Last night I put all my tomatoes to use. What did I do with them?
Well I did not use them for bruschetta. As I mentioned before, I had already had too much so far this year. (BTW, I make mine by putting the chopped tomatoes on top of Texas Toast with some Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese, and maybe a little olive oil; you can probably find the recipe on the side of the Texas Toast box).
I did not make any sandwiches. Not that y’all’s suggestions didn’t sound good. It’s just that Rachel and I are departing Friday afternoon for a weekend trip. Combined with my schedule for the end of the week, I didn’t have time for sandwiches.
So what did I do?
First I made a big pot of marinara sauce. I found the basic recipe here, but I skipped the Italian sausage part. And instead of basil and oregano, I just used some Italian seasoning. It turned out pretty well and my roommates were impressed. The fennel seed, something I’ve never used before, may be the key ingredient (after all the tomatoes).
Then, since I still had a bunch of tomatoes left, I attempted to make a salsa… or maybe it was more a pico de gallo. My attempt was something of a combination of 3 different recipes I found.
I ended up using:
- 4 big boy tomatoes (approx 3″ in diameter), skinned, seeded, and chopped
- 1 Roma tomato, skinned, seeded, and chopped
- 1/2 Vidalia onion, diced
- 1 homegrown jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
- 1 homegrown cayenne pepper, seeded and finely diced
- Some silantro, didn’t really measure it, probably used too much
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Juice of 1 lime
I intended to put in some garlic, but I forgot.
The end result wasn’t bad, but it was not salsa as I usually eat it. The big difference, I think, was the use of the citrus. Apparently I’m used to salsa that is more salty and vinegary.
Thank you all for your input. Hopefully by this time next week I’ll have a bunch more tomatoes in need of consumption.
