DEBORAH CROMBIE: Happy vernal equinox, folks! Or, in other words, SPRING! Although actually spring arrived yesterday, the 20th, at 4:37 p.m. CST. Whether you are already seeing hints or whether veggie garden weather still seems unimaginably far away, here is a recipe to get your summer-anticipation buds going. I made this last weekend from a recipe I saw in Bon Appetit. I'd bought a big tub of Wild Wonder mini-heirloom tomatoes--more than I could eat fresh--and instead of just pan roasting them, I thought I'd try something new. Boy, was I glad I did! This is so incredibly good--hot, cold, on crostini, as a side dish. Or as dessert, seriously! It is so good that I bought another two pound box of tomatoes yesterday!
Here it is for my lunch yesterday, with toasted sourdough and burrata, basil and cracked pepper. This is one of my favorite meals in the world.
SLOW ROASTED TOMATOES
6 SERVINGS
1 1/2 lb. ripe cherry tomatoes
1 head of garlic, cut in half
2 sprigs rosemary
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp. cracked coriander seeds (I used a mortar and pestle)
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
Preheat oven to 350.
Toss tomatoes, garlic, rosemary, oil, coriander seeds, and salt in a shallow 2-qt. baking dish to combine.
Turn one half of the garlic cut side down, then roast tomatoes, tossing 2 or 3 times, until golden brown and very tender, 40–50 minutes. Let cool slightly, then add vinegar and toss to coat.
This is very juicy when it's finished, but I wouldn't cut the amount of oil because the sauce is so delicious.
Enjoy, and dream of summer! When can you start tomatoes in your locale? I bought three big plants yesterday, determined to get them going early, but I think I will have to cover them this next week! And yay, I bought basil and Italian parsley, too!
Yummy . . . this sounds delicious; I’m going to the store to get some tomatoes!
ReplyDeleteGenerally, we plant tomatoes in our garden in late April or early May . . . the Jersey tomato season is usually from mid-July through the first week of August or later, depending on the weather . . . .
You are only about a month behind us, Joan. I'm getting the 2 lb boxes of Wild Wonder tomatoes at Costco. They are so good.
DeleteYum. My favorite kind usually does not come out until summertime - dry farm tomatoes.
DeleteWAAAH, I miss eating tomatoes! I mostly stopped eating them due to my worsening nightshade allergies! Before 2018, I used eat tomatoes all the time. I loved to slow-roast roma or cherry tomatoes in the oven with EVOO, fresh basil and salt and pepper.
ReplyDeleteOttawa is in gardening zone 4a (US) or 5a (Canada). So the garden centres and FM vendors start selling the tomato seedlings in mid-May. Our last frost date is May 21 so late-May planting time is recommended. A cherry tomato harvest may be ready by mid-July, larger tomatoes not until August.
I would hate to give up eating tomatoes, but you have to do what dictator body says...
DeleteROBERTA: I did a try to eat a slice of thin crust pizza which had a tiny bit of tomato sauce on it for 3.14 PiDay. A week later, the body rash has not healed, so yes I am staying away from them for now. I used to eat cherry tomatoes by the handful, like Ann describes.
DeleteGrace, I thought about you as I was writing this! I would be desolate if I couldn't eat tomatoes, but as Lucy says, you have to do what your body dictates. And I eat cherry tomatoes by the handful, too. I just keep them out in the kitchen and eat them like candy.
DeleteGRACE, I am so sorry that you are allergic to tomatoes. I totally understand because I have allergies too - dairy and wheat. I cannot eat cheese or whole wheat because whenever I eat them, I get sinus headaches!
DeleteHope there are still food that you can enjoy that you are not allergic to.
Diana
DEBS: Desolate is a good word to describe not being to eat and use tomatoes in my cooking during the past 3 years. But yes, my body is giving me a message that it cannot tolerate even a small amount of tomatoes or chilis or sweet bell peppers in a dish. I mean, that pizza slice probably had 1 tsp of tomato sauce on it, and I still got a full red body rash.
DeleteGood thing the Ottawa weather is still between -5C/22F to +13C/55F, and I am wearing long-sleeved shirts to cover it up!
Up here on the tundra, much like Grace's climate, we plant on Memorial Day. If we want ripe tomatoes before August, we have to put in mature plants from the nursery, already blooming and setting fruit. I put in seedlings last year, and it took forever to get them to harvest. This year it will be BIG plants! As long as they are in season, I eat tomatoes by the handful daily. We keep a bowl out on the island, like candy, and I grab a handful every time I pass thru.
ReplyDeleteThe only other thing I plant, besides herbs, is yellow wax beans. These are our other favorite summer vegetable, cooked with potatoes, bacon, and a handful of dill. Yum.
Spring arrived here yesterday with lovely weather, lots of sunshine, and blooming crocuses, snowdrops, and winter aconite. Buds are fat on trees and the rhododendrons. I'm ready!
Ann, we had the glorious spring weather here, too, and it's supposed to last until mid-week. But Ottawa is nowhere close to having any spring flowers or buds on trees. That will happen in mid-April, hopefully.
DeleteI am so ready to start my edible balcony garden earlier this year. Last year we had a prolonged cold spring and the FM and garden centres were closed until mid-May or June.
So I started my veggie and leafy greens indoors this winter and have been putting the cold-hardy seedlings/plants such as arugula, kale, radishes, parsley, pak choy and Swiss chard out on my balcony whenever it gets above 5C/40F in the daytime. But nights still get below -5C/22F so I have to lug them indoors. A bit of a workout, lol.
I usually just do tomatoes, some peppers, and lots of herbs, all in buckets. I tried green beans year before last but the plant didn't do well.
DeleteIt looks appetizing Deborah. I admit that the oil quantity frightens me a little. I’m not generally generous with oil.
ReplyDeleteIn Quebec, I often saw frost on the ground even at the beginning of June. Like in Ontario, I can buy plants in may but I’ll probably put it in the ground mi-June to harvest late in August.
Here spring is more synonymous of maple syrup than vegetables or tomatoes. If weather cooperates, the maple trees should flow this week.
I forgot to mention that Quebec produces very good greenhouse tomatoes all year round.
DeleteDANIELLE: You must live in a colder region of Quebec than us in the Ottawa Valley. Our maple syrup season started 2 weeks ago. The sugar shacks in Ottawa and the Outaouais region across the river have adjusted their 2021 season to allow limited groups to book appointments to visit them, tap the trees and buy maple syrup products.
DeleteThe maples flowing must be lovely, Danielle!
DeleteOn the olive oil, it mixes with the juice from the tomatoes. And I'm of the "no such thing as too much olive oil" school:-)
Yummy Debs! What are you doing with all the roasted garlic?
ReplyDeleteIt just sort of oozed into the tomatoes:-)
DeleteYum!
DeleteOh my, how delicious! It will be quite some time before we have real tomatoes here - maybe mid July if I'm lucky. I get plants from the nursery which has given me better results than starting from seed. Same with basil. I have to be careful with the cherry tomatoes though since my dog has been known to eat them out of the garden, even the green ones!
ReplyDeleteI'm never patient enough to start from seed!
DeleteI plant my herbs and tomatoes ahead of the Mother's Day rush at the nursery, sometime in early May. I hang a Boston fern on the porch toward the end of April.
ReplyDeleteThe Boston ferns are in the nurseries here now. I hang them on my porch and on my deck, but we're still in the low forties at night this week, so I will probably wait a bit longer.
DeleteThis sounds So delicious. I love the idea of sourdough bread with it.
ReplyDeleteSo good. That's an artisan sourdough from a local bakery, sliced very thin and toasted until really crispy so that it doesn't immediately go soggy with the tomatoes and olive oil.
DeleteYum!
DeleteThe tomatoes look so luscious, Debs! And that is a great way to use coriander seeds, which I have aplenty. They come from cilantro plants, which I grow, and there are always way too many seeds to use up unless a lot of Indian cooking is happening.
ReplyDeleteJT Ellison shared her roasted tomato sauce recipe with me, years ago, and I've been making that whenever lots of tomatoes were ripe at once. I usually make the first batch the way JT does, and the way you did, with garlic and herbs, and then subsequent batches are all tomatoes and olive oil. Then I freeze them in bags or jars. Nothing better on a dreary winter day than the taste of summer! I'll often add a quart of the roasted tomatoes to lasagna, so good.
All my seeds are ready, we just need to unload the rotary compost bin into the raised beds, along with more soil. We're getting a fence put up around the garden, too, this year, which should make life easier, and protect from the HORDES of deer around here.
KAREN: JT Ellison does share plenty of yummy recipes, you're lucky. I remember sitting at her hosted dinner table at LCC2011 Santa Fe. JT and her hubby were delightful, and they brought several really good bottles of Italian red wine to share at the banquet dinner.
DeleteI wish I had more room in my freezer, Karen! I don't usually plant cilantro because it bolts so quickly here. I did buy a big bunch at the farmer's market yesterday!
DeleteDebs, when I use quart-sized freezer bags I squeeze all the air out, and moosh the contents into the corners, and then flatten the bags as much as possible. They freeze better that way, they stack, and they thaw so much faster, and I can store so much more when they're frozen that way.
DeleteYum!
DeleteLooks yummy! Up here we don't put plants in the ground until Father's Day and we have been known to have our first frost as early as August 15th. Yep, we are in the north country. Since we just moved back, my gardening will be in containers this year. I'm thinking cherry tomatoes are in order and lots of herbs. Definitely going to try this recipe. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteMeant to mention, I love the plate! Perfect for spring.
DeleteThat's an Anthropologie pattern that's not available anymore. So cheerful, isn't it?
DeleteI haven't had my breakfast yet, but that lunch is looking good! We also go for big plants with blossoms and setting fruit when we plant--it's just a matter of getting to the nursery before everything is gone. Last year pickin's were slim to nonexistent!
ReplyDeleteI bought the biggest plants Lowe's had. A Cherokee Purple, a Husky Cherry, and a heat-resistant patio type. Now I have to go on a search for a couple of yellow pear tomatoes--my fave!
DeleteLovely recipe, Debs. Planting is still about a month away, maybe more around here. People don't start to get their home grown tomatoes until around August and then they have one month before anticipating the first frost. Not Texas. We do buy local when it is available and native tomatoes are the best!
ReplyDeleteHappy Spring, loving the sunshine here.
Last year was just awful, wasn't it? We were in lockdown during our normal planting time (now!) and it was mid-May before I dared venture out masked to the garden center, which was picked clean. I did manage to scrounge a few cherry tomato plants but if we don't get them planted in late March/early April, it gets too hot and they won't set fruit. I did have yellow grape tomatoes all summer, and up until the first really hard frost in December!
DeleteOh I am swooning! Yum yum yum. Last year our tomatoes were glorious—we laughed every day about the abundance, and if you remember, last year about this time, laughing was hard to do.
ReplyDeleteWe will definitely make this! Thank you! Would it work without the coriander?
HANK: Your cherry tomato bounty was impressive last year!
DeleteI'm sure it would, Hank, but the coriander does give it such a lovely flavor. You can substitute thyme or something else for the rosemary, too. I did not squeeze the roasted garlic into the finished tomatoes, because I didn't want to overpower the herb flavors.
DeleteYum!
DeleteHmm..I am not fond of rosemary except on lamb. Weird. But garlicky tomatoes with basil and parsley..yum. SO many possible variations!
DeleteANd yes, Grace, remember? whoa. I think the sun was just right.
DeleteIt so happens that I have some grape tomatoes in the fridge. I hope they will work as well. Thanks for the recipe!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they will. I use grape and cherry tomatoes interchangeably. And the Wild Wonders, which are mini heirlooms.
DeleteThat looks SO delicious! And you've inspired me to grow some tomato plants... in pots. I always have a garden full of herbs - chives (thanks to Edith Maxwell) basil sage thyme parsley and oregano. Am I the only one who can't abide rosemary? It smells like mothballs to me. Feh. And I wish we had good sour dough bread -- what I can get here in New England doesn't hold a candle to the sour dough I remember readily available on the West coast.
ReplyDeleteHallie, you could just substitute thyme sprigs in this.
DeleteI've been mulling over trying to grow tomatoes again. I haven't had any luck since we moved here. But I do have a lot of open space in my flower beds now thanks to the deep freeze. My chives survived but I need to buy some basil and spearmint. The jury is still out on whether the rosemary made it or not.
ReplyDeleteAll of our rosemary--and that in the neighborhood-- looks like toast, Pat. I don't have high hopes. I just grow the tomatoes in five gal. buckets. Prepping beds is too much work for me!
DeleteTry cutting the rosemary almost all the way back, and cross your fingers!
DeleteLove tomatoes now. I used to dislike them when I was a kid. Thanks for the recipe. My favorite kind are the dry farm tomatoes from the farmer's market and the local organic grocery shop.
ReplyDeleteHappy Spring everyone! And today is World Down Syndrome Day! I posted a reel in my Instagran stories this morning, And I posted a photo of Spring Colors Book Stack in my IG feed this morning too.
Looking forward to the new Maisie Dobbs novel this week.
Wondering if any of the Jungle Reds authors have books launching this week or next week?
Happy Spring!
Diana
Ah...Reds, count off! I am Sept 14 for HER PERFECT LIFE!
DeleteHank, thanks!
DeleteI love this, Debs - I can almost smell the oil and tomatoes which, yes, is definitely a scent of summer!
ReplyDeleteJulia,
Deleteyes, the smell is definitely a scent of summer!
Diana
Being in south Florida, we are working on tomatoes now. So many store bought plants seems sickly. We're working on a set from Back to the Roots. These are the healthiest looking tomato plants we've ever had, I think. I salvaged the (carefully) pulled seedlings when thinning the group and they are all going gangbusters! We even have flowers.
ReplyDeleteThis recipe will be perfect for the bumper crop I hope we have.
The plants I bought at Lowe's yesterday look really healthy, and they are covered with blossoms!
DeleteNoticed that the cherry tomatoes taste better than the bigger tomatoes. Perhaps the cherry tomatoes are in season now?
ReplyDeleteDiana
Gosh, I totally forgot to stop by the blog this morning! These look so, so good.
ReplyDeleteWhen I have a surfeit of fresh tomatoes in the summer, I always roast them with salt, olive oil, and garlic. Sometimes I buy a surfeit just so I can. I let them cool and then whiz them into sauce in the food processor, then freeze it flat in zip lock bags for winter sauce. I'm pretty sure the freezer is looking empty right now.
If I were starting seeds from scratch, I'd do it now. More likely I'll buy heirloom tomato seedlings in early May and put them in the ground with protection. We won't be eating sun-warmed 'maters until July, alas. Can't wait!