I was gone on vacation for a week and when I came home I was very excited to go see my garden hoping that it would be full of vegetables to harvest. I sort of got my wish, most of my zucchini and cucumbers plants were rotten, so they had to be pulled. I did get one massive green zucchini fro the one plant that still looks alive. There was a pound and a half of beans to be picked and all my tomatoes were fall over. The cages and everything had been pulled over by the weight of to many tomatoes and some heavy rain. I started cutting the plants back and trying to salvage as many tomatoes as I could and ended up getting a nice harvest of tomatoes. Many of the pear and cherry tomatoes were to small and green so I was just going to throw them out but then reconsidered and decided to pickle all of them. I will let you know if they turn out in about a month.
I had plenty of ripe red tomatoes and was planning on making sauce so I went to the store and bought a tomato pulper. Easily the best 50 bucks I have ever spent. It turned a 2 hour job into a 30 minute job and was easy enough that my daughter was able to help. It got a little messy but was worth every penny. We juiced and pulped all the tomatoes and had about two gallons worth.
After several hours of simmering the tomato sauce I ended up with almost 10 pints of sauce. This is the most basic sauce it is just tomato sauce and then to each jar a put a couple of basil leaves in the bottom and sealed them. I absolutely love using this sauce in the fall and winter months is tastes ten times better than anything I have ever bought at the store.
I had all these yellow pear tomatoes which have been my favorites so far. I have been making some pretty awesome tomato salads with them but thought I would make a nice tomato bisque with this batch. The recipe is a version of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstahls and really couldn't be any easier.
You can use any type of tomato for this recipe as long as you have about two pounds. Put the tomatoes in a baking dish with a splash of olive oil, some garlic cloves and some oregano. Then roast the tomatoes in a 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes. When they are done roasting run them through a juicer or chinois and reserve the pulp and juice. Add to this 2 cup of light chicken stock of vegetable stock and begin to simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes uncovered and then add 5-6 rice cakes and a 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Put in a blender or use a wand blender to mix in the rice cakes. Right before you serve it add a splash of sherry vinegar a few croutons and enjoy. I drizzled a little olive oil on mine, it was a perfect late summer lunch.
