We are having an incredible tomato season in Southern California this year, and I’ve heard the same is true in of other parts of the country. So what are you doing with this beautiful bounty?
Please share your favorite tomato dishes and preparations, preservation techniques, or simply photos of the most interesting new or classic tomatoes you may have grown, or discovered at a market stand or farmers ’ market.
We are having an incredible tomato season in Southern California this year, and I’ve heard the same is true in of other parts of the country. So what are you doing with this beautiful bounty?
Please share your favorite tomato dishes and preparations, preservation techniques, or simply photos of the most interesting new or classic tomatoes you may have grown, or discovered at a market stand or farmers ’ market.
I’m very interested to hear what others are doing with their tomato crop. Here in PNW, I have a glut of them all of a sudden. I have a bit of an issue because one of my kids really doesn’t enjoy tomatoes cooked in any fashion. I can occasionally get away with something like a bolognese or a vodka sauce because the tomato is either obscured by other ingredients, or a background player. But I am running out of ideas.
Old tried and trues are panzanella, which we consume a ton of every summer, BLTs, tomato/basil/balsamic salad, gazpacho, incorporated into Greek or tomato/cuke salads, tomato/nectarine/onion or tomato/watermelon/onion salads. We have a recipe we like for a raw green tomato pasta sauce, when they aren’t ripening anymore.
Cut them and take the seeds and pulp out. Then get a box grater and grate them into a bowl. Add a tiny bit of pureed garlic. Salt to taste ,olive oil , mix and spread over grilled bread.
I totally didn’t see this discussion! One of the best way to prep it is nothing! I just got a bunch of cherry tomatoes from one of the market vendors and eat them like natural candies that they are. Except that my kids usually wipe them out before I can get my hands on them. Though they are towards the end of the harvest now as most of them are so ripe that they can’t even make it home without bursting.
One of my favorite pasta with tomato sauce- linguine with tomatoes, shallot, chili and some seafood plus basil and parsley. Nothing fancy, but satisfies every time.
Cannellini bean soup with tomatoes and bacon.
I am always a fan of Mom’s pork chop with tomato sauce and onion over rice. Simple soy sauce western fare.
Probably way behind the rest of the world, but I’ve recently come across Panzanella. What a tomatoey winner! If your bread’s not stale it can be torn up and dried in a 210F/100C oven for about half an hour (or a few minutes in a microwave, which means that I can make a basic version at my office…hurrah!)
I have so many damn cherry tomatoes no one wants to eat them anymore. I don’t think we will ever eat another sungold again. 
I’ve been adding chopped tomatoes to soups, for example, tortellini el brodo. Also I made a tomatoe soup with beef broth, after putting the tomatoes through a food mill. That was very popular as after-school snack with grilled cheese.
I am going to try tomato paste next.
One of my problems with all these tomatoes is that I seem to have only planted sweet varieties, and we prefer tart tomatoes.
This sounds interesting. I’m cutting my plants down soon, and I’m wondering what to do with the green tomatoes.
Salsa (also great canned in a BWB)! Grilled tomato, cheese & onion sandwiches. Ruhlman’s weeknight spaghetti. Pim’s 15 minute sauce. Tomato paste. Diced and stirred into scrambled eggs. You can cut them in half around the circumference, grate and put into a sauce pan with sauteed shallot; cook the tomato until almost dry and then combine with softened butter. Great on top of fish, noodles, etc. Also freezes well.
I am so jealous of anyone with excessive tomatoes…! Last summer my sister had insane cherry tomatoes, we roasted pans and pans of them with just olive oil and salt/pepper and then froze that which was used for pasta sauce and stews over the winter.
Sometimes after roasting the skins can be tough so you could either run them through a food mill or just blitz together in a blender.
The famous Hazan tomato sauce freezes well
I make Marcella’s tomato sauce in winter with canned tomatoes, but it’s too rich for me in summer.
Roasting, then freezing, is a great idea. Thank you.
P.S. We had an exceptional tomatoe season this year. Everyone I knew that planted tomatoes was overwhelmed. Maybe because it finally rained after seven years.
I’ve made the Hazan sauce. I don’t understand why it’s so well loved. Very meh to me.
Agree 100%. I made it several times, trying to see what all the fuss was about. Then I went back to making Scarpetta’s tomato and basil sauce, which is actually good, as opposed to just okay.
Had 3 parties in 10 days, so, am not taking any photographs of food cooked these last few days but had oysters again last night, cooked on grill with bacon and aged cheese ( brought home from Amsterdam) and grilled Zucchini served with Pinoy spiced coconut vinegar and left over pastries.
If interested, my son edited the video taken by a drone on labor’s day , to under 4 minutes. ( The video was edited to 40 minutes as it was on for hours) The video somehow only centered on the South end of the property, with short glance of part of the north end which is on a peninsula, I am in the video with walking in a long dress with my shadow baby Luna pom following me as she always does. A guest is holding my other pom, Wolfie as she is waiting for my breeder for her own poms which are still too young to leave their mother.
Being overwhelmed with cherry tomatoes is my kind of “problem.” When we’re lucky enough to have too many, I like making slow-roasted tomatoes like these from Smitten Kitchen.
You might call these tomatoes oven-dried, but they aren’t dry and leathery like ones you might buy (though they don’t keep indefinitely like the commercial type either). We had rosemary in our old herb garden and I loved adding that to the mix.
I’m actually not a huge fan of raw tomatoes but I love them cooked, so I often make roasted versions of recipes that are typically prepared with raw tomatoes. Caprese with roasted cherry tomatoes, for instance, or panzanella with roasted Roma tomatoes. Those slow roasted tomatoes that Denise posted are excellent. I also like to quickly pan-roast cherry tomatoes, deglaze the pan with some wine, add a handful of whatever herbs I have around and use them as a condiment or schmear of sorts for grilled steak or lamb chops.
Caprese with roasted cherry tomatoes
Ooooh, @biondanonima your idea reminds me of a caprese-inspired salad we had while traveling this summer: lightly roasted cherry tomatoes alongside a mound of arugula and a ball of burrata cheese. Lightly roasting the tomatoes was a delicious twist.
It’s from a Farmers Market cookbook. Green tomatoes into the food processor with garlic, chili flakes, salt, pepper and olive oil. Then toss with spaghetti. Can add parm or not. Very tasty. The green tomatoes are more sour and more firm than a ripe tomato.
Also, my little has been asking for fried green tomatoes lately, which I’ll likely do once mine are no longer ripening on the bush. I have had no luck ripening end of season greens on my counter. They just turn black.
