Tomato Time!

I did not get it together to grow tomatoes this year, and, honestly, the last couple of times I tried, in containers, were not very successful.

But I like making sauce from fresh tomatoes, so I ordered 22 pounds of San Marzano tomatoes from our community-supported agriculture (CSA), Full Belly Farm. They arrived earlier this week.

Part of the flat of tomatoes

Here's what I did with them. 

A. Pre-heat the oven to 375.

1. I boiled salted water in the wider of the two pasta pots, with the pasta insert in place. Why salted? Because salted water boils at a higher temperature than unsalted water, and I wanted the water to stay hot.

2. I put a layer of tomatoes in the boiling water. My partner said "boil them for just one minute!", but while this is sufficient for thin-skinned heirloom tomatoes, the San Marzanos turned out to need around 3 minutes in the boiling water for their skins to split.

3. I pulled the insert out, put the tomatoes into a strainer, and dunked them in cool water.

Why, yes, they're upside down, because the water is cooler at the bottom of the sink.

4. I peeled the tomatoes. You just slip the skins off with your hands; if a tomato's skin was very stubborn, I just slit it with a knife, then slipped the skin off.

Bowl of tomato peels, also, there's one unpeeled tomato lurking, but invisible.

5. I sliced the tomatoes and put them in a roasting pan that had a layer of olive oil on the bottom. I periodically drained the cutting board into the pan.

6. I threw some salt and pepper onto the tomatoes.

7. I put some more olive oil in a bowl, peeled some garlic and pressed it into the oil, added some balsamic vinegar, sliced fresh basil, and sliced fresh oregano.

8. I poured all of that over the tomatoes, mixed well, and put the pan in the oven.

9. I'll take them out when the liquid has evaporated and the tomatoes are....saucy.

UPDATE 9/2/2019

I made two batches of the roasted tomato sauce.

I made two batches of fresh tomato sauce, on the stovetop, the first using a recipe that turned out to be nearly identical to what I usually do to make a fresh tomato sauce. We used some of the fresh sauce today to make shakshuka for lunch. Donna used a few pounds to make gazpacho, which she thinks didn't come out quite right because the San Marzano tomatoes are so sweet.

Here's the current state of the box of tomatoes:

The box is going back to Full Belly Farm later this week.