I was looking through the Book Pages flyer at our local library and this book caught my eye: Ten
Tomatoes That Changed the World, a History by William Alexander. We grow a lot of different
tomatoes and I cook with them so this book sounded intriguing.
I usually can’t make it to the end of a dry history book but this one kept me interested to the very last
page. The author took us on a humorous tomato adventure from its origins in Mexico to Europe and
back to the colonies. After several hundred years, from ketchup to pizza to spaghetti sauce the tomato
is now the most popular fruit in the world and is grown on all seven continents. It has come full circle
from heirloom to hybrid to GMO to whatever else you can do to a tomato and back to heirloom.
Noel grows about 25 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes and one hybrid, the sungold cherry
tomato, yum! You can imagine we freeze a lot and there’s very likely at least ten varieties in every pot.
Which brings me (and my word association) to the title of the book. The difference is that our sauce
tomatoes are all tasty heirlooms and not the tasteless hard tomatoes grown for transporting to the
supermarkets, year round, from miles away.
Recipe:
Quantities all depend upon how many people you are feeding.
2 T. olive oil
1-2 quarts (4-8 cups) variety of heirloom tomatoes, fresh or frozen
1 medium onion (1 cup), chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. Aleppo pepper or a dried hot pepper with holes poked in it
1/2 – 1 tsp. salt or to taste
freshly ground pepper
fresh oregano leaves
fresh basil leaves
Sauté the chopped onion in olive oil over medium-low. Add the garlic for about a minute before
adding the tomatoes and spices. Bring to a simmer. This may take an hour or two depending
upon how juicy your tomatoes are and how high your temperature is. I usually put in half the
fresh herbs while cooking then stir in the other half just before serving.
Note: If you don’t care for onions just use more garlic. I also threw in some garlic scapes for flavoring,
which I removed before serving.
Pasta and Salad
Home Grown Tomatoes
The tomato sauce looks fantastic! I will try it out. Please enter me in the monthly giveaway for the cobraheads. I have used it before and find it is super useful.
Please enter for. Drawing
My son loves his Cobrahead which you mailed for Father’s Day!!
He also called it a new back scratcher – ha,ha
Your customer service is the best!
Can’t wait to try this recipe! Thanks!
Please enter me into the drawing. I love your photos of mature trees embracing their houses.
All those tomatoes create a lot of work for Judy but how you must save $ when you do have to go to the grocery store. Please enter me in the drawing.
Will try the sauce recipe today. Please enter me in the drawing. Thanks, Mary Anne Weisiger Weisiger 9@ sbcglobal.net
We only have 3 heirlooms, but now you’ve made me want to make sauce with them. Thank you. Please enter me in the contest.
Your recipe is very similar to mine except for the hot pepper, my wife does not like spicy. I use my paste and slicing tomatoes for my sauce. I wish I had more garden space so I could preserve (freeze and can) more. Do you grow your herbs? What variety of tomatoes do you grow? What variety do you use for your sauce?
Could you please enter my name in your drawing. Thank you
Thanks for sauce recipe – will definitely try yours
And please enter my name for the drawing- we got rain so now we have weeds- need a couple cobras for garden club