Tag: Tomatoes

Saving Summer: 3 Ways to Preserve Tomatoes

It’s tomato season here in Minnesota, as well as across much of the nation. We plant about 20 tomato plants of different varieties in our front and back gardens each year, and we eagerly anticipate the first harvest each summer. It feels like it takes ages for the first tomato to ripen, and we impatiently…


Spicy Green Tomato Pickles

This refrigerator pickle doesn’t require any canning. Though the pickled tomatoes are technically edible immediately, the flavors meld over time, so I recommend trying your best to wait 2 weeks before devouring. They will continue to get spicier and tastier as they pickle. (Stephanie Thurow) Makes 2 pints 2 pounds green tomatoes, cut into bite-sized…


Slow-Roasted Tomatoes With Herbs in Oil

Slow-roasting tomatoes brings out a unique depth of flavor. Use meatier tomato varieties, such as Roma, Brandywine, Black Krim, or even cherry tomatoes. After roasting, these tomatoes must be stored in the refrigerator; packing them in oil will keep them from drying out too much. Roasting tomatoes low and slow draws out their natural sweetness…


Water Bath Canned Tomato Juice

Serve this juice over ice for a refreshing beverage, or use it as the base for Bloody Marys, soups, simmer sauces, or even chili. For safe canning, you must acidify each canned jar with the proper amount of either bottled lemon juice or citric acid. If you’re not familiar with water bath canning, you can…


Don’t Let Summer Pass Without Making Stewed Tomatoes

In the summer when the markets are overflowing with fresh tomatoes, I pick the plumpest beefsteak varieties. I slice and stack them in a BLT, layer them with fresh mozzarella to compose a classic caprese salad, or blend them into a fresh salsa for snacking. I also always reserve a few for stewed tomatoes —…


Savory Sage Chicken with Zucchini and Tomato Rice

By Linda Gassenheimer From Tribune News Service Chicken dusted with a sage coating is flavored with a vermouth sauce for this quick dinner. The vermouth adds flavor without fuss. Helpful Hints: — You can substitute white wine for vermouth. — Make sure your bottle of dried herb is less than 6 months old. Countdown: —…


Pasta With Tomato Confit and Ricotta

Confit is a French technique used to preserve food by slowly cooking it in fat. While this method works particularly well for poultry, it isn’t just for (most famously) duck—you can also preserve vegetables like eggplants, carrots, beans, and my favorite, tomatoes. I love tomato confit on just about everything—topped on pizza, piled high on…


Spotlight on Puttanesca

Pasta puttanesca is a southern Italian dish that hails from Naples in the Campania region. Puttanesca refers to the potent tomato sauce that brims with black olives, red chiles, capers, and anchovies. It’s safe to say that this dish is no shrinking violet, as its name might suggest, and indeed this sauce is salty, briny,…


The Secret to the Best Winter Tomato Sauce

The middle of winter can be a tough time for tomato lovers. We’re about as far away from the end of the previous season as we are from the beginning of the summer harvest, and no member of the produce kingdom suffers such a noticeable lack of flavor when it’s imported, out of season, from…


All Aboard the Tomato Gravy Train

What better way to say goodbye to summer than with a tomato? They’re still around where I live, but barely. Unless they become the victim of an early frost, the red orbs of August should hang on well into October. And I’ll be clinging to those sweet and savory fruits as though they were summer…