Tomato and Herb Sauce: How-to

Anyone up to their ears in tomatoes? Well, first off – share some with me! Secondly, don’t let those delicious fruits get the best of you and wind up rotting away. These gorgeous colorful gobfuls of flavor are just waiting for you to use them.

One of the easiest and tastiest ways to preserve a tomato is with a sauce. Now, see, I don’t really like tomatoes all that much unless something is done to them. It’s embarrassing, but such is life. So, I’m always taking them and morphing the tomato into something spectacular.

This recipe explores a tomato and herb sauce. It’s pretty basic and comes straight from the garden (or farmers stand) so it’s not very labor intensive at all.

In the culinary industry, we are taught to concasse the tomato to make a sauce. This involves taking the stem out, making a few incisions, blanching them, cooling them, peeling them. I think it’s silly and it takes too long. 

However, my process still has the same principles in mind. Luckily there is more than one way to get things done in the kitchen!

Before I get into the recipe with you, I would like to bring up a few variations on the sauce:

1.       Romesco – add some peppers to the roasting process (seeded of course). Finish with lemon, basil, and oregano.

2.       Make the sauce more red – before transferring ingredients to pot, put about ½ tsp of tomato paste in the hot pot and stir until it starts to brown up and caramelize. This will make the sauce a little heavier in flavor and you may have to offset it with a little acid (white balsamic, lemon, champagne vinegar)

3.       “Fire roasted” style – keep the tomatoes in the oven longer until the skin starts to roast and gets black in some areas. Don’t peel the skin off! Simply add to the pot and puree it up after it reduces. This is also another way to add additional color to the sauce.

4.       Tomato soup – simply add carrot, celery, and onion to a hot pot on medium heat. Stir and cook until onions are translucent. Add 2-3 tablespoons of oil/butter and allow to melt/heat up. Sprinkle in some flour (enough to coat the vegetables) then add a large amount of tomato sauce (I figure 1 quart of sauce per 2 cups of additional veggies) slowly, while stirring. Cook that down for about two hours, blend and enjoy!

5.       Colored sauce – with the ever popular heirloom tomatoes, the color variation is superb. Follow the same recipe, but use yellow, brown, or purple tomatoes. I would suggest blanching tomatoes if they are green though – it preserves the color better.

So, as you can see by taking this very simple sauce, you can go much further. The best thing I’ve found to do is to do batches in different styles, then portion them off into pint containers /freezer bags and then freeze it for a later use. There’s nothing like having an amazing go-to tomato sauce right at your fingertips in the dead of winter.

Enough jibber-jabber; on to the recipe!

Tomato and Herb Sauce 

Ingredients:

10 ripe tomatoes (the big guys are usually the ones used here)

1 sweet onion (large dice)

2 cloves garlic

Olive oil

2 stems worth of basil leaves (or as much as you like)

3 stems worth of thyme leaves

(optional) “makes everything awesome spice” to taste

Mixing bowl

Oven

Large/medium pot

Stirring spoon

Sheet tray/cookie sheet

Blender

Strainer (optional)

Directions:

1.       Take all ingredients, except herbs, and toss in olive oil, salt and pepper.

2.       Place in oven at 400°F on a sheet tray.

3.       Once cracks in the skin form on all the tomatoes, pull them out and shut off the oven.

4.       When tomatoes cool, peel off the skins and toss them out

5.       In a pot on medium heat, place all contents of the sheet tray

6.       Once the tomato concoction comes to a light boil, turn heat down low and cover the pot

7.       Stir occasionally every fifteen minutes or so.

8.       After an hour and a half you should have been able to cook down the tomatoes pretty well.

9.       Blend contents in a blender, or use a little stick blender right in the pot if you have one.

10.   Transfer back to the pot

11.   Leave  the pot uncovered and add your herbs.

12.   Cook down for at least another half hour, or until color desire has been achieved, or you are satisfied with the flavor.

13.   Season to taste with salt and pepper or “makeseverything awesome spice”

Kale and Tomato Salad with Roasted Asaparagus

Summer is almost here! This dish I’ve made a little fusion of late spring and early summer with a faint throwback into a Mexican influence. I got most of these ingredients at local farm stands, so hopefully you can as well. Don’t feel like you have to adhere to this particular format of ingredients either, any hearty lettuce or softer dark-leafy green will work fine in this recipe.

This is fresh, delicious and a great “Meatless Monday” option (I would throw some beans on there to increase the protein) or side salad. Feel free to omit any spices or the cilantro. I’d substitute the cilantro with dill or parsley if you aren’t a cilantro person. I’ve also enjoyed this with a nice piece of pan seared fish or baked chicken. Top with some grated cheese for extra sexy points.

Whatever you chose to do with it, Enjoy!

Kale and tomato salad with roasted asparagus

Ingredients:

1 Bunch Lacinato Kale

1 Bunch asparagus

2 Tomatoes (sliced into 8ths)

1 Juice and zest of lime

2 Tablespoons olive oil

¼ Cup pickled red onion

½ Bunch watercress

¼ Cup Chive (cut thin)

¼ Cup Cilantro (rough chop)

½ teaspoon smoked sweet paprika

½ teaspoon garlic

½ teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon cumin (whole preferably)

Directions:

1. Wash ALL produce (Learn more here)
2. Take spices and combine in container
3. Toss asparagus in olive oil and place in oven (preheated at 400). Allow to roast for five to seven minutes, or until tender.
4. While asparagus is roasting, cut kale into fork size (about two inches) and put into large mixing bowl
5. Take tomatoes and core them (cut out the brown part on the top). Slice into 12ths if you have a big tomato 8ths if it is small. Place into large mixing bowl
6. Combine remaining ingredients into bowl and toss to incorporate.
7. Asparagus should be ready by now, or already done. Once removed from oven and cooled, cut on a bias into two inch strips. Add to bowl if you are serving family style. Keep Asparagus separate if you’re going to be plating.