Good morning and welcome to SMGB! It is the peak of summer here in my neck of the woods and the tomatoes are really getting going! I have been getting a good handful of little Sun Gold grape tomatoes and some Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes just about every day now and the Beefsteaks are coming along nicely but slower. My feature photo was the first Beefsteak to ripen. It weighed in at just over 6 ounces! In my past experience with growing tomatoes on my patio I’ve never tried a big variety before so 6 oz is a nice big size comparatively.
Now fresh tomatoes are a delight on their own in a sandwich.
This is from my What's for Dinner? v8.3: Tomatoes that I wrote here some years ago:
When you have one beautiful fresh tomato I say make a tomato sandwich. I like to keep it simple and just toast some bread, spread with a bit of mayonnaise, layer on the slices of tomato and season with salt & pepper. Slice in half and enjoy. It's so simple it's almost criminal how good it is when you have a good tomato.
BLT’s are a serious matter to my sweetie so when he read an article about making the best BLT he had to make one and that has become a steady meal in our rotation.
The Best BLT Sandwich Recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt - Serious Eats
(The secret really is all about toasting the bread in that bacon grease, IMHO)
Next let’s have some fun with the small varieties!
Little tomatoes are wonderful in salads just as they are but I also like to roast them for this lovely tart:
-from A Chef's Kitchen
Ingredients
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (from a 17.3-ounce package), thawed
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 8 ounces (approximately 3 cups) cherry tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup good-quality ricotta cheese
- 2 scallions, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil plus 4-5 large leaves cut chiffonade (thinly sliced)
- Zest of 1 large lemon
- Good quality balsamic vinegar, for drizzling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Unfold puff pastry onto a large piece of parchment paper. Roll the pastry out another 1/2-inch to 1-inch. (Correct to a square as needed).
- Using a straight edge, score the pastry approximately 1/2-inch to 1-inch from the edge, being careful to not cut all the way through. Brush the crust with the beaten egg.
- Bake for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool.
- Place cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and black pepper, to taste. Roast for 12-15 minutes or until beginning to soften and burst.
- Meanwhile, combine ricotta cheese, scallions, parsley, basil and lemon zest. Carefully spread over the baked crust.
- Top with the cherry tomatoes and sprinkle with the thinly sliced (chiffonade) basil.
- Drizzle with good quality balsamic vinegar and cut into 4 pieces. Serve immediately.
Or you can treat them to a gentle saute in a skillet to make the vinaigrette in this salad:
Pasta Salad With Crispy Salami & Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette
Roasting is also a great way to make a base that you can then freeze and use for soups and sauces later!
Oven roasting tomatoes
- You just take your tomatoes and cut the larger ones in half. Since they are getting roasted this is a great way to use up your less-than-perfect specimens!
- Place them cut sides up on a foil-lined baking sheet, then drizzle them with olive oil.
- Season liberally with salt & pepper.
- You can add sprigs of thyme, oregano, rosemary, etc. as you desire. Toss a few peeled whole cloves of garlic on there too! The roasted garlic cloves can be separated out and smashed up then added to your tomato sauce or added to things like mayo for a great sandwich spread.
- Roast at 425 degrees for 10-20 minutes, until starting to brown and releasing their juices.
- You can then dump this into a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and press out the skins and seeds. The good stuff can be used to add to soups and sauces.
I just had to make a fresh Caprese salad with all my fresh basil and tomatoes after seeing this video:
I love how in prepping the tomatoes he just cuts them any which way to showcase their juicy colors! I pretty much did the same thing using an assortment of tomatoes leaving some of the small ones whole.
Other stuff in my garden is coming along nicely, I’ve got cucumbers growing and getting bigger!
My basil is doing great which I love! The green bell pepper had one small fruit already then it shot up and is flowering some more. The jalapenos are getting big but no flowers yet. The Habanada is the no-heat habanero variety I got and started from seed earlier this summer. It is still so small! I am hoping this hot weather will spur it to take off soon.
Things I’ve learned this year growing tomatoes in containers: MUST GET CAGES NEXT TIME!! (Note, I have in previous seasons grown tomatoes in these same buckets but they were smaller varieties) Staking just did not work well for me as I lost a couple of plants due to being top-heavy.
I’m also planning to switch to the grow bags. Thanks to our resident tomato “king” DHM I found some great info and recommends for affordable ones that I think will solve some of my issues with the buckets in terms of drainage too. And thanks to robctwo as well for the rec on using bags instead of plastic. I was pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive they are and I discovered they make milk crate liners too!! I have 3 old ones just begging to be put to better use.
Heh, isn’t it true that a gardener is always learning and planning for next year’s garden while tending this year’s?
So that is what’s going on in my garden. What tomato recipes do you look forward to making when your tomatoes are ripe? Canning? Freezing? Tell us in the comments! And thanks for stopping by!