Tomato Emergency

Everybody is drowning in a tsunami of tomatoes right now and asking me what to do to get out from under all that luscious fruit.

Well, here are a few ideas. The Provencal fresh tomato soup is a recipe I got from a housewife 45 years ago and it's still everybody's favorite. The senior citizens group I worked with to process their garden bounty loved it.  Also Ottolenghi's cherry tomato soup is a preview from his yet as unreleased cookbook.  So to the tomato!

Marcella Hazan’s basic Italian tomato sauce

2 cups tomatoes, with their juices (this is just under 2 lbs)
5 tbsp butter
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt

Combine the tomatoes, their juices, the butter and the onion halves in a saucepan. Add a pinch or two of salt. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, for about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally, mashing any large pieces of tomato with a spoon. Add salt as needed. Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with pasta. This recipe makes enough sauce for a pound of pasta.

Yotam Ottolenghi’s cherry tomato spaghetti sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced very thinly
2 ½ lbs cherry tomatoes, cut in half
½ tsp sugar (or a bit more or less, depending on the tomatoes’ sweetness)
optionally:2 dried ancho chillies, roughly torn
Salt
6 lg basil leaves, torn, plus 2 extra, finely chopped just before serving, to garnish

Put the oil in a large sauté pan on a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the garlic and fry for up to a minute, stirring a few times, until it’s just starting to caramelize. Add the tomatoes (be gentle, or the oil may spit), sugar, chilies and half a teaspoon of salt. Add 1 cup water and stir through for four minutes, until the tomatoes are starting to break down and the liquid is bubbling. Turn down the heat to medium-low and cook for an hour, stirring every once in a while, until the tomatoes have completely broken down and the sauce has thickened. Stir through the torn basil and keep
somewhere warm.

Nepali Tomato Achar (Sauce, Dip, Chutney)
1 lb. approx. ripe tomatoes, cored
3 dried arbol chilies or 1 fresh Serrano or Thai chili
2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1/2” piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced OR ¼ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp freshly chopped cilantro leaves
¼ tsp salt

Roast tomatoes at 375º for 15-18 minutes until they are ready to burst.  Cool, and remove skin if the tomatoes are large. Meanwhile, quickly sear the dried chilies in a small nonstick frying pan or skillet—heat the pan, put them in and cook one minute over high heat, shaking the pan.This adds roasted flavor to the achar. In a blender or food processor, combine all ingredients and puree into a thick, dipping sauce. Serve with scrambled eggs, dumplings, corncakes, grits, grilled vegetables, just about everything. It beats ketchup.

Another Shakshuka recipe

½ tsp cumin seeds
7/8 c olive or vegetable oil
2 lge onions, peeled and sliced
2 red and 2 yellow peppers, cored and cut into thin strips
4 tsp muscovado/turbinado sugar
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs thyme, picked and chopped
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
6 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
½ tsp saffron strands
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
Up to 1 c water
8 free-range eggs

In a large saucepan, dry-roast the cumin on high heat for two minutes. Add the oil and sauté the onions for two minutes. Add the peppers, sugar, bay leaves, thyme, parsley and two tbsp cilantro, and cook on high heat to get a nice color. Add tomatoes, saffron, cayenne, salt and pepper. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes, adding enough water to keep it the consistency of a pasta sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning. It should be potent and flavorful. You can prepare this part in advance.

Place four saucepans on medium heat and divide the mixture between them. Break two eggs into each pan, pouring into gaps in the mixture. Sprinkle with salt, cover and cook very gently for 10-12 minutes, until the egg just sets. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with pita.

Tomato Pie

Serves 6-8

For the pie dough:

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 6-8 pieces

1¼ cup unbleached flour

pinch of salt

1/8 tsp vinegar

1 egg

Heat oven to 350º. Butter an 8-9” pie plate.

Combine butter, flour and salt in a food processor or mixer just until the butter breaks up and the contents look like coarse meal.  Add the vinegar and egg and process only until the dough comes together.

Use your hands to quickly congeal the dough into fat pancake. Don’t let it get warm. Now you can either press the dough into the buttered pie plate or you can roll it out on waxed or parchment paper and flip it in. Cover the crust with waxed or parchment paper and put something ovenproof and weighty (pie weights, of course, if you have them) into the pie.  Bake the crust for 15 minutes so it starts to crisp.  Remove from the oven.

For the pie filling:

6 sprigs flat leaf parsley, leaves only

1 tsp pine nuts

2 tbsp breadcrumbs

¼ tsp cracked or ground black pepper

pinch of red pepper flakes

pinch of salt

1 tbsp dried thyme leaves (heaping)

1 medium onion, red or white, diced

1 tsp dried oregano leaves

3 large tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks

1 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese

½-2/3 cup grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese

¾ cup mayonnaise

1 tsp olive oil

In a small food processor, combine the parsley, pine nuts, breadcrumbs and spices. Process to make something close to a loose paste.

Cover the bottom of the crusted pie plate with the onions. Sprinkle them with oregano.  Cover the onions with the half the tomatoes, distributing them evenly.

Spread the parsley paste across the top and cover with the remaining tomatoes.

Combine the cheeses and mayonnaise in a small bowl. Spread this across the top of the pie.  Drizzle olive oil on the cheese.

Bake at 350º about 35-45 minutes until the cheese is browned, the tomatoes are bubbling and the crust is crisp.  Serve warm.

Gazpacho (Cold Spanish Tomato Soup)

serves 4-6

1½ lbs tomatoes                       2 medium cucumbers

1 green pepper, seeded           ¼ cup wine vinegar

1 medium onion, peeled          ¼ tsp dried tarragon leaves

1 cup tomato juice                   2 garlic cloves, peeled

Pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender or processor and process until nearly smooth with a few small chunks remaining for texture. Chill. Serve in bowls or glasses, garnished with bite-sized garlic croutons or chopped scallion and/or chopped cilantro.

Mexican Pico de Gallo, aka fresh salsa

Makes about 2½ cups

1 ¼ lb fresh tomatoes cored and chopped to fit into the food processor

1 sm red onion, coarsely chopped

1 serrano pepper, seeded and halved

juice of a lime

salt to your taste

¼ c cilantro leaves

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and carefully chop so you still detect pieces of tomato. Do not purée.

Roasted Tomato Salsa

1½ lb fresh tomatoes or cherry tomatoes

1 onion, peeled and quartered

1 Serrano pepper, seeded

1 clove garlic

juice of a lime

salt to your taste

1/4c chopped cilantro leaves

Put the tomatoes, onion, pepper and garlic on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and roast them at 425º until soft and starting to brown.

Put roasted vegetables in a blender/processor with the remaining ingredients and whiz into a thick dip.

And finally, here is a very old fashioned recipe from an old canning book I keep around.