Rotten Tomatoes

I think we have all been there. A week or three goes by and suddenly our fridge becomes a jungle of turning produce and mouldy leftovers. Absolutely. Right? No? Just me? Huh, well, just in case you find yourself in my situation with two dozen VERY ripe tomatoes, all wrinkled and starting to get nasty black spots, here are two recipes to save yourself from tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner or worse yet, the guilt when you finally cave and pitch them in the compost. My other fault in the kitchen is that I am so lazy. I don’t like going grocery shopping especially for one or two ingredients that I might be missing. So if you are anything like me, I’ll let you in on a little secret – once you know the method, it’s not hard to substitute and guess what Ina Garten, you can still make great soup even if you don’t have $3 heirloom tomatoes from the local farmers market.

**food quality disclaimer: we like to buy organic. It goes along with the laziness factor really, so I order from spud.ca. I realize it is not for everybody, but it cuts out a lot of stress in my week and helps us to eat healthier when I can remember what is in my fridge. Of any of the ingredients in these recipes I would suggest you buy organic canned tomatoes and organic beef. Nough said, onto the good stuff**

It all starts the same way. With a tomato.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Slice them up, whatever they are (beefsteak, roma, on the vine, or half the cherry or littler variations) and arrange them on a parchment lined baking sheet with an edge. (In my opinion, if they have a couple small mouldy spots it is totally okay just to cut that part off and use the rest of the tomato).

Drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pop them in the oven for about 45 min.

When they come out they will be deliciously fragrant.

In a large saucepan pour two glugs of olive oil. Chop up one onion and mince about 3 cloves of garlic and sautée until translucent. The bottom of your pan is going to get brown and icky but don’t worry. Here is the trick – pour in about 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pan. It is going to smell horrific and you might burn your eyes out but it does the job and adds just enough, and less than it smells to the flavour.

Scrape the roasted tomatoes and accumulated liquid into the pan and stir. Add one can of chopped tomatoes.

From here, the sky is your limit. You can go on to make boulonnaise, pizza sauce, or a nice rosé. Today, I am going to let you in on my not-so-world famous chili recipe and an equally delicious recipe for roasted tomato soup.

Krista’s Totally Awesome Chili

Go ahead and purée your tomato mixture in a food processor or with an immersion blender.

What you will need:
-Your homemade tomato sauce
– about a pound of ground beef
-1 onion chopped
-1 green pepper chopped
-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
-1/2 tsp oregano
-2 tsp of ground cumin (I like to take whole cumin seeds and roast them a bit then grind them with my spice designated coffee grinder)
-2 Tbsp of chili powder
-1 can of pinto beans (drained and rinsed)
-1can of kidney beans (drained and rinsed)

In a large skillet/saucepan/deep frying pan (whatever you have) brown about a pound of ground beef.
Chop up one onion and add it to the beef.
Once the onion is translucent and the beef browned add the green pepper and spices
Give it 5 about 5 minutes stirring frequently.

Add your tomato sauce and beans and let it simmer for about an hour, or pop it in the slow cooker.

You will be surprised how much the homemade tomato sauce brightens up chili. I made some really awesome cornbread muffins to go with this dish but misjudged the oven rack and cornbread batter still covers my oven interior and the drawer below.

Krista’s Totally Awesome Roasted Tomato Soup

Don’t purée your tomatoes quite yet and if I catch you before you have made your sauce, when you are adding your garlic, double it.

What you will need:

-Your homemade tomato sauce
-extra 3 cloves of garlic
-3 cups of chopped basil
-1 tsp of thyme
-1 quart of chicken or veg stock

Put it all in the pot with your tomato sauce and let it simmer for about an hour.
Blend in a food processor or with an immersion blender.