My potted tomato plants have been doing well lately, or at least good enough considering they are potted plants. Living in a townhome, I sometimes wish I had a yard to plant a real garden, but with my travel schedule, not having to do yard work is a nice convenience.
The peppers on the right are cayenne. Only a few had turned red, but the pot fell off the ledge on my deck and the plant was damaged so I just picked them all. I should have left them on the vine even though the main root was severed. I think they would have continued to develop a bit further. Anyways, I’ve got some hot sauce working in the pantry now. Check back for more on this in four months or so.
I’ve been eating some of the tomatoes plain, but I often try to find a way to eat them with pasta. I don’t want to ruin the quality by cooking them for very long, but I will often soften them up in a pan with hot olive oil, or cook them in the oven for a few minutes.
I think cherry tomatoes has been the best varietal when I give them a quick sauté or bake. The flavor gets more complex, kind of sweet and savory if that makes sense. Above I sautéed cherry tomatoes and used them as a garnish for the pesto I made with my porch grown basil. The tomatoes really kicked up the simple pesto/pasta dish, loved it.
The next time I wanted to make a sauce, my Roma tomatoes had come in. I gave them a rough chop and baked them at 350 for about 10 minutes, along with some cooked Italian sausage, a pinch of red pepper, and two cloves of garlic. I didn’t think about how this wasn’t enough time for the garlic to cook, next time I’d start the garlic first, then add the tomatoes after 20-30 minutes.
I plated the linguine, then topped with torn pieces of basil, scooped some of the sausage/tomato/garlic, then drizzled some of the hot olive oil all over the whole dish. Finally, I shaved some Parmigiano-Reggiano.
This was a delicious use of the few tomatoes I have, but I may keep playing around with this dish. Perhaps another way to cook the tomatoes, maybe confit? Or not cook them at all?
Oh how I wish summer wasn’t coming to an end.