Reminiscing about the red fruit

 After skimming our blog and remembering our love for tomatoes, it seems appropriate that my first post in 8 years would be about this fruit. Not planned, by the way. I also wrote about tomatoes in my first Cornell Daily Sun article at the end of the summer 2003. August is tomato season, and fresh tomatoes that haven't touched a refrigerator are magical. 

Though I will say... a few years ago, I thought I could get good tomatoes from Whole Foods, and those would do in a pinch. Now I'm older and wiser- even the pretty red tomatoes at the organic grocery stores that litter our neighborhoods taste a little flat. Forget winter tomatoes- those are thick skinned, crunchy, and taste like nothing. I've hit the point in life where I have zero time to spend on something that isn't 100%. So- my tomato corn salad and pasta sauce only make an appearance during the three weeks in August when the farmers sell seconds (this is what we call slightly bruised tomatoes in the Midwest- not sure if it's the same in AZ).

Seconds at my market are sold by the pallet... $20 for a full, $10 for a half. First, this is much more agreeable than spending $4 on a single tomato. Second, I could give two shits whether the tomato going into a sauce has a brown crack on the top. Or the tomato going into a salad or a beautiful caprese for that matter... just slice off the offending portion. I'm not using these for food photography, and even if I was, the finished product would look the same. Enough on my food waste rant. 

Last week, I made so much sauce that my stock pot was filled to the brim (18 lbs of tomatoes). Louis has been an excellent helper in the kitchen... he dropped each piece of tomato one by one into the pot. This took about 20 minutes. As I restrained myself from grabbing the remaining pile of tomato and dumping it into the pot, I reminded myself that this was 20 minutes of a happily engaged, quiet tiny person. He's amazingly cautious of the gas flame- I have to watch him, but I don't worry that he's going to barbecue his fingers. I've tried redirecting him to the play kitchen (which has better backsplash than the real kitchen), but playing with wooden vegetables and fake cooktops isn't as fun as the real thing. I get it. 

After such a ridiculous last few months (COVID, general work malaise, life panic), I'm happy to settle into an old habit and produce consistently, legitimately good food for foods' sake. 

Anna's Summer Tomato Sauce

Olive oil

Pinch red pepper flake

10 lbs summer tomatoes

1 white onion

6 cloves garlic

1.5 tblsp Salt 

Torn basil

Coat bottom of sauce pot with olive oil & turn flame to medium. Add sliced white onion & garlic... stir for 3 minutes until aromatic. Meanwhile, quarter tomatoes and drop in the pot. Add 1.5 tblsp salt & stir. Keep on medium heat ~5 minutes or until simmering. Turn down heat to low & cover pot. Stir sauce about every hour. Cook down until 60% of original height in pot... about 6 hours. If you are short on time, uncover pot, and kick up heat to medium. Stir every 5 minutes in this case. Blend with immersion blender (a regular blender works but will make an unholy mess).

Remove from heat & add basil.

Eat within a week or freeze in pint or quart size containers.