I never tire of eating the tomatoes I grow in my garden. Our tomato harvest has been positively phenomenal this year (you can see some instagram photos of my tomatoes below), so I thought it would be fun to write up an epic tomato blog post. I’m going to give you one of my new favorite recipes for fresh tomatoes, along with 50 other ideas (from my blog archives and other bloggers) for using them!
Let’s talk about the quick tomato sauce first. In past years, I have water-bath canned my own tomato sauce and wasn’t that thrilled with the results. I far prefer to make and enjoy this sauce when tomatoes are abundant, and to freeze any leftovers. (Now if someone can tell me how to make a home-canned sauce that tastes like Rao’s, I’ll be ecstatic!).
I make this with my homegrown San Marzano tomatoes. San Marzanos are a type of plum tomatoes: they have thicker flesh and fewer seeds than other tomatoes, and I grow them every year because they have terrific flavor and are perfect for making sauces, tomato paste, etc. If you don’t have access to San Marzanos, use a variety of plum tomatoes that’s easier to find- such as Romas- for this sauce.