Tag Archives: tomatoes

November 19, 2012 · 9:28 PM

Fall Harvest Feast

A few weeks ago I made a wonderful meal with the last of our garden veggies. I love cooking with vegetables I grew and harvested myself. There is something very satisfying about enjoying the fruits of your labor. Plus, home-grown vegetables taste so much better!

I had a couple pounds of San Marzano tomatoes, several summer squash, and a bunch of potatoes. We had enjoyed most of the tomatoes in various pasta sauces and I wanted something different. I found a delicious-sounding tomato soup recipe on Epicurious. My Mom had given me a potato-zucchini casserole recipe that I wanted to try, so I decided to pair the two.

Roasted Tomato Soup with homemade croutons.

What a wonderful dinner! The soup was so flavorful and delicious. The casserole was fairly rich, so it went nicely with the lighter soup. It’s kind of like scalloped potatoes with a zucchini gratin on top. What a great way to enjoy the final harvest!

Cheesy Potatoes and Zucchini

The recipe for Roasted Tomato Soup with Garlic can be found on Epicurious, so I will not share it here.  FYI: I followed the suggestion of many of the reviewers and only used half the amount of chicken broth called for in the recipe.

I hope all of my U.S. readers have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Potato-Zucchini Bake

Print Recipe

  • 3 medium potatoes (I used red), peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
  • 2 cups grated cheddar cheese, divided
  • 6 tablespoons butter, divided
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1 cup milk (I used 1%)
  • 3 medium zucchini, or other summer squash, sliced
  • 1 cup dry bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter a 10×6-inch baking dish.  Layer the potato slices with 1 cup of the cheese in the baking dish.

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a medium saucepan.  Remove from the heat, then blend in the flour, salt, and pepper.  Stir in the milk.  Return the saucepan to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens slightly and begins to boil.

Pour the sauce over the potato slices.  Cover and bake for 45 – 50 minutes.

Remove the baking dish from the oven and uncover.  Layer the zucchini slices and the remaining cheese over the potatoes.  Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and combine it with the bread crumbs.  Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the zucchini and bake, uncovered, for an additional 40 minutes.

Serves 6

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September 14, 2012 · 11:45 AM

Eggplant “Tartine” + Tomato-Cheese Tartlets

I’m taking a break from my Peach Party today for French Fridays with Dorie.  I am doing things a little out of order today…

Instead of sharing this week’s recipe (which I haven’t made yet because of all those peaches), I am writing about last week’s recipe and one from August that I am finally catching up on.

First, let’s talk about Eggplant “Tartine” with Tomatoes, Olives, and Cucumbers.  The word tartine is in quotes because eggplant is standing in for the traditional bread of an open-faced sandwich.  To serve, roasted slices of eggplant are topped with a variety of veggies that have been tossed with a simple vinaigrette.  Dorie recommends garnishing with very thin slices of cucumber, but I embraced the cucumber (because I had some fresh from the garden) and served nice, thick slices.

Overall, we liked this.  I enjoyed the blending of flavors and textures very much.  My husband liked certain bites better than others.  For example, he didn’t think the olives went well with the diced celery and onion, but he did like the olives with the tomato and eggplant.

This is meant to be served as a starter, but I served larger portions to turn it into our main dish.  While I enjoyed the “tartine”, I do think it would be better served in smaller portions as a starter.  I kind of got tired of the flavors before I was finished.

Next, let’s talk about the Tomato-Cheese Tartlets.  I waited to make these until our garden tomatoes were ripe.  It was Worth. The. Wait.  These little tarts were fabulous!

These are very easy to make.  Puff pastry dough is cut into rounds and baked under a baking sheet to keep them flat.  Spread with either olive tapenade or pesto, then top with slices of tomato and fresh mozzarella.  I chose to warm mine in the oven for a few minutes, and then they were seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil and Trader Joe’s Balsamic Glaze.  Finally, they were garnished with shredded basil.

I made half of these with olive tapenade and half with pesto.  Both were delicious, but we gave a slight edge to the pesto ones. You can’t go wrong either way!

These tartlets are a real winner and I will be making these every tomato season!

If you are interested in trying these recipes, you can find them in Dorie Greenspan’s wonderful book Around My French Table.

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January 16, 2012 · 12:02 PM

Dinner Last Night

Remember last fall when I made and froze tomato sauce using garden tomatoes?  Well, I used it last night to make Baked Conchiglione.  It was so good!  Do yourself a favor:  next summer go to the farmer’s market and buy a bunch of tomatoes (or grow your own!) and make this sauce!

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October 12, 2011 · 6:02 PM

Summer Tomato Sauce

I have been patiently hoarding my San Marzano tomatoes until I harvested enough to make this homemade tomato sauce.  It’s a very tasty sauce that is perfect for tossing with pasta or making Baked Conchiglione with Spinach-Ricotta Filling.

Start with perfectly-ripe plum tomatoes and cook them down until they are thick and saucy.  I got to use my food mill to purée the tomatoes and remove the seeds and skins.  If you don’t have a food mill you can press the tomatoes through a sieve to accomplish the same thing.

Next, aromatic vegetables are sautéed slowly in olive oil until sweet and tender.  Add the tomato purée and seasoning and simmer for a few more minutes to blend the flavors.

Toss with a pound of cooked pasta and a half cup grated Parmesan cheese.

I froze my sauce to make the stuffed pasta shells in a couple of months when the garden tomatoes are long gone.  Of course I had a little taste before putting it in the freezer, and the sauce was wonderfully sweet and tomato-y!

This recipe comes from Pasta Harvest by Janet Fletcher.

Summer Tomato Sauce

(click here to print)

  • 2 pounds ripe plum tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 cup minced carrot
  • 1/3 cup minced celery
  • 1/3 cup minced yellow onion
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
  • 1 tablespoon minced parsley
  • Salt
  • Pinch hot red pepper flakes, optional
  • Pinch sugar, optional

Quarter the tomatoes and place them in a medium-sized heavy saucepan.  Cover and simmer over moderate heat until the tomatoes have collapsed and rendered their juices, about 15 minutes.  Stir once or twice to make sure they aren’t sticking to the pan.  Uncover and cook over a slow simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have been reduced to a thick, sauce-like consistency, about 45 minutes.  Pass the tomatoes through a food mill or sieve placed over a bowl to remove the skins and seeds.

Heat the olive oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-low heat.  Add the carrot, celery, onion, garlic, oregano, and parsley.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and sweet.  This will take about 30 minutes.  Add the tomato purée and stir to blend.  Season with salt.  Add the red pepper flakes, if desired.  Taste for sweetness and add a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes seem too tart.  Cover and simmer over low heat for 10  minutes to blend the flavors.  Taste and adjust the seasonings if needed.

Makes about 2 cups sauce.

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August 5, 2011 · 4:03 PM

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is a delicious, versatile treat called Slow-Roasted Tomatoes. I made a double-batch because I wanted to try them a couple of different ways.

Cherry or grape tomatoes are cut in half and arranged on a baking sheet with optional garlic and herbs. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with a little olive oil. The tomatoes bake at a low heat for three hours. They come out a little shriveled and dry on the outside, but juicy and flavorful on the inside. The tomato flavor is intensified.

Ready for the Oven

The night I made these I served them as a garnish alongside grilled chicken and sautéed corn. The whole family enjoyed them this way!

Served with Grilled Chicken and Corn

The rest of the tomatoes were packed in a jar and covered in olive oil. These will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks.

This looks just like a jar of tomatoes I almost bought at Dean and Deluca in St. Helena, CA but I didn’t because they were so expensive. Now I can make them myself!

In the jar and covered with olive oil

The next night I tossed the remaining tomatoes with hot pasta and fresh basil (I drained off and saved most of the olive oil). Each serving was topped with a bit of grated Parmesan cheese. This was delicious! It would be a good way to enjoy a fresh-tasting tomato pasta dish in the middle of winter, and it was so easy to make.

Tossed with Pasta and Basil

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes were a big hit with my family and I can see myself making these often!

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July 26, 2011 · 9:37 PM

Garden Journal: Tomato Varieties Galore!

When I was out in the garden the other day I was struck not only by how pretty the tomatoes are, but also by the differences in how each variety is formed.  I thought it would be fun to share them all with you!

This Big Beef is almost ready to harvest!

Champion VFNT:

Yellow Pear tomatoes.  I love the way these ones look.

Japanese Black Trifele.  These heirloom tomatoes will be deep blackish purple when they are ripe.

Basket Pac.  These look like they will be cherry tomatoes.

Brandywine, another heirloom variety:

Cherokee Purple (also an heirloom variety).  The description says “dusty pink outside, purple-green inside”.  But the picture  of the outside looks pretty purple to me.

Early Girl Hybrid:

Supersweet 100.  This plant is covered in very prolific branches of cherry-sized tomatoes!

Mr. Stripey.  Another heirloom, this one will be red and yellow striped when ripe.

Some sort of larger cherry-type tomato:

San Marzano.  This is my first time growing these and I am excited to try them!

Sun Gold Hybrid.  I grew these orange cherry tomatoes last year and they are so good!  The one furthest to the right was harvested and eaten minutes after this photo was taken.

A tasty treat!

A few young sun golds just starting to grow:

This post is part of Garden Tuesday hosted by Sidewalk Shoes.

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May 4, 2011 · 9:33 PM

Tag, I’m It!

There’s been a game of tag going on around the blogosphere and last week Elaine, from California Living, tagged me.  It started out as an Easter game:  if you got tagged, you were to put together a virtual Easter menu based on dishes you have previously posted on your blog.  Since Elaine got tagged so close to Easter, she changed the rules so that you can create a meal for any upcoming celebration of your choosing.  After browsing my previous posts and recipes, I decided to create a Father’s Day dinner (I know Father’s Day is a ways off, but really it will be here before we know it!).

To start things off on this virtual meal, here is a lovely Caprese Salad:

Caprese Salad

For the main course, let’s have BBQ Meatballs.  Instead of the potatoes shown below, I would do mashed potatoes, either Yukon Golds or sweet potatoes.

BBQ Meatballs

Finally, to finish off the meal, how about Macaroon Cake:

Macaroon Cake

Since most of the people I would tag in this virtual game have already been tagged, I will not pass this one on.  I hope you enjoyed catching up on some of my older recipes!

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November 11, 2010 · 11:35 AM

Caprese salad.

Caprese Salad

Last month my husband and I spent a weekend on Orcas Island to celebrate our anniversary.  While there, we had a wonderful meal at the New Leaf Cafe.  A highlight of our meal was an heirloom tomato caprese salad, which was a special that night.

When we returned from our trip, my husband requested that I make a caprese salad using our garden tomatoes.  They were at their peak of ripeness, and perfect for this dish.  Rather than follow a recipe, I decided to just wing it.  I supplemented our garden tomatoes with a purchased yellow heirloom tomato (I tasted one first, to make sure it was worthy of sharing a plate with our garden tomatoes).  We ate this as a main dish salad, served with bread to sop up the leftover juices.

Note: This recipe requires the best ingredients you can find.  Use peak-of-season tomatoes, from your garden or farmer’s market.  This is also the time to use your best olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Sea salt really brings out the flavor of the tomatoes.

This recipe does not contain precise amounts – use it as a guideline to make your salad.

Karen’s Caprese Salad

(printable recipe)

  • A variety of peak-of-season tomatoes, sliced
  • Fresh mozzarella, sliced
  • Fresh basil leaves, sliced into julienne strips
  • Olive oil
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Sea salt
  • Pepper

Arrange the tomato and fresh mozzarella slices attractively on salad plates.  Sprinkle with the julienned basil leaves.  Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Add sea salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!

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