Cherry Tomato Recipe

If your garden is anything like mine, you have more cherry tomatoes than you know what to do with. Of course, there's always the cherry tomato salads and other common recipes to make and... let's be honest - we can only give away so many before people start saying, "Thanks, but no thanks!"

Here's a few ideas of mine that might be new to you or not (always pick off the green tops, rinse in cold water and place the strainer on the counter on a towel):

Add a layer of tomatoes (or slightly more) to the largest baking dish you have (I use my 17" x 10.5" glass lasagna pan). Add a head of garlic cloves, peeled but whole. Drizzle all with extra virgin olive oil and toss with hands to coat. Sprinkle with salt (to taste) and place in a 450 degree oven for 20 minutes. The house is going to smell like an italian resturant...yum!

Take out of oven and let cool enough so you can pop each tomato out of its skin. Toss the skins away and do your "popping" over a large dish to catch everything else that you're going to keep (and this includes all the juice left in your baking dish so don't forget to pour THAT into your bowl as well!).

Next, I fill up (usually half way) quart size Ziplock Freezer Bags (you may use any size that's good for your family) with tomatoes and juice. I also toss in 2 or 3 garlic cloves, squeeze out the extra air, seal and freeze.

From this point, you can unthaw and add them to your homemade spagetti sauce, etc.  Something new that I just started doing is making soup with them. Here's how I do it (simple AND quick!):

Brown ground beef and drain (a pound or so is enough for your first time. After that, you can adjust the amounts to fit your family). Place back in pot, mince up thawed garlic cloves and add to pot, add thawed tomatoes (I add 3 bags), salt to taste and heat through. That's it! It's a simple tomato and ground beef soup. You could also use ground turkey or maybe even ground italian sausage for more of an italian spin on this soup. Pasta or rice (we prefer brown) could be added. We actually add rice to our bowl and latel the soup on top (pasta AND rice soak up a lot of juice). I make this in small batches. That's why I only use a pound of meat and quart size bags of tomatoes. Obvisouly, you can adjust these amounts to fit your family. :)

This quick and easy soup is perfect for this time of year (mid-September) with the cool nights and days on the increase. Enjoy!   -Michele