was so good. Can’t argue with a guy who has dressing oozing out of his mouth, can you?

tomato salad with corn and basil

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 shallot, minced (or to taste)
sea salt and pepper
1 pound mixed tomatoes, preferably heirloom
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 dozen fresh basil leaves, cut or torn into small pieces

In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, and shallot. Season highly with salt and pepper. Set aside for 15 minutes for flavors to blend.

Core the larger tomatoes and slice. Halve any cherry tomatoes. Arrange the tomatoes attractively on a platter and sprinkle corn kernels over the top. Drizzle dressing over the tomato and corn mixture and then scatter basil leaves over all.

If you follow me on twitter or faceboook then you know that I have spent the last 3 days helping my friend move. This has involved all the usual moving chaos – painting the new place, packing the old place, figuring out how to stay sane and not bite each others’ heads off in the meantime. I’ve moved before and the only thing that makes people more grouchy than packing is packing when you’re hungry. This is where I come in. I came to LA with an arsenal of easy to prepare, great tasting recipes to whip up. Among them were these sandwiches, this pasta, and today’s recipe: garbanzo bean salad. Clearly summer is here: the overarching theme in all these meals is tomatoes, basil, raw garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I’m not complaining, although I’m sure anyone else that smells us is probably graciously keeping their mouths shut.

garbanzo bean salad
www.allrecipes.com

1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
1 cucumber, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup finely chopped sweet onion (optional – it’s good with and good without)
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes
1/4 cup fresh dried basil, chopped (or 1/2 tsp dried)
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp salt

In a medium sized bowl, toss together all the ingredients and let marinate in the fridge for at least 45 minutes. Serve chilled.