Tomato Salsa & Spaghetti Sauce

I picked a few more tomatoes today and also grabbed a couple red jalapeno peppers. So, it occurred to me to make some salsa! Duh! I haven't had a clue what to do with the peppers and I'm running out of tomato ideas, so there ya go: salsa.

Ingredients:
4 large tomatoes, chopped
2 red jalapenos, seeded & minced
1 small shallot (any onion is fine)
1 tsp ground cumin
a few whirls of freshly cracked pepper and salt

Mix together in bowl, check spices, chill.

Last night I made spaghetti. It turned out pretty good. I winged it and did not follow a recipe, but i sort of followed my grandmas recipe from memory.

Ingredients:
Sweet Italian Sausage
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large Walla Walla onion, chopped
1 small shallot, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 carrots, sliced
8 oz mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 cups stewed tomatoes (mine were fresh from my garden! :) or a 15 oz can.
28 oz can tomato sauce
6 oz can of tomato paste
15 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp each: oregano, thyme
8-10 basil leaves, torn
1 Tbsp sea salt
2 large bay leaves
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup water
Fresh pepper to taste

Brown sausages; set aside.

Saute vegetables in until soft, about 10-15 mintes. Add remaining ingredients (except for the sausages), bring to a boil, turn to low, and simmer for about 2 hours. Add more water if needed, check frequently for spices. Add the sausages the last 30-45 minutes. Yield: 8 servings.

Serve over hot pasta. I used half regular linguini, half whole wheat linguini. Its a good way to trick the kids. :)

Caprese Salad

I made a beautiful Caprese salad with more tomatoes from my garden. I chopped up 4 medium tomatoes, threw in some pearl mozzarella, torn basil (from my window garden), freshly ground salt & pepper, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and some red wine vinegar. Its all marrying together in the fridge, so in about an hour it will be perfect. Its also good at room temperature.

Stewed Tomatoes

I had a ton of ripe tomatoes from my garden that I needed to do something with, so I decided against canning, but rather to stew them. I'd never stewed tomatoes before--it was really easy and I'll do it again, I'm sure. I didn't follow a recipe, just common sense.

First, you boil some water then drop in a few tomatoes at a time. Leave in until the skin bursts (I scored the "belly button" first), remove with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl filled with cold water until they are cool enough to peel.

Meanwhile, in a large pot, saute some bell peppers & onion in butter until soft. Hand crush the peeled tomatoes into the pot, add some salt, pepper, a little bit of sugar, some basil, & a few bay leaves. Bring to a boil; simmer for about 2 hours, covered. Remove bay leaves, let tomatoes cool, then transfer to quart size freezer ZipLocks and store in freezer until needed for your next recipe that calls for stewed tomatoes.