Made: The Tomato Chronicles 1.3

Part III: Pasta with Raw Tomato Sauce

So the last time I was here, on this blog, yammering away, I was going on and on about a summer composed lasagna or whatever the foodie term is. I had rushed out to buy even MORE tomatoes, and I was going to make this dish, and it was going to be fantabulous. And then I disappeared for a bit. You're probably thinking, girl, those tomatoes are going to be no good to you if you're going to let them sit and sit. Well, do not fear! I did not let those tomatoes go to waste. I did make a version of a pasta dish I described to you, but it was lunch time and I was hungry and I didn't know where my camera was at the moment, or maybe it was low on battery life, and the point is I ate it without taking a picture of it, so there.

However, I was thinking of you, dear reader (and that means you, Kev), the whole time and I knew I would have to make this dish again because it was 1. delicious and 2. easy-peasy. But in usual fashion, I did not make the dish I set out to make. Mostly out of laziness, but partly because I'm trying to clear out my fridge a little so I've been trying to minimize my grocery shopping (basically, it's impossible), I made a modified version of it.

Made: The Tomato Chronicles 1.2

Part II: Gazpacho

Let me start by apologizing for my horrible photo. I'm not a photographer in any sense of the word. I own a simple point-and-shoot, and I took this at night with horrible lighting. So if the soup looks less than appetizing, I'm sorry! It's delicious and more than worthy of being made and eaten.

With that out of the way, let's talk gazpacho. Cold soup is not for everyone, but to me, nothing is better on a hot summer day than a bowl of cool, delicious gazpacho. When the vegetables are at their peak, there really are few better ways to showcase their deliciousness. I've made all kinds of variations on gazpacho, mostly utilizing tomato juice (low sodium because I like to control the amount of salt added). However, I've experimented with some atypical ingredients and have whirred chinese white radish into a batch of of gazpacho, and made a raw beet gazpacho that is ridiculously amazing. I've made versions with a latin american slant, using lime, cilantro, and chiles. Every which way you can make gazpacho, you can bet I'll love it.

Made: The Tomato Chronicles 1.1

Part I: Tomato Jam

My friend's parents "gifted" (i.e. we don't know what to do with all these tomatoes) him with a bounty of tomatoes from their garden when they visited him recently. Being the hip young single that he is, he was all, "I don't need no stinkin' tomatoes," and promptly tried to the fob them off onto me. I was amenable to this since there's nothing I like better than to figure out a way to cook 5 lbs of tomatoes (this is a false statement; I do like some things better). And so it was that I embarked upon this mad mad project, at the end of which I should have four amazingly wonderful tomato dishes.

The first dish I attempted to make was Tomato Jam. I ran across this recipe after my friend asked me to what do with a huge bunch of tomatoes. I first saw it on the Homesick Texan, and found it also on the New York Times website, with a recipe by Mark Bittman. I showed him the link, and then somehow, he decided giving me the tomatoes was the better option. Then, coincidentally enough, a day or two later, one of the constestants on Top Chef DC made a tomato jam as part of one her dishes. It seemed the universe was telling me to make tomato jam, and I'm not about to ignore the universe.