Tomato Season

It’s the height of tomato season here in North Carolina, and people are wondering what in the world to do with the flood of tomatoes. We don’t have that problem, because instead of a garden, we have what we call outdoor pets – deer and racoons. But we have had gardens in the past, and I’ve had to deal with the tons of tomatoes issue, and have some ideas.

First, let me tell you what I’m having for lunch today. It’s absolutely my favorite sandwich, and I only have it two months out of the year, because the only time to eat it is when you have real tomatoes – good, ripe, local slicing tomatoes. I like Brandywines the best, but a good German Johnson is delicious, too. Peel the tomato, cut it into bite sized chunks, and pull out the seeds. Salt it lightly. Cut an avocado in half (don’t peel it first – that’s doing it the hard way), separate the two halves, which will leave the pit in one half, then take your largest sharp knife and whack the pit with it, which will embed the knife into the pit. Twist the pit out of the avocado half and knock it against the side of your trash can to remove the pit from your knife and throw it away. Then take a paring knife and slice the meat of the avocado – still in the peel – into strips. Use a large spoon to remove the avocado from the skin and place the slices on a plate with the tomato pieces. Next, take a nice piece of pita – I like whole wheat – gently tear it in half, and, even more gently, separate the sides so you have a pocket. Spread some mayonnaise on the inside. Put some tomato and avocado pieces inside the pita, and top with whatever type of bean sprouts you like, preferably one of the smaller, thinner varieties. Now that’s a sandwich.

But that only takes care of one tomato. For Roma or other sauce tomatoes, you can, of course, make sauce. I wash the tomatoes and slice them in half. Then I saute chopped garlic, onion, carrot and celery (including the leaves, which have lots of flavor) in olive oil. Once they’re translucent, I add the tomatoes, skins and all, then add oregano, thyme, basil, salt, pepper, and a little bit of sugar to balance the acidity of the tomatoes. If it’s pretty dry, I’ll add some water, and cook slowly for a couple of hours, adding water as needed to keep it from burning. Then I’ll run the entire mixture through a food mill, which strains out the skins and the vegetable solids and makes a nice smooth sauce. I’ll freeze this in one or two cup containers. (If you don’t have a food mill, go get one. It’s the only way to make acceptable mashed potatoes.)

That only leaves the slicing or juice tomatoes to contend with. You can make juice from them. If you have a juicer, you can run them through that. Or if you have a food mill, you can cut them in chunks and run them through that, although it’s not the most efficient way to make juice. But what I really like to do is make tomato soup. When I was in college, the women of the church I grew up in put together a cookbook as a fundraiser. It’s a typical mid-70′s church cookbook, but I think a really good example of the genre, with some great recipes, one of which is for tomato soup. I love the balance of flavors in this soup and have made it many times over the years. It was designed to be sealed in canning jars, although I never really trust canned tomato products – I think there’s not enough acidity to make them really safe. But it freezes beautifully, which is what I would recommend doing with it.

Tomato Soup

2 gallons tomatoes
1 bunch celery
6 onions
1/4 cup salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup flour

Cook tomatoes, celery and onion together until tender. Run through sieve or food mill. Add sugar and salt to juice. Mix butter with flour. Drop into juice, mix in well, and cook for 20 minutes. Stir constantly to thicken.

Pour into containers and freeze.

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