Tomatoes – late summer seasonal eating

It is September as I write, and the tomatoes will soon be gone for another year. Seasonal eating means that we embrace vegetables when the time comes, but then don’t eat them until the next season comes around. I wouldn’t thank you for a plastic tray of tomatoes, bought from a supermarket that has been grown in a plastic tent in miles from here. Once they’ve gone, we will wait until tomato season comes again for fresh tomatoes. We do, however, preserve our tomatoes in various ways, freezing passata, drying and pickling. I thought I’d share a few of our favourite recipes with you here. Feel free to add any more suggestions in the comments below.

homemade pizza

It has been a good year, with plenty of tomatoes in the greenhouse and growing outside along the south-facing wall of our conservatory. We grow a variety of tomatoes, some suited to specific purposes, like the San Marzano, which makes the best pizza sauce. If you’ve been following on social media, you’ll have heard about Tim’s fabulous pizza oven build, which was his lockdown project.

Portuguese tomatoes

These big plump tomatoes came from Portugal, where we were on holiday a couple of years ago. We’d stayed in an Air BnB in a village a few miles inland from the coast of the Algarve, and bought our veg from a lady in the local market. Her tomatoes were delicious. She told us she sold them, and her husband grew them on their smallholding. We spread some of the tomato seeds on a piece of kitchen roll and brought them home, dried. We may have been breaking import laws, I have no idea.

They’ve grown amazingly well up here in Northumberland, and have been great for making stuffed tomato recipes, of which I’ll now give you two: Evoke holiday memories of a Greek taverna with Greek Stuffed tomatoes and Lentil & Chorizo Stuffed Tomatoes.

Greek Rice-Stuffed Tomatoes (serves two as a main dish, or 4 as a starter)

Taken from Sainsbury’s Magazine

Greek Rice-Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients

4 Beef Tomatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped,

150g long grain rice

1 tsp tomato pureé

2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

2 tbsp chopped dill

2 tbsp chopped mint leaves

Finely grated zest 1 lemon.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Cut the tops off the tomatoes and, using a teaspoon, carefully scoop out the soft pulp and seeds and transfer to a bowl. Put the tomato shells into a baking dish. Set aside the tops until ready to bake.
2. Heat 2 tbsps of the olive oil in a frying pan set over a low heat. Add the onion and fry for 10 minutes until softened, without allowing it to brown. Roughly chop any large pieces of tomato then add to the pan with the rice, tomato pureé and 100ml just-boiled water. Season with salt and pepper
3. Bring the mixture to the boil and continue to cook for 12 minutes, stirring often, until the rice is cooked, but still al dente. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped flat-leaf parsley, dill, mint and grated lemon zest.
4. Fill the prepared tomato shells with the rice mixture and return the tops.
5. Drizzle with the remaining oil, cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, until the rice is tender. Serve warm from the oven.

Chorizo and Lentil Stuffed Tomatoes (serves two as a main dish, or 4 as a starter)

Vegans leave off the mozzarella at the end, and omit the chorizo

Lentil and Chorizo Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients

4 Beef Tomatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped,

75g chorizo, finely chopped,

125g puy, brown or green lentils, cooked and drained.

2tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped,

2 tbsp oregano, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Cut the tops off the tomatoes and, using a teaspoon, carefully scoop out the soft pulp and seeds and transfer to a bowl. Put the tomato shells into a baking dish.
2. Heat 2 tbsps of the olive oil in a frying pan set over low heat. Add the onion and fry for 5 minutes then add the chorizo and fry for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes, chopping any large lumps, lentils and herbs. Season with salt and pepper and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
4. Place tomato shells in an ovenproof dish and load the shells with the lentil stuffing.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until the shells are soft with optional mozzarella on the top. If not using mozzarella, place the tops of the tomatoes cutaway in stage 1 to keep the moisture in.
6. Serve warm from the oven.

Homemade Passata

Chopped tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and oregano

A simple way of making bags of tomato sauce to freeze and use for pasta sauces, pizzas, or soups.

Simply cut tomatoes in half and place in a baking tray with cloves of garlic, seasonal herbs such as basil or oregano and give a good slug of olive oil . Mix everything with your hands, then bake in a moderate oven, around 180°C 350°F, gas mark 4 for around 20 mins, or until the edges of the skins are turning brown.

Cooked Tomatoes for Passata

Cool slightly then tip in a large jug or heatproof bowl and blend using a hand blender, taking care not to burn yourself.

If you want a totally smooth passata, without pips, then pass through a sieve, but we just blend everything to a fine pulp.

Once totally cool, bag up, and freeze. I find 4 ladlefuls is about the right amount in each bag. You’ll be so glad you went to the effort when winter comes, and it’s another thing less to have to buy from the supermarkets.

Oven-Dried Tomatoes

We’ve also attempted to make our own version of Sundried Tomatoes, and very delicious they are too! We simply laid halved cherry tomatoes on a wire rack and let them dry out slowly in a very cool oven overnight. Ours was the outdoor pizza oven after it had cooled right down. I guess if you were using a conventional oven, then you’d turn it on, heat it and then turn it off with the tomatoes still in – you’ll have to experiment!

Daisy helps Grandad make Cherry Tomato Bombs

Daisy has been helping Grandad to make ‘cherry tomato bombs’ (Rachel deThamples title, not mine – I’m a pacifist!!) – we got the book ‘Fermentation’ in the wonderful River Cottage series (you’ll hear me wax lyrical about this series on lots of occasions) and Tim has gone into overdrive on the fermentation front…..but I guess that’s a post for another time.

Saved tomato seed

Don’t forget to save your tomato seed for next year!

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You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

• Sustainable Living
• The Bridge Cottage Garden
• The Bridge Cottage Kitchen
• Month by Month
• Seasonal Recipes
• Foraging – Food for Free

Many thanks for reading.

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