Yes! We still have a few ripe garden tomatoes.
It has frosted here in Central Illinois and the tomato plants are gone from the garden which means the remaining green and half ripe ones are in the garage to slowly finish ripening. End of the season tomatoes are not sizeable enough for slicing, although diced or quartered onto a salad still tastes fresh and amazing. Most of the remaining will be used as cooking tomatoes. Only a few are ripe at a time, so it becomes a challenge to use up varying amounts.
The Options
One option I have used is to juice a couple of small batches and store each in the refrigerator until there is enough to justify getting out the canner. Using this method, I canned 6 more quarts of juice. Now we have the base for 6 more pots of chili, or with some additional seasoning, this could be 24 more Bloody Mary’s.
Now on the kitchen counter awaits another small group of tomatoes. What to do with these?
A fresh sauce perhaps? Cooked and pureed with Italian seasonings, these will give a taste of summer in a lasagna or some other pasta dish.
Or maybe chop along with the end of the garden peppers and make a season ending fresh salsa.
Following the directions in a previous post about Sunshine Mary’s, I could do a traditional, fresh Bloody Mary with these small numbers of tomatoes.
What if I consult the Julia Child cook books and try a French dish with tomatoes?
The possibilites abound. Any of these will make for a fine meal.
And the winner is…..
Come back next week to find out what delicious creation I made.
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