Tomatoes!

IMG_1491.JPG, originally uploaded by trey_corene.

So what do you do when your neighbor brings you 4 pounds of late-season tomatoes at 7:30 am? I have not made tomato sauce enough to wing it, so I got out "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison, and figured out which sauce worked for me today. I chose the fresh tomato sauce, which took very little time; you wash and quarter the tomatoes, throw them in a big pot, add 1 T. chopped basil for each pound of tomatoes if you have it, and cook over med-high heat, covered, until the tomatoes break down. This takes from 10 -20 minutes. Then you pass them through a food mill to remove the skins and seeds. If you don't want to use a food mill, you'll need to peel the tomatoes before you cook them.

Let cool and freeze if you don't need to use the sauce right away.
When you're ready to use the sauce, you can season it with crushed garlic or an herb that goes with the dish you're making.

Another way to prepare tomatoes is to roast them. This post talks about roasting them. I tried this delicious tomato basil soup a few weeks ago and thought it was as good as the one I'd had at French Meadow Bakery. My husband hates tomato soup, yet he liked it! I did not add the canned plum tomatoes, because I had plenty of fresh ones, and I think 1/4 cup oil is too much for roasting the tomatoes, especially if you roast them at a lower temperature. I added enough to coat the tomatoes lightly with oil.