Tomato

Have you ever tried making fresh tomato sauce? The kind that you just pour on... It's so easy and so good! We use all colors here and pass them through a food mill.  A food mill is a really good kitchen tool, we have a large one but you can find small ones for about 30$. It allows you to remove the skin and seeds easily! I can't imagine making sauce without one...

We make tomato sauce two ways, roasted and fresh and i love both. Fresh sauce taste like summer whereas roasted sauce has a deeper richer flavor.


There are no measurements or times in these recipes...


Fresh tomato Sauce

Wash and cut up tomatoes removing any bad spots. Fry some onions and garlic in a pot till they are soft and starting to turn brown. Add tomatoes and cook down until tomatoes are all broken down. Add some fresh herbs such as basil and oregano.  When things have stewed for quite a bit let cool and pass through a food mill to remove seeds and skin. Return to pot and cook down to desired consistency-  add salt to taste and cook a little longer.


Roasted Tomato Sauce

 First wash and quarter them leaving out any bad spots. Then i place them in a roasting pan with some olive oil , a sprinkle of salt and slow roast. I also roast some garlic in foil packs. Next i fry some onion till it's soft in a big pot. Add the roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, fresh basil and more salt to pot and boil down again. Let cool and pass through mill. All the skin, seeds, onions and basil is discarded but the flavor remains! You now have a seed and skin free sauce which you again boil down till it's the consistency you like.

This is the Salsa recipe I make for the store and often bring to parties..always a hit!

Chez Nous Salsa

3 ripe tomatoes ( i love to add cherries also)
1 small pepper ( i usually use a small hot pepper if using a sweet maybe only half since they are usually bigger)
herbs ( as much as u want from 2 tablespoons to 1 cup) parsley, cilantro, oregano, mint
1-2 limes
1/4 to 1/2 red onion
1 small garlic clove
big splash of olive oil
1 tsp tomato paste also great without
1-2 tsp of cumin
salt to taste..1/2 to 1 tsp

Chop tomatoes and let drain colander to remove excess water.
Add rest of ingredients.

Taste best when eaten right away but may also be refrigerated.

Ketchup Vert  (Green Tomato Ketchup)

This recipe is for unripe green tomatoes...

28 cups of Green Tomatoes (chopped to your liking- I thinly slice with food processor)

12 cups of onions (sliced same as tomatoes)

6 cups of vinegar

3 cups of sugar

¾ cup of salt

 6 tbsp of picking spice (tied in cheesecloth)

Soak tomatoes and onions in salt overnight

Drain and rinse well.

In pot- tomato/onion mixture, vinegar, sugar, picking spice tied in cheesecloth.

Pour into sterilized jars leaving  1 cm head-space and put in water-bath (caner) and process for 10 min.

This recipe gives 10 jars

Pasta Alfredo

The tomatoes are really a minuscule part of the following recipe but make all the difference! Fresh tomatoes on a pasta dish are incredible! So I am including this here. ( You will also see that butter and whipping cream are in the recipe...we don't eat low fat anything and really try to stick to whole foods in their natural state.  I don't this is a new concept after all the low fat brainwashing but their is lots of evidence coming out that organic butters, pastured lards and organic whole milks etc... are in fact good for you look it up! )

1 clove of garlic

1/2 stick of organic butter

1 cup of  organic whipping cream

1/2 -3/4 cup of Parmesan Cheese

meat if you'd like or just serve on the side ( also cook ahead)... chicken, crab or prosciutto or even bacon go well

vegetables and herbs of your choice

mushrooms, zuchinni, eggplant, swiss chard, fresh tomatoes, basils, oregano, parsley, thyme, savory

-Prepare noodle of your choice

-Prepare your veggies herbs can be added later as well as fresh tomatoes.

-Melt butter and add minced garlic cook 1 minute

-Add cream and cheese and cook a few minutes more.

-Combine  warmed veggies and meat to noodles add herbs and tomatoes stir in sauce and serve! So yummy... I'll be warming up some leftovers as soon as I'm done this!