No Green Tomatoes Here!

Harvest one day during the week,sweet corn, carrots,tomatoes, taking home a net bag of garlic which has been drying in the shed, and some of our autumn fruiting raspberries, enough to sprinkle on the morning cereal!
Our sweetcorn is delicious, put into lightly salted water and simmered for 14 mins once the water boils, melted butter and don't forget to lick your fingers.It is funny carrot time again, I thought this was 2 plants at first but it is one plant probably hit a stone or other hard object divided into 2 and then continued growing in a corkscrew fashion!
We have such a glut of tomatoes I have been looking for recipes to cook and store them for the winter. I had 8 tomato plants at home in the plastic greenhouse, they were in large pots and produced 2 full trusses on each plant.The upper trusses did flower but the flowers did not pollinate and fell off, at least I think that is the reason that they did not produce more but as things have turned out we have more than enough!
I looked for recipes for pasta/spaghetti/tomato sauces but most of them are American quoting cups and referring to canning.Maybe we on this side of the ocean do not normally have to worry about tomato gluts.I read through various recipes and eventually combined a few to fit the amount of ingredients I had, I didn't deseed or skin the tomatoes either. I find the ones we grow ourselves are meatier with less seeds than the ones we have bought in the shops.
4lbs Tomatoes, onion, basil, carrot and yes some cloves of our own garlic, small but perfectly formed!All fresh from the allotment.
I chopped all of the ingredients, added about 2TBSP of Olive Oil and some herbs De Provence which I had in the cupboard.I did not add any seasoning at this stage, that can be done later depending on the dish I will use it for.Everything simmered on a low heat for approx 1 hour.I whizzed it with the hand blender leaving some chunks of veg, returning it to the cooker for about a half an hour to reduce down a little more.The kitchen was filled the with the most gorgeous smell!

This yielded 4 lbs of sauce (according to the print on the sides of the bags) which I packed into these nifty store and pour bags from Aldi, they stand upright while being filled which is much easier when dealing with liquids.There are 8 bags in the pack for 1.49E, once sealed they then lie flat for freezing.
I did think the finished sauce was very yellow not a nice tomato red!It seems to be very concentrated and could be thinned a little depending on what the next stage of cooking is.
Passatta added to this would make a really tasty Lasagne/Spaghetti sauce or add a good stock to make soup. I have never liked Tomato soup but I may try a home made version to see does it taste any better!

Comments

OneStonedCrow said…
Hehe what an amazing corkscrew carrot - I've never seen anything like it ... I'm sure you could have made a bit of money by offering it for sale on Ebay ... :)
Peggy said…
OneStonedCrow, this time of year you will find all sorts of weird carrots displayed on blogs!Since we joined the EU all fruit & veg must be regulation size/shape to be sold on the open market.Growing our own has no such parameters so we can enjoy these carrots, while funny shapes still taste fantastic!
Helen Lewis said…
Very informative post - I will try to make spaghetti sauce using your recipe. Your garden looks very productive. I love home-grown food!
PeggyR said…
Everything looks so yummy! Our local markets have all fresh produce this time of year.
a glorious harvest Peggy. I envy you your glut of red toms. Fabulous carrot ;o)
Ann said…
I was just thinking today about what to do with my tomato harvest. The ones in my greenhouse haven't done very well at all but the outdoor ones have loads on them, too many to eat fresh. The sauce you made sounds good, I never thought about cooking then freezing. All I could think of was chutney!
Linda said…
Busy time for you, Peggy, but very satisfying.
Matron said…
What an amazing corkscrew carrot! I've never seen one cross over like that. When I have a glut of tomatoes, I halve them and bake them in the oven slowly to get rid of some of the water, then the sauce is made more concentrated and intense.
Peggy said…
Helen Lewis,Thanks for taking time to leave comment and do try the sauce,I think it extends the summer taste through what may be along cold winter.

PeggyR,All of the farmers markets are laden with the fresh veg at the moment.If anything is being sold cheaply because of a glut it is a good time to try some of the preserving recipes.


Nic, We have been very lucky with our toms this year one of the veg that is performing magnificently for us!

Ann, it was only reading other blogs I thought of making sauce.I suppose chutney is the only thing wiht green toms?

Linda, It is very satisfying seeing the filled jars adding up in the cupboard!

Matron,the corkscrew carrot has gone to carrot heaven and very tasty it was too!I made passata today and it was my first time roasting toms, so after l read your comment I knew I could dispense with the amount of liguid left in the dish

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