Round 1: Before
I should have reworded this particular item “Plan Out and Implement the Epic Tomato Harvest of 2011.”
Romas
Last weekend, with Autumn looming ever closer, I looked out at our backyard garden beds and realized it was time to start turning the fruits of Paul’s summertime labor into delicious sauces and other edible treats that we can enjoy until summer rolls around and we can start growing fresh veggies again. This time last year found Paul and myself knee deep in grad school (yep, I brought it up, again) and we just gave away most of the tomatoes we had left on the vines. Some of Paul’s colleagues made some salsa with our orphaned Romas, so I didn’t feel too guilty. It did feel wrong, however, to spend the spring and summer watching these plants grow only to do nothing when the plants produced so much.
Other Assortment of Tomatoes
But not this year! I purposefully put this item on the list to ensure we did not repeat the mistakes of last year. Our tomato beds consisted of cherry tomatoes, romas and a mixture of other house and heirloom varieties. We’ll continue to eat the heirlooms fresh off the vines, but all other varieties are fair game for sauce making.
Cherry Tomatoes
First, I halved and put all our Sweet Baby Girl cherry tomatoes into the dehydrater for use in pastas and salads. I set our dehydrater to 140 degrees and it took about 18 hours to get the tomatoes to a raisin like state. I just put them in a freezer bag and they’re good to go. Sun dried tomatoes without the sun part! Done and done!
And then there was the other 20 lbs of tomatoes to deal with…I had been told by friends that they had found delicious and simple sauce recipes that don’t require skinning or de-seeding, but something in me wanted to do this the hard way. Something in my needed to prove that I could make sauce, from scratch, shortcuts be damned. However, I do have another round of tomatoes sitting on my kitchen counter as I type this and those buggers may be destined for an easier, crock pot related recipe.
Romas washed and ready to be milled
I found this recipe on a site that I’ve been coveting for quite awhile and was really excited to finally try out something from her archives. I did two batches of sauce, one with the romas and one with the assortment of other tomatoes in the garden. Due to the sheer amount that I had, I tripled the recipe for the Romas and doubled the recipe for the others.
Romas in the mill
The recipe shows how to blanche, peel and de-seed the tomatoes, I went for the “easier” route and bought a food mill. In the long run, it made for a smoother, more pureed sauce, thus eliminating the need to possibly blend the sauce at the end of the process. Besides, I have blanched and peeled tomatoes before, and while still time consuming, I still think milling is faster. I had never used a mill before, but it really isn’t too complicated (as was evidenced by the lack of manual and mere written instructions on the side of the box). I was skeptical that there would be a lot of waste, but after an hour or so of milling, and re-milling my bowl of tomato guts several times, I started with 12 lbs of romas and ended up with two bowls of sauce and one small bowl of leftover skins and seeds. Not bad.
Romas: After the mill (puree)
This sauce also has two components: the tomatoes and all the yummy, sauteed veggies that were mixed into the sauce. I diced my carrots, celery, onions, and garlic and set them aside before turning to the tomatoes. I sauteed the veggies and then added some oregano (from our garden) and basil (store bought because I can’t grow basil to save my life) near the end of the process before adding in the tomatoes.
Sauteed veggies and herbs
And then there was a lot of sitting around, waiting for the sauce to cook down. For the first batch of sauce, I waited until 5:00 in the evening to start, and so I could have let the sauce cook down and thicken up more than I did, but it was 11:30 and I wanted to go to bed. I figure I can always cook the sauce down more when I add it to spaghetti or whatever dish we use the sauce with.
Final Product
So by the end of the weekend, I turned 20+ lbs of tomatoes into 9 quarts of sauce and a quart baggie of dehydrated tomatoes.
I’m not sure if I’ll post Round 2, if I go the same route. There are also the green tomatoes still on the vine that we can pick and let rippen inside after the frost sets in. Clearly, I’ve got my work cut out for me. If I find a faster way to make sauce (I’ll be freezing everything, due to lack of shelf space and an abundance of freezer space in our house), I’ll be sure to let you all know.
Round 1: Bagged and ready for the freezer
Happy Harvesting!
Tags: Cooking, Free Time, garden, productivity, Recipe, Sauce, to do list, tomatoes
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