Last week, I started out with this many tomatoes, and I was very proud:
On Sunday, during the marvelous visit from the marvelous H., we picked this many tomatoes:
Today, there are this many tomatoes:
The fruit on the tomato plants are beautiful, but the plants themselves are suffering. They have bacterial wilt, according to my new entomologist friend who came out to the garden last week. They look awful -- they look DEAD, really. On the plant that's the most affected, pretty much every leaf is brown and crispy. And at least half the leaves are dead on every tomato plant except the cherries and grapes, which are just starting to show signs of the dreaded disease.
I'd tried to be careful about not letting the plants touch, but it didn't seem to do much. There's some small comfort to be found in the fact that everyone's tomato plants in the whole community garden seem to be brown and crispy as well, and that my friend says it's carried in the soil and there's nothing you can do and it shouldn't affect the fruit that's already on the plants because they're fed through the stems... but it's a little hard to watch the lush green plants go this way.
Ah well, I will have to eat some spaghetti or something to compensate. Send sauce recipes that do not involve canning or blanching or anything difficult.
9 comments:
Backyard Basil Pasta Sauce
From the kitchen of: Noelle DeFazio
Olive oil
1 heaping tbsp. minced garlic
1 ½ onion, food processed
basil (2-3 bunches, leaves only, food processed)
parsley (2 bunches, leaves only, food processed)
2 28-oz cans tomato sauce (in your case -- equivalent of whole tomatoes, pureed)
handful grated Romano or Parmasean cheese
½ pint heavy cream
Food process onion, basil and parsley to small pieces, but don’t puree. Coat pot with olive oil, add garlic, cook for 10-30 seconds. Add onion, basil, parsley, salt and pepper, and sauté until tender. Add cans of sauce and mix. Re-season with S+P to taste, simmer on low heat, about 40 minutes. Turn off heat, pour in cream and cheese, mix.
Makes about 10 cups (freezes well).
Thanks, Noelle! Do you still put the cream and cheese in if you want to freeze it, or do you leave those out until you defrost and are ready to eat it?
My tomato plants also look sad and wilty. And there are still tons of little green tomatoes on them - I need them to power through!
So, assuming I do eventually get a bounty of wee tomatoes, this is what I'm doing with them:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/slow-roasted-tomatoes/
ps. that picture of you is so very cute!
Get thee a Food Saver! No canning required...it can be used for just about everything except mushrooms (too watery I suppose). If you lay them right when you freeze them you'll be able to stack them in your freezer after they're hard. Love my lovely food saver. (Yes, I know it's very 1950's housewife of me to have one)
I have nothing whatsoever to add about recipes, except to say that you are ADORABLE in your Portrait with Tomatoes. That's my favorite Gwen photo in a long time. FAVORITE!
I LOVE that you placed the first two tomatoes on the 'Elements of Style.' What isn't Strunk and White good for? ;)
Why not make a spaghetti without traditional sauce? I can't remember what this is called -- pomodoro, maybe?
Olive oil in the pan, add diced garlic, onion if you want. Dice tomatoes, throw them in the pan and cook just a little. You could add basil and/or squash to this if you wanted, too. Pour the whole thing over spaghetti.
Yup, I have totally been making some version of that for a couple weeks now with the cherry and grape tomatoes (and with roasted tomatoes plus squash and onions), but I was looking for something I could freeze. Although I don't know, maybe that would be OK too?
And Ann, I have totally made that exact recipe! Great minds. I've actually found that I prefer the ones roasted at a super high heat and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic -- Smitten Kitchen had a recipe for that at some point too -- but it doesn't make the house smell as good as the slow-roasting.
Kelly: Is a food saver big? If it takes up counter space, I don't think I can swing it. But I like the '50s version of you using it in an apron and heels.
J: S&W is good for some things, although I had an argument about serial commas in a press release with someone at my new job. Press release = AP style, don't care if Str*nk and Wh*te both went to C*rnell, leave the commas out of it. :)
Oh, and Angie, H*fk took that photo! I should have given her a credit.
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