Over the last few years, I’ve grown out of my delusions of I’m-young-and-can-eat-whatever-I-want and now do boring things like pack salads for lunch and box up half of my pasta when we go out for Italian. Le sigh. But there continues to be one thing that, when placed in front of me, I have absolutely no control or willpower to stop myself from eating.

Chips and salsa.

Whenever I dine at a Mexican restaurant, it’s a sure bet that I’ll eat my weight in free chips and salsa before my meal arrives. I know that I’m gonna feel like I’m dying within a few hours, but I just can’t help it. Too spicy Doesn’t matter, I’ll cry through the pain. Not hungry That’s literally not a thing.

Typically, when I make salsa at home, they are collections of diced vegetables and herbs. But sometimes I just want a nice, runny, completely blended, restaurant-style salsa.

This particular recipe includes a crap-ton of cilantro and a couple of chipotles en adobo. The combination of bright, herb-y flavor from the cilantro and the deep, smoky spice of the chiles creates a unique spin on the classic restaurant salsa.

Perhaps the best part of this salsa is that it’s SO FAST to put together. Once the onion and cilantro are chopped, everything else gets tossed in a food processor and whirled into salsa in just a few seconds flat.

You can eat this salsa immediately, but it’s even better after a couple hours of chilling in the fridge.

This salsa makes a great appetizer, and it’s great to put out at a party. You could also just get a bag of chips and eat chips and salsa for dinner for several nights straight.

Just an idea…

Smoky Adobo Salsa

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays

1 pint diced tomatoes (or a 15 oz can)
8-10 oz diced tomatoes with green chiles (like Rotel)
1 medium onion, diced
2 chipotle peppers en adobo
1/2 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped with stems removed
2 T lime juice
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper

Chop onions and cilantro. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until thoroughly blended. Chill for 1-2 hours and serve with chips. Or on anything you like with salsa, actually.

I eat rather a lot of pasta. When I started writing this post, I had to go back to see what stories I’ve already told you about my lifelong noodle-y obsession, just to make sure I wasn’t repeating something.

I’ve already mentioned that as a kid, I loved spaghetti with butter and parmesan cheese above all other things, and in fact I rarely tolerated the annoying hindrance of spaghetti sauce. It was sloppy, acidic, and mostly just not my thing. I still remember the first time I actually enjoyed a smear of red sauce atop a mound of pasta. Bizarrely, it was on a camping trip. In our open-air kitchen of two camp stoves and a picnic table, Dad carefully cooked a pot of pasta in one pot and in another, he combined a can of basic tomato sauce with a seasoning mix.  I don’t know why I opted to try the sauce that time, but I suddenly realized this red sauce thing wasn’t necessarily so bad after all. To this day, however, I’m still pretty picky about my red sauces and rarely order them at a restaurant as a result.

There are a few brands and varieties I’ve discovered at the grocery over the years that I like rather well, but once I began canning my own basic tomato sauce, I felt it was time to finally find the homemade version I was seeking.

Since there are approximately one gazillion recipes for spaghetti sauce out there, each one claiming to be better than the last, it was a bit intimidating to know where to begin. Some swore by the addition of carrots and peppers, others piled on the sugar, and still others demanded the tomatoes be practically raw to achieve pure spaghetti sauce bliss. Fresh herbs, dried herbs, lots of spice, none at all – there really are so many ways to do this. How was I to know what I liked the most?

So I began experimenting. And after quite a few acceptable batches, I finally found the combination of herbs, seasoning, garlic, and onions that makes my soul sing.

For those of you who are fresh-herb-purists out there, you’ll probably decry my little piles of dried leaves and insist that their flavor is lacking. And perhaps you’re right. But I’ve loved the way this sauce turns out every time, and I like that it’s always something I can throw together without a trip to the grocery for delicate green leaves. If you do want to try fresh herbs, you’ll probably need more than the quantities listed below to achieve the same density of flavor.

And for you fresh-tomato-purists out there: do you know how many months of the year I can buy high-quality, delicious tomatoes in Colorado About four. One third of the year. Great spaghetti sauce does not need to start from fresh tomatoes the night it is served, in my opinion. In fact that would take FOREVER to cook. Since I can my own tomatoes, I am lucky that I know where they came from and what’s in the sauce. I love that I can pull a bottle of that summer sunshine from the pantry and have a deep, vibrant spaghetti sauce ready in half an hour. There’s no way I’m starting from fresh tomatoes, especially at this time of year when the only tomatoes I can buy are, erm, horrible.

So here you have it: a delicious, flavorful spaghetti sauce that you can make year-round, without the need for anything that is out of season. I love this sauce on every pasta I’ve thrown it over – spaghetti, spaghetti with meatballs, manicotti, lasagne… the list goes on. When doubled, it takes a pound of ground beef perfectly for the creation of manicotti and lasagne.

Give it a shot!

Favorite Quick Spaghetti Sauce

1-2 tsp olive oil
1/2 c diced yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint basic tomato sauce
1 T sugar
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
pinch black pepper

Heat olive oil in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent and garlic has just a bit of color. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Cook until sauce has reached desired consistency.

Use an immersion blender, blender, or food processor to puree the sauce until smooth.

Serve over literally any pasta, or use as the sauce in manicotti or lasagne.

Two years ago, I wrote a rather desperate post about my first experience in bulk tomato canning. I scarcely realized the task I had undertaken, did not have pots quite large enough or a food mill worth its weight in feathers, and I had unwittingly committed to waaaaay to many products for a two-day stint. At the time, I wasn’t sure it was worth the effort, and there are least a few moments that tears dripped down my tomato-flecked face.

But over the course of that year, I grew quite fond of the sauces I had made and became rather dependent on them in my cooking. When tomato season rolled around again, I decided to tackle the project a second time with a few changes. I reduced the variety of products, but I also added about 25% more tomatoes since I had run out of many favorites in the weeks previous. However, the project still produced a vast amount of stress. I had to do my canning at a friend’s apartment (I didn’t have the right kind of stove to manage it), which meant packing up all my supplies and commandeering a kitchen that was not my own. More tomato-stained tears were had.

They say third time is the charm, and in this case I agree: I tackled my tomatoes this year with some MAJOR upgrades that turned this somewhat dreaded experience into an exciting one.

I know many of you are completely uninterested in large-scale canning. Even with upgraded equipment and a few years of experience, putting up 120 pounds of tomatoes (!!!) is a massive amount of work. However, if you are interested but have not approached the craft because it seems too daunting, I want to share with you a few of the things I’ve learned that I wish so much I had known the first time around.

Get the Right Tools

I know this sounds like a no-brainer. Canning requires lots of unique tools, many of which are now finally available at average grocery stores. But honestly, I am thoroughly convinced that the biggest key to my success this year centered around two new items: a really, really big cooking pot and an electric tomato strainer.

Let’s talk about the pot for a minute. For the last two years, I’ve cooked my batches of tomatoes in a 6-quart pot, which only left about two inches of space at the top for the pureé to bubble along for over an hour. The result is tomato splatter ALL OVER THE KITCHEN. This year, I invested in a 16-quart stainless steel pot, which seemed absurdly huge. However, even though my raw tomato puree filled only about a third of the pot, the splatter that used to bloody my walls and stove now stays merrily inside.

As for the strainer. Brad gave me mine, a tremendous gift, after he’d asked what one item I would splurge on for myself. He went all out and bought me this one, an Italian model with good reviews and a sturdy motor that should last for years to come. There are a variety of others out there, as well. Normally, I’m not a fan of one-trick ponies in the kitchen, let along ones that only come out once a year.

But let me tell you: after two years of washing, scoring, blanching, cooling, peeling, slicing, seeding, and pureéing one tomato at a time, for over 100 pounds, the strainer was EVERYTHING. Wash tomato, slice in half if large, put into strainer, receive beautiful pureé in one pot and seeds and skins in another. What used to take two-three hours for a batch now takes 30 minutes. If you can bulk tomatoes, I can’t recommend it enough.

Can What You’ll Actually Eat

The first year, I tried all kinds of things: sweet relish, ketchup, three kinds of salsa, pickled okra, and three kinds of tomato sauce. I used the tomato sauce and most of the other cans sat dormant. The second year, I canned whole tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and three kinds of tomato sauce. I used the tomato sauce and most of the other cans sat dormant.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t try new recipes. But if a bulk-canning weekend is what you’re aiming for, I find that the fewer recipes I’m working with on those two days improves my efficiency tremendously. Starting with the easiest first, a rhythm develops that makes the whole day (or weekend) flow smoothly. This year, with just over 120 pounds of tomatoes, I finished in 14 hours, a record one-day can-a-thon for me, making multiple batches of only three kinds of tomato sauce.

Prep Your Kitchen the Night Before

On Friday night, I pick up my bulk order of tomatoes. I do my grocery-shopping to collect the other ingredients. I schlepped out my canner, cooking pots, scrap bowls, jars, lids, cookbooks, towels, and canning tools. I lay out towels for filling jars and for resting them once they’re canned.

Why stretch this process out Canning day is a lot of work, a lot of standing on your feet in a steamy kitchen over boiling pots and boxes of tomatoes. I hate preceding that with a couple hours of cleaning and organizing and much prefer to wake up to a kitchen that’s ready to go.

Be Prepared for HARD Work

Even with the tremendously-time-saving tools I gained this year, my back still screamed with pain by the time I hit the third box of tomatoes. My arms ached from pressing 120 pounds of tomatoes through a hole the size of a half-dollar in the tomato strainer. Slowly, the tomato boxes drained, and my kitchen table filled with glimmering ruby jars. All told, at the end of the night, there is always a little bit of anti-climactic disappointment at the resulting jars. The volume of 50-some jars is so much smaller than the huge boxes I started with.

I was extremely caught off-guard the first year by the work. Now, I know what’s coming, so I’m better able to prepare for it. I had Brad bring me lunch in the middle of the day so I could keep working efficiently, and I stocked up on snacks in advance to avoid while hangry (a dangerous mix under any circumstance.)  I wear good shoes and comfy clothes, and I stretch and break when I need to. By treating it like an event, planning in advance what I’ll need, and giving myself every opportunity to be successful, the resulting work feels much for acceptable.

Finally, Savor Your Efforts

You could absolutely go and buy tomato sauce of varying kinds at the grocery store. It will probably cost you less (unless you’re lucky enough to be growing your own tomatoes in which case I’m quite envious) and will taste just fine.

Canning your own food is not about beating the best price at the grocery store. The cost we pay for cheap groceries comes in other forms: unsustainable growing, often inferior products, additives and preservatives, low wages, incentive to be wasteful, the list goes on and on.

Each jar of tomato sauce on my shelf is special to me. I’m proud of the work I’ve put in to support a local grower. I like knowing exactly what’s in my sauce. I like always having some on hand (except for those scary days in August when I’m running low on last year’s supply.) I am cautious to never waste a drop, probably because I remember the back pain and sweat and effort that went into producing it.

And simply put, it’s delicious. It does take a bit of time to get used to when you’ve grown up on grocery-store sauces. But now that we have, Brad and I can hardly imagine not having these staples in the pantry year-round. One long weekend of work yields almost 8 weeks of meals. Not to shabby, I think.

The Recipes

Below are the three recipes I canned this year. After two earlier years of trying a variety of different recipes, these are the ones I use the most consistently in my kitchen. They’re extremely versatile, and don’t require a huge number of additional ingredients. I can in batches large enough to fill my water bath canner with jars, usually 8-9 pints at a time. If you’re curious, I canned this year four batches of Basic Tomato Sauce (yielding 29 pints), two batches of Marinara Sauce (yielding 17 pints), and one batch of Pizza Sauce (yielding 15 half pints.)

The recipes below do NOT outline basic canning safety procedures. For those, I highly recommend the two cookbooks I adapted my recipes from: The Food in Jars Cookbook, and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. They are tremendous resources. Plus, you’ll likely find other recipes that you love in each and maybe even add them to your canning agenda.

Basic Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Food in Jars

Makes 8-9 pints

20 pounds paste tomatoes (Roma or San Marzano)
2 tsp salt
1 T lemon juice per pint jar

Wash tomatoes. If using a tomato strainer, run tomatoes through strainer to collect all puree in a large pot. If not using a strainer, cut a small “x” in the skin of the non-stem end of the tomato and remove the core of the stem end. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and blanch a few tomatoes at a time for 1-2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Peel off the skins into a scrap bowl, then slice each tomato in half. Use your fingers to remove the seeds into the scrap bowl. Pureé peeled and seeded tomatoes in a food processor or blender and pour in a large pot.

Add salt to the tomato pureé and stir well. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-high and cook for 60-75 minutes without a lid, stirring frequently. The sauce should reduce be almost half.

While the sauce is cooking, prepare your jars and water bath canner.

Once the sauce is nearly done, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each prepared jar. Pour the hot tomato sauce into the jars, leaving 1/2″ of headspace. Wipe the rims and place the flat lids on each jar. Add rings and spin to finger-tight. Process in a boiling water bath for 35 minutes. Note, you will need longer processing time if you live at an altitude higher than 1000 feet. Consult a canning cookbook for recommended additional time.

Remove jars from canner and let sit undisturbed for 12-24 hours. Ensure lids have sealed and store in a cool, dark place.

Marinara Sauce
Adapted from Food in Jars

Makes 8-9 pints

Note: Do not add extra onion or garlic. They are low in acid and could make your final product unsafe for long-term storage.

20 pounds paste tomatoes (Roma or San Marzano)
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup (160 g) finely chopped yellow onion
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp salt
1/4 c finely chopped fresh basil
1/4 c finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 T lemon juice per pint jar

Wash tomatoes. If using a tomato strainer, run tomatoes through strainer to collect all puree in a large bowl or pot (not the pot you’ll use for cooking). If not using a strainer, use the method outlined in the Basic Tomato Sauce recipe to skin, seed, and pureé the tomatoes.

Heat olive oil in your cooking pot over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, and salt and sauté for 5-6 minutes until the onion is translucent. Add tomato pureé, basil, and parsley and stir well. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-high and cook for 70-80 minutes without a lid, stirring frequently. The sauce should reduce be about half.

Once the sauce is nearly done, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice to each prepared jar. Pour the hot tomato sauce into the jars, leaving 1/2″ of headspace. Wipe the rims and place the flat lids on each jar. Add rings and spin to finger-tight. Process in a boiling water bath for 35 minutes. Note, you will need longer processing time if you live at an altitude higher than 1000 feet. Consult a canning cookbook for recommended additional time.

Remove jars from canner and let sit undisturbed for 12-24 hours. Ensure lids have sealed and store in a cool, dark place.

Pizza Sauce
Adapted from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Makes 8-9 pints (I can mine in half-pints, which each make one pizza perfectly)

20 pounds paste tomatoes (Roma or San Marzano)
4 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1 T lemon juice per half-pint jar (or 2 T per pint jar)

Wash tomatoes. If using a tomato strainer, run tomatoes through strainer to collect all puree in a large pot. If not using a strainer, use the method outlined in the Basic Tomato Sauce recipe to skin, seed, and pureé the tomatoes.

Add oregano, pepper, salt, and garlic powder to the tomato pureé and stir well. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-high and cook for 70-80 minutes without a lid, stirring frequently. The sauce should reduce be about half.

While the sauce is cooking, prepare your jars and water bath canner.

Once the sauce is nearly done, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each prepared half-pint jar. Pour the hot tomato sauce into the jars, leaving 1/2″ of headspace. Wipe the rims and place the flat lids on each jar. Add rings and spin to finger-tight. Process in a boiling water bath for 35 minutes. Note, you will need longer processing time if you live at an altitude higher than 1000 feet. Consult a canning cookbook for recommended additional time.

Remove jars from canner and let sit undisturbed for 12-24 hours. Ensure lids have sealed and store in a cool, dark place.

I wish I could say that I’ve been harboring this recipe for years, that I’m embarrassed to be posting it only now after summers and summers of enjoyment. I wish I could say that I’ve been adding it to my menu every week of every tomato season for as long as I can remember. I wish that the glut of tomatoes that I harvested this year, the glut that caused me to try this experiment, had happened years ago.

Well. I can say none of those things. The truth is I’ve never been a big fan of fresh tomatoes, and as such, I’ve spent my life picking them off of salads, sandwiches, and pastas. But I’ve vigilantly planted at least a couple of varieties each of the last few years in an effort to force myself into using them, and this year, the strategy paid off handsomely. It seemed wrong to take such ripe, beautiful fruits at their peak and cook them down into sauce, and the internet seemed to agree that bruschetta is a great way to feature them raw.

Lord. The internet was right. I’ve already whipped it up three more times after we inhaled the inaugural batch, moving this straight to the top of our meals-to-look-forward-to-in-the-summer list.

If you’re a tomato-avoider like I can be sometimes (though it seems I’m becoming less of one every year) I urge you to set aside your skepticism and give this a shot. The acidic flavor of the tomatoes is tempered by the mozzarella, brightened by basil, and deepened by gently-cooked garlic and dark balsamic vinegar.

Once the chopping is done, the rest comes together pretty quickly. Toss everything in a bowl, along with some balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper and leave it to soak while you prepare the second half of this perfect marriage: buttery, toasty bread.

Now the bruschetta is good, very good, eaten straight from the bowl with a spoon. But atop a slice of warm, toasted bread that’s been brushed with butter, it’s just… OH. So sublime. So wonderfully tasty.

And I warn you: do not, under any circumstances, skip the buttering and toasting. We tried it, and a slice of untoasted bread is practically a different ingredient. And it doesn’t take long. You can buy a whole baguette and slice it yourself. Or, I’ve had pretty good luck buying day-old bread that the shop will slice up and bag for me. A brush of butter and a few minutes under the broiler will wipe away any deficiencies of using not-quite-fresh bread.

Bruschetta is typically served as an appetizer, a beautiful presentation that can easily serve 8-10 people as a starter. But I highly recommend it as a main course. Especially with the addition of mozzarella, this makes a perfectly filling meal for two people.

Besides, as of now, it’s all I can do to share with Brad, let alone try to limit myself to an appetizer-sized portion.

Bruschetta Mozzarella
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Serves 2 as a main course, 8-10 as an appetizer

1 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 pint roma tomatoes
12 leaves basil
8 oz fresh mozzarella
1 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
about 1/2 a baguette, sliced in half-inch slices
4 T unsalted butter

Heat olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Mince the garlic and add to the hot oil; sauté for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently, until the garlic is a light golden color. Empty the garlic and oil into a medium mixing bowl.

Dice the tomato and slice the mozzarella into small pieces, about the size of a thick coin. Chiffonade the basil by stacking the leaves, tightly rolling them length-wise, and then slicing the resulting log into thin strips. Add the tomatoes, cheese, and basil to the mixing bowl. Add the balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper and mix thoroughly. Set the bowl aside while you prepare the bread.

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the broiler on high. Slice the baguette and spread the slices on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Melt the butter completely and brush lightly over each piece of bread. Toast the bread under the broiler for 4-5 minutes or until the edges of the bread are golden-brown, but keep a close eye on it so it doesn’t burn. Remove the tray and place the bread on a serving plate.

Serve immediately. You’ll hardly be able to resist.

I have a little garden plot in a rooftop garden at my job in Columbus. It’s a challenging thing, really, to grow food on a cement slab 30 feet above the ground, but for one reason or another, my tomato plants are thriving. In an effort to keep up with the continuous supply of plump, crimson tomatoes I’ve enjoyed for the last few weeks, I’m trying to expand my repertoire of fresh tomato recipes. With the first breaths of autumn already trying to make their way into Ohio, I just can’t quite stand the idea of peeling these tomatoes and cooking them into a slurry of marinara or bolognese. I started with this, a common salsa where fresh tomatoes are the stars of the show.

Along with the tomatoes, an array of other fresh veggies add crunch, zest, and flavor to this simple but flavorful salsa.

After lots of chopping, dicing, and mincing, this salsa is almost ready to serve. Toss all the ingredients together with a bit of salt and lime juice and sample it on a chip!

If you can, give this salsa a couple of hours in the fridge to let the veggies chill and the flavors blend. It’s delightful on tacos, on chips, in eggs… pretty much anywhere you want a fresh and zesty salsa!

Pico de Gallo

Adapted from AllRecipes

1 pint roma tomatoes
1/2 medium-sized red onion (or 1/4 of a large one)
1 jalapeño
2 cloves garlic
1 green onion
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
1 T lime juice
1 tsp salt

Dice the tomatoes and onion. Slice the japapeño in half and discard the seeds and white lining from one half, then finely chop the rest. If you prefer more heat to your salsa, you can keep all the seeds and lining. Finely chop the garlic, green onion, and cilantro. Add all of the chopped and diced vegetables to a mixing bowl and add the lime juice and salt, starting with half of the recommended quantities and adjusting up for taste.

Refrigerate until serving.

I attended a wedding a couple weeks ago for two good friends I’ve developed since moving to North Carolina. A fairly significant portion of our friendship is based on a love of and fascination with food: we’ve explored North Carolina farms together, swapped recipes, and enjoyed a wide variety of Triangle restaurants. So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that their wedding included not one, but two meals, the first an Indian buffet to celebrate Varsha’s culture, and the second an elegant array of quintessential American cuisine to celebrate Eric’s.

I’ve heard people say that no one will remember the food at a wedding, that people have simply come to expect a good meal when they attend a reception. The food at this wedding, however, was anything BUT forgettable. We ate until we couldn’t eat anymore, and then after a few minutes, everyone squeezed in just a little bit more because the food was so. dang. good.

And my favorite treat was not an entreé, not a dessert, but one of the passed hors d’oeuvres for the second meal: a fried green tomato dressed up with a bit of pimento cheese and mint jelly. I was so impressed that after seeing a large pile of green tomatoes at the farmers market the next week, I snatched up a couple to re-create them at home.

Now work with me on this one. I was really, really skeptical when this tray came around. For one thing, I had never eaten a regular fried green tomato before. I don’t particularly like red tomatoes, so I guess I’ve never felt inclined to try a green one. Don’t worry, I now know I’ve been MISSING OUT for years. I guess I’ll just have to compensate for all that lost time by making these all the time.

It turns out making basic fried green tomatoes is incredible easy. Each tomato is sliced in half-inch slices before it is coated thinly with flour, dredged in an egg & milk wash, and coated with crumbs. I used Panko because that’s what I had on hand and I really love the size and structure of the crumbs, but you could use a standard bread crumb as well.

There’s no need for perfection: As long as each side is fairly well-coated, it’s okay if the edges are a little sparse.

As you’re coating the tomatoes, heat up your oil. A deep fryer is not necessary: about 1/4″ of oil in a large frying pan will do the trick. The oil will glisten and be smoking slightly by the time you’re done coating the tomatoes, which means it’s hot enough for frying.

A quick fry on each side, less than a  minute each, and your tomatoes will be ready for topping. I like to remove my friend tomatoes to a plate lined with paper towels or napkins to soak up some grease before transferring them to a serving tray.

Once all tomatoes are fried, it’s time for the toppings. Pimento and mint jelly are classic southern foods, and I had no trouble finding them at a standard grocery store in North Carolina. If you’re farther north or west, you may have to go to a specialty food store for the mint jelly at least, but I imagine you’ll find the pimento with no problems.

It doesn’t take much: about a tablespoon of pimento and a teaspoon of jelly per slice. This will vary depending on the size of the slice, of course, and you’ll need more of each if you’re making lots of tomatoes for a crowd.

The result is a surprising but pleasant combination of flavors, texture, and colors that will blow you away. The recipe can be reduced down to just one tomato if you find yourself in need of a decadent snack, but you can increase it indefinitely for parties, potlucks, and apparently weddings.

I recommend you make more than you think you need. It’s amazing how quickly they disappear.

Fried Green Tomatoes with Pimento & Mint Jelly
Inspired by Rocky Top Hospitality

Makes about 9-10 slices. Increase all ingredients except the egg wash and the oil if you want to double or triple this recipe to serve more people.

1 c canola or vegetable oil
2 medium-sized green tomatoes
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 egg
1/4 c milk
3/4 c panko breadcrumbs
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 c pimento spread
3 T mint jelly

Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Increase or reduce the quantity of oil based on the size – use enough oil that the bottom of the pan is coated with about 1/4-inch of oil. While the oil heats, slice the tomatoes in half-inch slices, discarding the ends. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and the milk. Pour the flour on one small plate. Then on another small plate, combine the panko crumbs, salt, and pepper.

Working one slice at a time, coat each slice of tomato with flour, shaking off additional flour if it coats too heavily. Dredge the slice in the egg mixture, flipping a time or two until the egg sticks to the flour. Place the egg-washed slice in the panko crumbs and coat each side thoroughly. It’s okay if some of the sides are bare, it’s difficult for the crumbs to stick.

By the time each tomato has been coated, the oil should be hot. It will be glistening and smoking slightly. Use a pair of tongs to carefully place tomatoes into the pan. The oil will pop and bubble but shouldn’t burst. Leave at least a half-inch of space between the tomatoes, working in multiple batches if needed. Allow the tomatoes to cook for 30-45 seconds or until the panko has browned, then flip each slice. Cook for about a minute more until the second side has browned. Remove tomatoes to a plate lined with paper towels to soak up some grease.

Once all tomatoes are cooked, transfer them to a serving plate adjacent to one another, not stacked. Add about a tablespoon of pimento to each tomato, followed by about a teaspoon of mint jelly.

Serve immediately and often.

I suppose that’s the way it goes, isn’t it Perhaps there’s a reason those projects are still on the list: they simply don’t take priority when other things come up. Sometimes it’s dinner with friends, sometimes a movie, sometimes it’s work.

This time, it was a MASSIVE harvest of tiny tomatoes that would be heartbreaking to waste.

Up until a couple of years ago, I only ate cherry tomatoes raw, usually in salads or from the veggie tray at parties. And as someone who is not a particularly big fan of raw tomatoes, I typically only ate one or two.

Now that I am growing my own, however, I must find other ways to use them up. I actually dried most of this batch, but I’ve been curious about what a tomato sauce made from these tiny, sweet tomatoes would taste like, so I decided to give it a shot. And while it is certainly more labor-intensive than pulling a jar of Ragu from the pantry, it’s quite a delightful way to make the most of the tomato-harvest of August.

This tomato sauce is nothing fancy: no herbs, no carrots, no celery, no sugar: just a bit of butter and the flavor of an onion that is cooked into it. It’s about as basic as it gets, and it’s wonderful. The tomatoes are blanched and peeled before cooking, which is fairly quick even with so many small ones. Simply slice an “x” in the non-stem end of each, blanch them for a minute or two, and then the skins slide off quite easily.

With the tomatoes ready to go, the last two ingredients remain.

Now normally, I only cook with unsalted butter. But I grabbed the wrong box in a hurried trip to the grocery store, so I gave the salted butter a shot in this one. If you go with unsalted, you may need to add a bit of salt to the sauce after it finishes.

Which won’t take long, by the way. In less than an hour, the sauce is ready to dress up a good sturdy pasta.

And there you have it! It’s a warm, savory way to use up a large quantity of little tomatoes. The flavor is bright and sweet, reminiscent of the height of summer bounty. And taking only an hour to prepare, it’s quick enough for a weeknight. Maybe even quick enough to leave time to mark another project off the list.

Cherry Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
5-6 c cherry tomatoes (I used Juliets)
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved
5 T butter
8 oz rotini (or your favorite pasta)
salt to taste (unless you’re using salted butter, which I did because it was all I had on hand)

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. While the water heats, wash and pat dry tomatoes. Use a knife to cut a small “x” on the end of each tomato (the end opposite the stem). Fill a bowl with cold water and set aside. Carefully place the tomatoes into the water for 60-90 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, remove the tomatoes to the bowl of cold water so the cooking will stop. Once the tomatoes have cooled enough to handle, remove the skins from the tomatoes. They should slip right off. Discard the skins and place the peeled tomatoes in a medium-sized pot.

Nestle the halves of the onion and the butter into the tomatoes and bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer. Simmer for 45-50 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent from burning and crushing the tomatoes with a wooden spoon as they begin to break down.

When the tomatoes have cooked for about 30 minutes, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to al denté and drain. By this time, the tomato sauce should be done. Discard the onion halves (and any layers that have broken free). Mix the pasta into the sauce until it is thoroughly coated.

Serve with or without a generous sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Last year, I planted tomatoes in my little community garden plot. They were… unsuccessful. Extremely. I think I harvested two,maybe three tomatoes before they were attacked by bugs or rotted rather than ripened on the vine. Needless to say, I was distressed, but also determined to do better this year.

So I planted more tomatoes. Six plants, actually. And on the big tomato front, guess what I still did not succeed. Dozens of green globes filled me with anticipation alllll summer. And then Kaput. Like seriously, five tomatoes. It appears that I am doing something terribly wrong with my large tomatoes.

But the little guys! For the last six weeks, I’ve been harvesting dozens and dozens of both Sungolds, tiny orange spheres, generally considered the most flavorful cherry tomatoes, and Juliets, slightly larger egg-shaped tomatoes that ripen to a classic tomato red. A couple weeks ago, the harvests became so immense that even my tomato-loving beau couldn’t keep up with them. So what does one do with a couple pints of tiny tomatoes before they meet their maker?

This recipe features the tomatoes about as close to their natural form as is possible to get in a pasta “sauce”. To start, the tomatoes are simply sliced, squashed into a baking dish, and sprinkled with bread crumbs, cheese, garlic, and olive oil.

And the simplicity continues beyond the ingredients. If you can chop tomatoes in half, grate cheese, place a baking dish in the oven, remove it, and boil a pot of pasta, then you have every skill you need to make this for dinner.

Now we’ve talked about this: I cook a lot of pasta, especially on weeknights when I want something quick, filling, and warm to eat. I was so pleasantly surprised by this dish. It’s fast enough to make after a harried day at work, and it’s a truly fantastic way to celebrate the last hoorah of gorgeous little tomatoes before the season gives way to more autumnal fare.

The flavor of the barely-cooked tomatoes is bright, fresh, and tangy. If you’re looking for noodle slopping with sauce, this may not be the one for you, as the tomatoes, cheese, and bread crumbs produce just enough “sauce” to lend their flavor to the pasta rather than drown it.  I like bowtie pasta for this, since its shape is compatible with the tomatoes in their finished form, but you can really use any shape you want.

If you thought you were burned out on summer tomatoes, please, reconsider. Let’s elevate the humble cherry tomato to new heights! Or at least make the other tomatoes jealous .

Baked Tomato Pasta
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1/4 c olive oil
1 1/2 pints cherry tomatoes
1/2 c bread crumbs
1/4 c freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4 c freshly grated pecorino cheese
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 pound bowtie pasta (or your favorite shape)
5-6 leaves basil, thinly sliced into strips

Preheat oven to 400°F. Pour half of the olive oil into a 13″x9″ baking dish and spread evenly along the bottoms and sides with your fingers or a pastry brush.  Wash cherry tomatoes and pat dry. Slice each tomato in half and place them in the baking dish, skin-side down, to form a single layer in the baking dish. Fit in as many tomatoes as you can.

In a small bowl, combine bread crumbs, cheeses, and garlic and mix with a fork. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the tomatoes. Sprinkle salt & pepper over the tomatoes and bread crumb mixture, and finally, drizzle the remaining olive oil over the top. Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until top begins to brown.

Once the baking dish is in the oven, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook to al denté. Ideally, the pasta should be drained immediately before or after the baking dish is removed from the oven. Once you remove the dish, use the back of a large spoon to stir the tomatoes, squishing them to release their juices. Pour the drained pasta into the baking dish and stir well.

To slice the basil, stack the leaves together and roll up lengthwise. Then, chop the roll in pieces about 1/8″ wide. Fluff the basil gently with your finger tips and sprinkle over the pasta and tomatoes.

Serve with additional parmesan cheese as a garnish. This dish also makes fantastic leftovers!

There are things I daydream about. Sometimes, they are kitchen things.

In these kitchen daydreams, the sauce pan I need is never at the back of the cabinet. All my spice bottles are the same shape, same size, same color, and they’re all labeled in the same font. Sunshine floods across my countertops and splashes to the floor, filling the room with light. My knives are always sharp, but I never cut my fingers. Avocados grow locally. Also cashews and cocoa beans and grapefruits.

Le sigh.

Some dreams stay that way. But other dreams Pasta-and-mushrooms-tossed-in-sun-dried-tomato-cream-sauce dreams Oh yeah. They’re COMING TRUE.

This pasta is zingy. It’s dotted with crispy bacon and caramelized onions and tender mushrooms and pungent cheese.

I’ve found myself cooking with mushrooms more and more lately. I always thought I didn’t like them, but suddenly, they’re on my grocery list every week. Weird how that happens sometimes.

Sun-dried tomatoes, on the other hand, are new to me. These ones are packed in oil, but I’m curious to try it again with the dehydrated ones I occasionally see for sale at the farmers market. Or better yet, I could dry my own!

The dish comes together with a little cream, some milk, and nice little pile of parmesan. It’s not a sauce for swimming. In fact, it’s really there to bring everything together rather than to drown the pasta.

It’s pretty simple, pretty quick, and as cream sauce pastas go, it’s pretty light. Also, it’s pretty pretty.

Told ya. Dream come true.

Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
Adapted from Epicurious

5 slices bacon, chopped into 1/2″ pieces
1/2 large onion, diced, about 1 1/2 cups
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 c mushrooms, sliced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 black pepper
1/2 c oil-packed sundried tomatoes, drained and chopped into small pieces
1/2 c cream
3/4 c milk
1 pound bowtie pasta
3/4 c parmesan cheese, finely grated

In a large frying pan, cook bacon until lightly browned and mostly crisp. Remove to a plate lined with paper towel using a slotted spoon. Pour off the majority of the bacon grease, leaving just enough in the pan to coat the bottom with a very thin layer. Add onion, garlic, and mushrooms to the frying pan and sauté until onions are tender and beginning to caramelize, about 7-10 minutes.

While this is cooking, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add pasta.

Once onions have begun to caramelize, add salt, pepper, tomatoes, cream, milk to the frying pan and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 3-5 minutes to thicken sauce slightly, then remove from heat.

When pasta is done, scoop out about 1 cup of pasta water and set aside. Drain pasta and return to pot. Pour sauce and grated cheese over pasta and mix well, adding pasta water a little at a time to achieve desired consistency.

Sprinkle with additional parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.