Tomato season is here, and I bet even some of you who don’t consider yourselves gardeners have a tomato plant or two so you can enjoy the amazing flavor of a fresh, home grown tomato.

For those of you who don’t grow your own during the summer you certainly won’t have any difficulty finding them at local farmers’ markets. If you’re new to your area, haven’t shopped local farmers’ markets recently or just plain don’t know where to find one near you, check out www.localharvest.org to search by zip code.

I am an avid gardener, but unfortunately do not have much space for vegetable gardening. This year I decided to get more inventive and find ways to grow a few things in pots. (If you recall, earlier this year I shared a picture of some small radish I grew in fine soil in a wide shallow pot.) One thing I was particularly enthusiastic about was a package of San Marzano seeds I’d had in the refrigerator for years. On March 29 this past spring my first San Marzano tomato journey began. 133 days later, I harvested my first nine tomatoes! (Not many, but San Marzanos are indeterminate meaning they produce fruit over a period of time.)

Clearly nine plum tomatoes is not nearly enough to merit getting out the canning supplies or even cooking down to paste. So what was I to do with my few precious tomatoes? For anyone who isn’t already familiar with San Marzanos, these tomatoes are not the kind of tomato to slice and eat raw on a sandwich or in a salad. These tomatoes best show off their merits when they’ve been cooked. Given my initial small yield, I devised a way to make do with so few of these little gems — roasted tomato sauce.

One more short discourse before I dive into sharing the recipe - I was about to call this quick & easy pasta sauce, but it really isn’t quick. Even though it doesn’t qualify as a quick sauce it more than qualifies as easy and the active preparation time is very little, about 10 minutes. The rest of the time the tomatoes are roasting away in the oven getting really sweet and saucy. Do you have a quick version of your own fresh tomato sauce? I’d love to hear about it.

easy pasta sauce

• San Marzano tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
• olive oil
• coarse salt, to taste
• fresh basil (may substitute dried)
• fresh oregano (may substitute dried)
• fresh thyme (may substitute dried)
• garlic
• good quality balsamic vinegar

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Lay tomatoes, cut side up in a baking dish large enough to hold them in a single layer. If using dried herbs instead of fresh, sprinkle tomatoes with dried herbs at this point. The amount of dried herbs to use is the same or a bit more than the appropriate amount of salt. Season with salt and drizzle somewhat generously with olive oil. Put in oven and roast until completely soft and edges begin to brown, about 45 - 60 minutes.

Just before taking the tomatoes out of the oven, mince the fresh herbs (if using) and garlic. Set aside. Remove tomatoes from oven. Flip tomatoes cut side down and pull the skin away with a fork. Discard the skin. Stir in the minced herbs and break up the tomatoes with a fork or a couple of dinner knives the same as you would cut butter into flour for biscuits or pie crust. Drizzle in balsamic vinegar and adjust seasonings to taste.  Serve over hot pasta.

Notes:

• If your balsamic vinegar is not well aged and has a bit of an edge on it, stir in a bit of brown sugar to tame it.
• For my nine tomatoes, I used about 1 1/2 T. balsamic vinegar, 1 1/2 T. fresh basil, 2 t. fresh oregano, 2 t. fresh thyme and 1 large clove garlic.
• My nine tomatoes made enough sauce for 2 adults with no leftovers!

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Over the last month, I have been keeping busy developing new recipes inspired mainly from the produce I receive in my CSA box. In the process of having so much fun, I’ve neglected to share the ideas that would be helpful to everyone out there interested in keeping their cooking seasonal. Over the next few days, I’ll be getting caught up on sharing some of the recipes and ideas from the last few weeks, so stay posted. There is more to come!

Yesterday we received our first sweet corn and heirloom tomatoes of the season. Those two ingredients, along with the candy onions available now inspired my roasted corn and black bean salad. We’ve been getting huckleberry potatoes as well over the last few weeks, and I incorporated those into the meal. Fried until crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, they were a nice complement to the bright flavors in the salad. In addition to being suitable on its own as a light meal, this salad would make a nice side to a number of things including fish tacos or a good burger.

Roasted Corn & Black Bean Salad

• 2 cans black beans, drained or 3/4# dry black beans, cooked
• 6 ears corn, roasted or grilled, kernels removed from cobb
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1 large green bell pepper, diced
• 1 small candy onion, very thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, minced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 2 T cider vinegar
• 2 t chili powder
• 1 t ground coriander
• 1 t ground cumin
• 1 chipotle in adobo sauce, minced
• 4 T olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

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For the second week in a row, I had the delight of receiving English peas in my CSA box. English peas do have to be shelled before eating, but they are so worth the little amount of effort required. My husband and I shelled them in a matter of minutes while talking on the phone with some family.

Last week, I utilized the peas in fried rice and vegetable korma. Both dishes came out tasting so fresh and delicious, but for this week I really wanted to make the peas the center of attention. I had to think for a little while before deciding what I wanted to do with the peas and finally settled on English pea soup. It was simple, delicious, filling and best of all, quick! I prepared some multigrain croutons with white truffle oil and butter as a nice crunchy compliment to the creamy soup.

Enjoy the recipe below and let me know how it turns out for you if you try it.

English Pea Soup

• 4 T. olive oil
• 1 large clove garlic, rough chop
• 1 large leek, sliced (white and light green part only)
• 2 medium ribs celery, diced
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 quart shelled English peas
• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1/4 cup Italian parsley, minced
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• optional garnishes: chopped chives, crumbled pancetta, creme fraiche

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, leeks and celery. Allow to cook until softened, about 10 minutes.

Add stock and potatoes to the pan and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and allow to cook until the potatoes are almost tender, about 15 minutes. Add the peas and continue cooking until potatoes and peas are cooked through, about 10 minutes more.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in parsley.

Puree soup in a blender or with an immersion blender until completely smooth. Serve hot, room temperature, or cold with optional garnishes.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Note: This recipe can be made completely vegan by using vegetable stock in place of the chicken stock.

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• 2 large stalks rhubarb, small dice
• 1 1/2 c. black cherry juice
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 3 t. orange juice concentrate

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until liquid has reduced by half and is nice and syrupy.

Makes a wonderful dessert topping on vanilla ice cream or a great drizzle on savory grilled and roasted meats.

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This pudding is a great way to utilize stale bread and over-ripe bananas, but you don’t have to wait for the bread to stale to make the pudding. I like my bread very dry when starting this recipe. To achieve this, simply cut the bread in cubes, spread on a baking sheet and place in a 350 degree F oven and bake until the bread has completely dried out. This will take approximately 25 minutes. Alternatively, you can cut-up a fresh loaf of bread, place the cubes in a paper bag and allow to dry out over a couple of days.

For the pudding:

• 1 stale French baguette, roughly cut in 1 1/2” pieces
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 cups milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Grease a 9” x 13” baking dish. Arrange stale bread in dish in an even layer and set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until evenly combined.

In a large bowl mash the bananas with a fork. It’s okay to leave some large chunks of banana. To the bananas, add milk, eggs and vanilla. Stir to thoroughly combine. Add sugar mixture and stir well.

Pour custard (banana and milk mixture) over bread in baking dish pressing down on bread to make sure it is submerged in the custard. Cover with and refrigerate for one hour to allow the bread to soak up the custard.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Keep pudding covered and bake in center of oven for 45 minutes. Remove cover and continue baking an additional 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center come out clean.

For the sauce:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup dark rum

Over medium heat, melt the butter in a large skillet and add the brown sugar. Stir to combine. The mixture will be thick and grainy.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the rum. Stir to combine and return to medium heat. When the mixture begins to simmer, carefully light the sauce with a long match. Keep the liquid on the heat and allow it to continue to bubble and flame. The flames will go away when the alcohol has been burned off. If you are unable to get the sauce to flame, simply allow the sauce to simmer for about 4 minutes to allow the alcohol to burn away.

Serve warm over warm bread pudding.

Optional addition: After the alcohol of the sauce has burned off, add about 2 tablespoons of milk or heavy cream to make a rum caramel sauce.

Note: Keep the sauce warm by placing it in a pitcher in a pan of simmering water. This is also a great way to gently heat the sauce after it’s been refrigerated.

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