Overwhelmed with Tomatoes!

[Constance]

You know how it is...you look forward to fresh tomatoes all winter...you wait and wait, anxiously anticipating that first sweet red tomato...then suddenly, you're covered up with them!
I don't need to put any up, as I still have plenty in the freezer from last year.

I'm going to make another batch of salsa this evening, but does anyone have any other ideas as how to use them up?

 

[sparrowgrass]

I don't know if I saw it on this site or another one--make roasted tomato sauce.

Cut your tomatoes in half, and lay them out on a well oiled sheet pan. Put some garlic cloves on there, too, and maybe chop an onion and a couple stalks of celery. Roast at 400 for an hour.

Scrape everything into the food process, and blend til smooth.

This uses up lots of tomatoes--as long as you have the oven on, make 2 sheet pans full, and either freeze or can the leftovers.

Bet it would make good pizza sauce, too.

 

[pdswife]

Iman Baildi
( ok..this only uses 1 cup...but it's good!)

3 lb Japanese eggplant ( you can use the big ones but the small taste so much better)

1 lb sweet onions sliced

3/4 cups olive oil ( I never use this much)

chopped parsley ( to taste)

1.5 cups tomatoes

2-3 cloves garlic ( more or less depending on your like of garlic)

1/4 tsp pepper

Wash and cut the stems off of the eggplant.
Make 2 slits down the leangth of each ( don't cut all the way through)
Let stand in salt water for 30 minutes, remove and squeeze out water.

Fry onions in oil until soft add garlic cook until that is soft but not brown and then add the rest of the seasonings and the chopped tomatoes.. Heat through.

Stuff the eggplants with this mixture and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Yummy!

 

[jennyema]

I gave a ton away to my family. Then to my neighbors.

Then I did exactly what Sparrowgrass suggested -- made roasted tomato sauce. I tossed my tomatoes --quartered, seeded big ones and whole cherries -- in olive oil and salt before I roasted them at 450 for abour 1/2 hour, then removed skins and cooked down some more with 1/2 cup red wine that was about to go bad, garlic and some more olive oil.

The sauce was so delicious!

And yes, sparrow, it made excellent pizza sauce!

I wish I had a gallon of it.

 

[pdswife]

We have ONE that is just starting to turn red. Things happen so much slower in WA. lol. Soon I'll be trying this too. It sounds great.

 

[ronjohn55]

We've been making "Not sun dried" tomatos on our dehydrator. We cut them in half, sprinkle with salt and dehydrate. They taste so much better than the sun dried tomatos we can get in the store around here.

We set it to about 125F and let 'em go, takes about 2 days for them to properly dry out.

Then we'll use them in pasta dishes (or anything else that they might sound good in) for the rest of the fall/early winter.

John

 

[jennyema]

We've been making "Not sun dried" tomatos on our dehydrator. We cut them in half, sprinkle with salt and dehydrate. They taste so much better than the sun dried tomatos we can get in the store around here.

We set it to about 125F and let 'em go, takes about 2 days for them to properly dry out.

Then we'll use them in pasta dishes (or anything else that they might sound good in) for the rest of the fall/early winter.

John

Do you use a special dehydrator or the oven?

My oven won't go as low as 125 ...

 

[pdswife]

I have a dehydrator but always do my in the oven... ( add lots of spices too) I'll have to try the dehydrator I bet it works better.

 

[goodgiver]

Overwhelmed with tomatoes

You sound like me and ALL my cucumbers. I will tell you just what my fellow foodies told me when I asked for suggestions on what to do with all my cukes. They all told me to give them to soup kitchens, or chartiable orginaztions etc.

 

[lulu]

If I had any spare tomatoes I would definitely be making some of that amzingly flavours clear tomato soup. I dream of that stuff, and yet only made it once....I adore it though. I was living off gazpacho earlier in the summer, its so easy to keep a jug of it in the fridge for lunches or a healthy snack. My youngest niece fell in love with it this year, so that was a bonus too! My favourite way to eat them though is quickly stewed with butter, pinch sugar and salt and pepper on toast for breakfast. Simplicity with beautiful fresh ingrediants always wins!

 

[CookSource]

I dont know the size of them but its always nice to make a tomato salid, where you carve out the insides and make a nice like apple stuff salid .. so good ..

 

[lulu]

Oh yes, stuffed tomatoes...I do them with the tomato flesh, breadcrumbs, cheddar and sometimes a little tomato sauce reduced down to make it strong, and lots of parsley. There are moans if they don't appear as an extra when we have any form of roast.

 

[ronjohn55]

Do you use a special dehydrator or the oven?

My oven won't go as low as 125 ...

We have one of those American Harvest Dehydrators. Works like a champ for things like this. This it it - http://www.nesco.com/products/?category=300&subcat=100&id=36

I'm hoping to end up with more dried tomatos than I know what to do with.

John

 

[ChefJune]

I don't know if I saw it on this site or another one--make roasted tomato sauce.

Cut your tomatoes in half, and lay them out on a well oiled sheet pan. Put some garlic cloves on there, too, and maybe chop an onion and a couple stalks of celery. Roast at 400 for an hour.

Scrape everything into the food process, and blend til smooth.

This uses up lots of tomatoes--as long as you have the oven on, make 2 sheet pans full, and either freeze or can the leftovers.

Bet it would make good pizza sauce, too.

This recipe sounds delicious, but it seems to me if you roast vegetables at 400 Degrees for an HOUR you will end up with cinders. Are you sure you want the oven to be that hot?

 

[mish]

Connie, here's an article I enjoyed reading with lots of tips for Freezer-Tomato Sauce:

http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2005/0907/life/stories/03life.htm

I think you can make your own sun-dried tomatoes, as well. (I may have the recipe, if you're interested.)

 

[sparrowgrass]

This recipe sounds delicious, but it seems to me if you roast vegetables at 400 Degrees for an HOUR you will end up with cinders. Are you sure you want the oven to be that hot?

Yep, I tried it. I did check it frequently, and some of the veggies were getting brown (not black) which adds to the flavor.

I cut the tomatoes in half, and they were medium sized.

If you are worried, set your time for half an hour, and go from there.

 

[jennyema]

This recipe sounds delicious, but it seems to me if you roast vegetables at 400 Degrees for an HOUR you will end up with cinders. Are you sure you want the oven to be that hot?

I do mine at 450! Just call me Barbara Kafka.

Usually takes about 1/2 hour or so depending on how many I am roasting. You get really wonderful carmelization.

 

[Constance]

Mish, that was a great article...thanks for the info. I thought it was a given that I had to peel the tomatoes unless I ran them through a food mill. Chris had some good ideas about that.
Thing about roasting tomatoes is that my Romas are just now starting to come on, and those are the ones I like to roast. What I have now are mostly round slicers...they are much juicier and have more seeds than the Romas. Still, I suppose I could give it a try. If I roasted them in halves, and picked the skin off after roasting, I could use them in soups in stews.
I still have a lot of sauce left in the freezer from last year. I was used to cooking for a teenage boy, and now that it's just Kim and me, we don't go through nearly as much food.
Tonight I'm going to make a fresh batch of salsa, and then tomorrow, I'll tie into roasting, while Kim is gone to a car show.
I still haven't tried stuffed tomatoes, though I have several recipes. That's on my list of things to do.

Goodgiver, my son-in-law also has an overabundance of cucumbers, and he didn't even plant any. He's working my ex FIL's garden, and they all came up volunteer. He's made pickles and given a bunch away.

By the way, my peppers are just starting to come on. I only planted 6 plants, but then I only planted 8 tomato plants. It might be interesting to roast some of them in with the tomatoes.

 

[thecactuswill]

I heard something about freezing tomatoes that decreases the quality or something like that.

My grandpa owns a farm and raises tomatoes. He cans them which also decreases the quality, but it can be done right.

He cans them in glass jars and stores them in the cellar with no light. Its like having your very own storage facility of organic tomatoes at your disposal.

 

[kadesma]

Connie,
how about a tomatoe and cheese, herb tart for some of the slicing tomatoes? I'm making one for tomorrow I think and will use Gruyere and Parmesan, basil and thyme and maybe a little rosemary. If this will help let me know and I'll send you the recipe.

kadesma