Wednesday 21 November 2012

Using up the last of the tomatoes



Some days I just can't eat meat and nothing would tempt me to even try. Today is such a day. So what can I make that is vegetarian?

The last of the home grown tomatoes were picked about a week ago and a punnet of them have been sitting on the worktop ever since. They kept on saying 'what are you going to do with me'? Well I didn't have the answer until today when I realised they were getting past their best and a healthy...or not so healthy white fur was growing in the bottom of the punnet. I hate waste so knew I had to do something.

I picked out the ones not affected by the mould, yellow, red and green in various shapes and sizes, washed them and then put them in a pan with a bit of water and brought them up to the boil. I simmered the tomatoes  until soft and tender then rubbed them through a sieve to make a puree and was then able to discard the skins. There wasn't enough puree to make a pasta sauce so I improvised and decided to saute some chopped onion with a withered but perfectly OK yellow pepper in a touch of olive oil until tender, then added the previously cooked tomato puree, a squirt of garlic puree, some mixed herbs and a jar of basic tomato pasta sauce with herbs. I then allowed it to heat through before turning off the heat and allowing it to cook gently with the remaining heat from the hob.



The sauce was satisfyingly good on pasta twists with a dusting of grated hard cheese and some chopped celery leaves and though my carnivore of a  husband added slices of smoked sausage to his, I opted to have it 'as it comes'.  Mmmmmm, very nice!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Followers