my obsession with tomatoes this summer

Yes, this summer I am obsessed with tomatoes.  And not those fat, golden, juicy heirlooms (more on those later) but the sturdy standards of tomato land, the beefsteak tomatoes that the Mexican guy at the farmers market sells every week. They are firm and yet not hard, they smell delicious, they are acidic and meaty and not watery and not too sweet. Every Wednesday or Saturday morning I go to the market and buy about ten bucks worth (and he tosses in a couple extra) and I bring them back and put them on the kitchen counter and I look at them. Then I do one of three things:

1. I pick the most ripe tomato, I slice it thick, I lightly toast two slices of really good bread, spread them with mayonnaise, lay slices of tomato on one piece of bread, sprinkle them with a bit of salt and pepper, top it with the other lightly toasted slice of bread and smush it carefully with my hands so the juices run onto the bread but the tomatoes stay inside the toast.  Then I eat it over the sink, in about four bites. That tomato is perfect, as is the bread, the perfect summer sandwich.

2. I put about eight tomatoes in a large bowl, pour very hot water over them, wait about 30 seconds and take the tomatoes out, one at a time, peel the skin off and set them aside. When they are all done I core them, cut them horizontally, squeeze the seeds out over a fine mesh strainer so I get all the juice without the seeds, cut them into chunks and toss them in a good sized saucepan and cook them slowly for about 45 minutes with salt and pepper. Mash them up with a potato masher.  Let cool, put into pint containers.  Freeze.

3. Core them, cut into quarters, put them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and freeze them.  Once frozen, put in zip locked bags, squishing out as much air as possible and keep in freezer. Perfect for sauce or in stews and soups.
The skins come right off when they are frozen. 

And the newest thing, just done today because a guy at work gave me about ten pounds of mostly heirlooms from his garden that were mostly overripe:

4. Core them. Cut in half horizontally and fish out some of the seeds with your fingers. Put in a hotel pan (or a deep sided large pan or cookie sheet), sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper and put in a 325-350 oven for an hour, take out and gather up most of the juice and put back in oven, crank it to 400 for another 20 minutes.  The tomatoes melt, the skins pop off like a prom dress and that juice you saved can be used in soup or risotto or sauce.  So easy and so good. I suppose you could add some sliced garlic and onion but I like it pure and simple.

Heirlooms are great, esp if you are going to do a platter of them sliced with basil and good olive oil, but for sauce they are too seedy and too juicy for me.  That's why the 4th option above works so well.  The juice gets captured for some other purpose and the heat cooks them down a bit so they collapse and concentrate.

In the cold of winter, what better thing than fresh tomatoes. Sauce, soup, stew, casseroles, they are all so much better with frozen summer tomatoes. No duh.

.