Summer Tomatoes in Winter

In the summer, we had all the tomatoes we wanted. We had big ones, little ones, medium ones, in shades ranging from purple to scarlet to soft peach to green. We even had tomato cousins—meaning tomatillos, the tart, green, hard little papery-husked tomatoey things used to make green salsa. It's safe to say that by the end of summer we were pretty much tomatoed out. But now it's cold and grey outside and I really miss my fresh tomatoes. (Like the grasshopper in the fable, I didn't put any up for the winter, so now I pay the price. I always want to be more like the industrious ant, but maybe should just face the fact that I'm not.)

But then again, there's always Florida. One of the good things about living in Georgia is we aren't too far from that balmy state. And in Florida, they can grow things like tomatoes in winter.  I received some organic Florida tomatoes in my weekly farm share delivery, and while they weren't as good as homegrown summer tomatoes, they weren't too shabby. They weren't exactly good enough to slice and eat raw with a little salt, so I decided to roast them to concentrate the flavor. I had a mixture of Roma tomatoes and grape tomatoes. I sliced the Romas, and threw the grape tomatoes in the oven whole on the same sheet pan. The grape tomatoes took less time to roast, so I simply removed them from the pan and put the Romas back in for awhile. When they were done, I pulsed them a few times in my blender with a chopped clove of garlic, a drizzle of olive oil and a little more salt, and voila! Easy summer-essence-of-tomato sauce in winter from slightly better than mediocre tomatoes. I put it on pizza, but it would work on pasta as well. Or, I was thinking of adding a touch of garam masala, for a simple Indian-inspired tomato sauce to have with rice, topped with cilantro. (If you do this, try roasting the tomatoes with ghee instead of olive oil.) You might as well do this with a huge amount of tomatoes, and freeze the extra sauce for another cold, rainy (or snowy) winter day. It would really be good added to any number of things (like lentil soup, or a grilled cheese sandwich). Or you could add a little chipotle in adobo sauce (you can often find it in the “ethnic” portion of the supermarket), and have a smoky, spicy tomato sauce to serve with rice and beans, or a burrito or something of that ilk. What I am trying to say is this sauce is versatile.

(My five-year-old loves the roasted grape tomatoes on their own. They are tender little morsels of tomato butter. She won't eat them raw because she doesn't like the texture, unless she picks them herself and they are the tiny, intensely sweet bright orange ones. But those are more like tomato-flavored candy than tomatoes. The three-year-old will only eat tomatoes in sauce form, on either pasta or pizza.)

Basic Roasted Tomato Sauce
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a large sheet pan with olive oil. Slice tomatoes into half-inch thick slices and arrange on sheet. Throw cherry or grape tomatoes onto the sheet whole. Lightly salt everything. After around 30 minutes, the grape tomatoes should be done (look wrinkled, a bit caramelized and slightly sunken in). Remove them, and put the sheet pan back in the oven. The sliced tomatoes should take about another 10 to 15 minutes.

When the tomatoes are done, add them to a food processor or blender, along with a glug of olive oil, and chopped garlic to taste. (I don’t like to add too much, because I want the tomatoes to be dominant. Just a hint of garlic is good.) Pulse a few times to puree the sauce. Remove sauce from the blender and add salt if needed. Use for any number of things, and freeze the extra.