“Plant ’em in the spring, eat ’em in the summer; all winter without ’em’s a culinary bummer!”
–The late, great John Denver, from his song, “Homegrown Tomatoes.”–
John Denver was right. All winter without homegrown tomatoes is, in fact, a culinary bummer.
Show of hands: How many of you have gone to the store in, say, February, and been taken in by those ripe, brightly-hued, yummy-looking tomatoes–and especially those particularly heinous “tomatoes-on-the-vine?–paid a small fortune for them, and been treated to hard, tasteless, slightly sour hockey pucks? Everyone?
That’s about what I thought.
One of my and Mr. Stone Soup’s favorite meals is “Keri’s Killer Red Pasta.” I make it when a bounty of fresh, plump and fragrant tomatoes are overflowing at the markets; I make this when I unexpectedly receive a load of still sun-warmed tomatoes from a friend’s garden, or can get them fresh off the farm from the farmer’s market. This dish is a symphony of tastes and textures: Savory, salty pancetta juxtaposed against the sweet tomatoes, a little heat from red pepper flakes, and the silky texture of the tomato sauce against the chewy pasta tubes. When tomatoes are at their peak, we eat this dish like wolves. And all winter without it is definitely a culinary bummer.
So how can we preserve that peak of ripe goodness so it can be enjoyed during the long winter months?
This week, I’m going to share three ways I have found to preserve tomatoes when they’re at their best, and enjoy during the “culinary bummer” months.
First up, is oven-roasting and then freezing tomatoes. Oven-roasting tomatoes concentrates and deepens the luscious sweet tanginess of the fresh tomatoes and it’s definitely the best way to preserve tomatoes for use in Keri’s Killer Red Pasta Sauce for use in the “culinary bummer” months. Oven-roasted tomatoes are also great eaten warm out of the oven on a slice of fresh sourdough bread, drizzled with a little very good olive oil. They freeze beautifully and also re-heat beautifully.
So let’s get cooking!
Next up later this week, I’ll be sharing my day of canning tomatoes with my friend, Em. It was a super-fun day and I hope you enjoy reading about it as much I enjoyed learning how to do it! So stay tuned!
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
