A box of tomatoes

I am a total sucker for a bargain, and when I saw this box of sauce tomatoes at my local veggie growers for $5, even though I have no time to do anything with them, I couldn’t resist.

If they’d been $10 I would have passed them up – but $5? Too good!

So here’s what I’m going to do with them:

Wash the tomatoes & cut out any bad bits, then chop them up roughly and spread them out in a roasting dish or two.

Turn the oven onto about 200C.

Then spread any or all of the following over the top, depending on what you like:

- Oilve oil

- Balsamic vinegar

- Salt & pepper

- Herbs (dried or fresh or both)

            Eg: basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, bay leaves

- Whole garlic cloves (you don't even have to peel them)

- An onion or two (brown or red), roughly chopped

- Lemon zest

- Dried or fresh chilli (just a little bit!)

Give it a quick toss in the tray, then pop them in the oven for about 1 1/2 hours, or until it’s smelling DIVINE and the garlic is soft. You can turn them during cooking if you want to, but don't worry about a small amount of browning around the edges as it adds flavour.

The thing that usually puts me off doing anything with bulk lots of fruit these days is the end bit – the bottling. I’ve done heaps of it and I can’t be bothered any more.

Soooo…

I’m going to put the resulting ‘sauce’ into freezer bags (I’ll use my vacuum sealer, but any clean plastic bag is fine, zip-lock bags are good) once it’s cooled down.

I always freeze this sort of thing as flat as possible (see the picture) so that it doesn’t take long to defrost when you want it later on. Don’t forget to name and date the bag – saves the guess work 6 months down the track.

This tomato base can now be used for all sorts of things.

-       Simply reheat and serve with fresh pasta

-        Use in place of crushed or tinned tomatoes for bolognase, chilli con carne,, minestrone, etc…

-        Reduce the liquid by cooking it down in a large frying pan to make pizza sauce

-        Add to more sautéed onions & garlic, some red lentils and even some roasted capsicum or other veggies, pour over stock or water, cook until the legumes are soft then puree to make a delicious soup. Top with coriander and feta to serve.

-        Use as layers in a lasagna (esp. veggie lasagna – yum!)

-        Place some good quality sausages (or veggie alternative, like whole baby zucchini or tofu) in a roasting dish, ½ cover with the roasted tomatoes & bake until sausages are well cooked

Too easy!

Oh yes - if you were wondering what the green stuff is in the top photo - it's kale. I use it for green smoothies in the morning but I also love eating it with pasta, so I fried some up with a bit more garlic, chilli and olive oil, then added some of the roasted tomatoes for my pasta sauce this evening. Add to that a bit of chilli pecorino & you're in business!