Tomato Week: Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Angel Hair Pasta and Homemade Croutons

I have posted about roasting tomatoes a few times before, but can't have tomato week and not talk about roasting cherry tomatoes. I hope by now you guys have tried my absolute favorite way to use up a lot of the little bite-sized tomatoes - cut them in half and put in a shallow roasting dish, toss with a little olive oil and coarse salt (other seasonings are up to you - pepper, Italian blend, whatever), and bake at 350' to 400' until you like the consistency stirring occasionally. The longer they bake the more they thicken up and turn into an almost glazed texture which is so so so good (!), shorter time is still good and keeps them a little 'fresher' and lighter texture - just depends on what you want to do with them.

For this dish I let the tomatoes really cook down, at least an hour (turn the temp down if they seem like they are cooking too fast - you'l know if they start to turn too dark but not getting thick and syrupy), then tossed them (including the juice and olive oil) with cooked angel hair pasta. Another one of our favorites is to add homemade croutons (click to see how I make them, very easy!) to red-sauced pasta - almost like a panzanella bread salad, the croutons soak up the sauce but still add a little texture to the dish. Nothing like adding bread to pasta to keep this dish low-carb LOL. Whatever, it's good. For a little more color and to beef up the veggies I added some chopped fresh spinach this time - add whatever else you like...cooked mushrooms, peas, chopped asparagus or broccoli would all be good.

Oh man do I love this pasta and roasted tomatoes SO MUCH!!!


one year ago: morning glory muffins
two years ago: Japanese steakhouse carrot-ginger salad dressing

Tomato Week: Tomato Jam

Day 2 of "tomato week" is this sweet and spicy tomato jam that you can use in place of ketchup, alongside meats as a condiment, spread on sandwiches (in place of sliced tomatoes - one of these days I'll run out of garden fresh tomatoes and am going to love having this jam as a substitute!), paired with cheeses and cured meats, spread on a crunchy crostini with a creamy cheese, on a spoon straight from the jar...so many ways to use this!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 4 1/2 lbs. ripe tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped (about 10 cups)
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• kosher salt

Directions:

• In a 5- to 6- quart pot, combine the sugar, vinegar, and 1/4 cup water. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture looks syrupy, about 5 minutes.

• Add the tomatoes, red pepper flakes (if using), and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

• Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have broken down and the juice has thickened, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. (Keep an eye on it as it thickens, you might need to stir it more often).

• Season to taste with salt. Let cool to room temperature, transfer to a jar and refrigerate for up to 2 months. 

Makes about 1-1/2 cups

Notes: I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup and it's still plenty sweet. This took a long time to cook down, closer to 3 hours. After most of the liquid cooked out I cooled it slightly and then blended it up a bit in the food processor so it's smoother. If you don't want to process it I would remove a lot of the skins, when it's cooked down there are a lot of skins and I didn't like that. Once I blended it up tho the texture is great and much more "jam" like. This made over 2 cups for me. 

found the recipe here

two years ago: white beans in marinara sauce

Tomato Week: Roasted Corn and Rice Stuffed Tomatoes

check it out - it's heart shaped!

Today is the start of my self-proclaimed "tomato week" -  better known around here as "what the heck do I do with so many tomatoes?" as I frantically search google for ideas before the tomatoes all go bad!

There are lots and lots of recipes online for stuffed tomatoes, I was looking for one that didn't bake the tomatoes for long so they turned into more of a mushy cooked tomato (I love tomatoes but when they are cooked like that and become almost 'stewed' they aren't my fave) - saw this idea for roasted corn and rice stuffing and since they only baked for a few minutes it seemed like the tomatoes wouldn't cook down too much - and they didn't. These turned out really good, and one really interesting thing I learned is you can make "roasted corn" using canned corn and a dry frypan. Very cool, I will be using this trick often. The only thing I changed was adding chopped spinach tot he filling, no basil but I sprinkled in some Italian seasoning, and I used shredded cheese blend left over from the green chili frittata that I didn't end up using (remember the whole "my sister needs a dish to pass but then changed it to sloppy joe" thing?) - yes I realize that I used both Italian seasoning and Mexican cheese blend but whatever, it worked :) Look, I'm multi-cultural cooking hahahaha.

Click here for the recipe I started with, I'll give you what I did:

5 medium/large tomatoes
1 cup cooked medium grain brown rice (white will work of course)
1 can sweet corn
big handful of chopped spinach, stems removed
salt, pepper, Italian seasoning blend, and garlic powder to taste
shredded cheese blend

• Drain the corn and blot it dry (I dumped it out onto paper towels and blotted). Place corn in a non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium high heat with no oil or butter. Let sit for 3-4 minutes and stir. Repeat until corn gets nice and brown on the outside. Remove from heat and set aside.

• Cut the tops off the tomatoes and carefully scoop out the flesh, reserving the flesh. Set whole tomatoes in a shallow roasting pan or cupcake holder.

• In a separate bowl smush the reserved tomato flesh with the back of a spoon or fork until there are no large chunks. Don't totally puree it, just chop it up. Combine the tomatoes with the rice, roasted corn, spinach, and seasonings. Heat the mixture up in a frypan until well combined and heated thru. Note: the original recipe doesn't call for this step, but I wanted the stuffing to be hot before putting it into the tomatoes and baking - trying to limit the time the tomatoes needed to be in the oven. Remove from heat and add a small handful of the cheese. 

• Preheat broiler. Stuff the whole tomatoes with the tomato rice mixture until rounded on the top. Top with shredded cheese. Broil for 3-5 minutes until the cheese is melted. If you didn't heat the mixture before stuffing the tomatoes you'll want to leave the tomatoes in the oven until they are heated thru.
  
  
  
  

I served these with grilled pork tenderloin and set the stuffed tomatoes on a bed of raw spinach leaves to add a little more veg and make the plate look pretty. So good!!!

one year ago: cauliflower waffles
two years ago: Barbie soap - wrong but funny.

Freezing Tomatoes

As I mentioned the other day we have so many tomatoes coming in at the same time I'm getting a little overwhelmed! I mentioned to Dave that I needed to deal with the tomato situation and he goes "I told you, BLT's" - I said there are only so many BLT's that I can eat and he said "well maybe there's only so many you can eat but...'we' can eat a lot of them". Haha, while I do love a BLT especially with fresh-from-the-vine-warmed-by-the-sun tomatoes, there really is only so much bacon one person should eat.

I'm super busy today tho and don't really have the time to "deal" with them - as in, making spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce or chili sauce or whatever. I googled if possible to freeze raw tomatoes and yep, it is - it's ok to freeze them whole with or without the peels, chopped, sliced, or pureed with the caveat that you then can only use them in cooked recipes as they'll be mushy once thawed. Since I was planning to make sauce of some sort with them anyway, freezing them for now will buy me a little time.

I washed and cored them, removed the peels from some and left on for others - I'm experimenting to see which I prefer. Do you know how to easily remove the peels? I slice of the top where the core is (or remove the core), cut an "x" in the bottom of each one, and gently lower them into a pot of hot water. Leave for a couple minutes until the edges of the "x" start to lift, then remove from the water. Let cool until you can handle them before peeling the skin off starting at the "x". In this photo you can see the "x" on the left one, and them starting to peel the right one.

Now I'm popping them whole into the freezer on cookie sheets until they are frozen firm, then I'll transfer them to big freezer plastic baggies. I'll letcha know what I make with them when I have the time!

Bye for now, off to make Dave's coconut rum bundt cake for his bday tomorrow :)

one year ago: buckeyes
two years ago: how to baste eggs

Orzo Pasta Salad

I make this simple salad ALL the time and can't believe I haven't posted it before now - maybe cuz it's so simple and easy I just didn't think to tell you...If you are looking for a simple light summer dish give this a try - it might be a new addition to your menu planning.

Not really a recipe - eyeball the amounts and change it however you want! I just boil orzo (it's a small pasta that looks like fat rice) until al dente (that means don't cook it till it's mushy!) and then drain it and rinse under cold water to cool it down. Drain well and put it in a big bowl. For the basic dish I add chopped tomatoes, chopped parsley, crumbled feta, olive oil, a splash of lemon juice or white vinegar, coarse salt, coarse pepper. You can also add garbanzo or small white beans, leftover meat (chicken, steak, pork chop, shrimp...whatever!), sometimes I season with some italian seasoning or add other herbs, you can add chopped arugula or spinach - really, it's good no matter what!