Have Tomatoes, Will Travel

The peak growing season is winding down and I am determined to eat as many summer tomatoes as possible. While visiting my sis in Southern California, that was easy enough to accomplish. In her backyard garden, there are tomato plants taller than me!

We spent one morning picking and preserving a whole bunch of Romas, making a super simple sauce that we simmered and ladled into freezer bags. It will be the foundation she can later build on, turning it into anything from eggplant parm to a fiery enchilada sauce. The flavor of those sturdy plum tomatoes was absolutely delicious on its own, having an almost meaty quality. Making the sauce involved sauteeing some chopped garlic in olive oil, adding halved tomatoes and covering with a lid until they've broken down a bit. Once the tomatoes turned sort of saucy, I mashed them further with a tater masher. Added a little salt at the end, simmered for 20 minutes and it was bursting with fresh, bright flavor. So good!

When it came time to pack my bags, I tried to figure out to take a little bit of the Sunshine State home. Hmm. How to transport? Scanned the kitchen and spotted an empty egg carton! It worked!

While the container of green mole did NOT make it through TSA screening -- it might not be "liquid" but it's considered a paste, like peanut butter and that is a no-no -- the carton of tomatoes were not a problem.

So, I re-created that sauce last night and served it on top of grilled eggplant, finished in a flurry of shaved Pecorino. It was a big hit at the dinner table, keeping the tomato season sizzling along a little longer.

-- Leslie Kelly

My Favorite No-Cook Tomato Sauce

Hot dang! We're having a rare heat wave in Seattle, which gives everybody the chance to grumble about the constant need to wipe their damp brows. But not me!

This native Californian soaks it up (while sipping iced tea, sangria and all sorts of chilled bevies) because I know cold weather and gray skies are just a few weeks away.

Fortunately, the sizzling temps coincide with the welcome arrival of summer tomatoes and that means batches and batches of my no-cook tomato sauce, a cross between gazpacho and bruschetta topping. It's inspired by a recipe I made many years ago, not even sure what the origin of it is. But over the decades, I've tweaked it enough to make it mine. This is so easy and gets even better if you let it sit for a while before serving. Pour it over hot pasta, or treat it like an Italian salsa, scooping it up with crostini.

No-Cook Tomato Sauce

2 pounds summer tomatoes (in the winter, you can fake it by using grape tomatoes)
1 clove garlic
3 scallions
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
salt and pepper, to taste

Quarter the tomatoes and set aside. With the blade running on your food processor, drop the clove of garlic in and let the machine run until it's minced. Add the scallions, including the green parts and pulse 3, 4 times until chopped. Add the tomatoes and pulse until roughly chopped. Then, with the machine running, dribble in the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Top with additional chopped basil and shaved Parm or crumbled feta.

Serves 4.

-- Leslie Kelly