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When I got home from class on Wednesday night, I wandered into the kitchen and opened the fridge. I stood there for a moment, staring blankly at the contents, half hoping that there wouldn't be anything inside so that I could just pour a bowl of cereal and plop down on the couch. Instead, there was a bowl of aging tomatoes that demanded to be cooked.
I had bought them over the weekend at my local produce market on clearance, six big tomatoes for $.99. So they were already starting to show signs of wilt when I brought them into the apartment, and 4+ days in the fridge hadn't helped measures much. I brought them out onto the counter, along with a large pan, half an onion and a few cloves of garlic. I got the onion and garlic chopped and simmering in a little olive oil over low heat and turned my attention to the tomatoes. I peeled the tomatoes with my serrated edge peeler (one of my top five favorite kitchen utensils of all time) seeded them and gave them a rough chop, making sure to cut out any overly soft spots. When they were all chopped, they went into the pan with the onions and garlic. I turned the heat up a bit to get things bubbling and thought about seasonings. A small palmful of chili flakes went in, along with a few pinches of dried oregano and a couple grinds of black pepper. I found some nearly gone fresh basil in my crisper drawer and tore it roughly to toss in at the end.
By this point, I had a pot of water bubbling away for pasta and was feeling excited about this simple but delicious meal that was shaping up in front of me. When the sauce had cooked down a bit, I tossed in a pat of butter to give it a little bit of smoothness and creaminess and stirred in the torn basil. Tossed with the whole wheat bowties I happened to have around, I took a bite straight from the pan and immediately I thanked the food gods that I hadn't succumbed to the lure of cereal and couch.
Sadly, I totally forgot to take a picture of my creation, so I'm borrowing one from ginandtonic1978. My sauce looked a lot like that.
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9-28-2007 @10:14AM Beth said... Sounds yummy.
One unsolicited bit of advice, though (and a bit of a question)... I've always been told that putting tomatoes in the 'fridge is a big no-no, as it (supposedly) saps some of their flavor. I've taken the truth of this for granted, but haven't tested it out.
If it is true, one alternate way you can preserve tomatoes is to blanche them, remove skins and seeds, chop them roughly, and then freeze them in a ziplock bag, removing as much air as possible.
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9-28-2007 @10:23AM Jen said... I was just about to say the same thing: no tomatoes in the fridge!
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9-28-2007 @10:23AM Nicholas said... That sounds delicious - good stuff!
Beth - good call about skinning and seeding them before freezing. I've always frozen my last tomatoes of the year whole and then do the hard work once I thaw them. It definitely makes the skinning easier, but I think I loose a lot of tomato "meat" in the seeding process. I'm definitely going to follow your advice this year - thanks!
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9-28-2007 @10:49AM pat said... You must have been reading my mind- I have been doing this- well- close to it since July- and haven't actually had a "official" recipe for it- not that I will follow it exactly- depends on what I have. ( btw- what is wrong with the fresh local corn we have here?) while I am writing- want to remind you of the Chatsworth Cranberry Fest in NJ in Oct!!
http://www.cranfest.org/festival.html
thanks!
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9-28-2007 @11:26AM mthrndr said... You forgot one major thing: 1/2 cup red wine.
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9-28-2007 @11:45AM noza said... Regarding the "tomatoes in the fridge" thing -- I have tried it. Same batch of tomatoes, some in the fridge, some on the counter. The tomatoes in the fridge were OK for a few hours, but overnight they lost a LOT of flavor. They did stay firmer longer, though.
Like others have said, if you have too many tomatoes, freeze or can them.
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9-28-2007 @5:22PM Beth said... Thanks for the info, noza.
All of this tomato talk is making me hungry! I hope that there are some left at the farmer's market tomorrow--it is only once a week where I live.
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9-30-2007 @11:49AM MJ said... Glad you did......... this looks fresh and inviting. Now that summers gone, I will miss the tomatoes but not the heat!
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10-01-2007 @1:57PM Bradley @ Sauces and Stuff said... A simple tomato sauces is so easy that I often forget to even make it. Some other tricks to help sweeten the sauce is to add some shredded carrots to the sauces and also a little bit of OJ helps offset the bitterness in some older tomatoes.
http://saucesandstuff.blogspot.com/
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