This week your basket contains:  tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, beans, zucchini, cucumber, sweet corn, lettuce, sweet peppers, and carrots.

FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS (the weeks of September 5^th & 12^th) YOUR NOTES MAY NOT HAVE AN ACCURATE LIST OF CONTENTS.  We will be printing your notes in advance because Polly & I have an opportunity to attend a cooking class on a farm in Sicily.  While the timing is less than ideal, it was too good an opportunity to miss.  We will be in contact with our amazing crew (thank you Joe, Gorgonio, and Tabitha!) and will be able to pass along your special requests to them, assuming our WIFI and/or cell phone reception is good.  We will be back for the week of Sept. 19^th and hope to have a lot of new, wonderful recipes to share with you all.

Wow!  The tomatoes are going at full throttle for sure!  The hint below came to us from a subscriber several years ago, and it has become our go to method for preparing the tomato sauce we can every year.

VERY EASY TOMATO SAUCE

I just quarter the tomatoes (any that don’t get eaten within four or five days), cherry and sungold tomatoes I leave whole, quarter an onion or two and place these in a baking dish. Then I peel and add four or five garlic cloves, fresh basil, rosemary, etc. and drizzle a couple of tablespoons of olive oil all over everything. Then I roast it all in allow oven – 300 to 325 degrees, for three or four hours or until everything is mushy. Once it’s cooled, I dump it all in the food processor and voila! thick rich roasted tomato sauce. The most recent batch included a smallish fennel bulb and a coarsely chopped eggplant. The roasting seems to bring out the natural sweetness of those delicious tomatoes.

Below is another great way to use tomatoes.

TOMATO CHUTNEY

6 large tomatoes

2 tsp. chopped fresh ginger

2 tsp black mustard seeds

1 ½ T oil

1 green chili (serrano)

2 dried red chilies

1 tsp tamarind paste

1 tsp salt

½ cup Gur* (aka Jagari)

Heat oil, add mustard seeds and heat until they pop.  Add ginger and chilies, cook for a minute.  Add chopped tomatoes, cooking until soft.  Add tamarind paste and salt.  Cook, reducing it by half (1 hour or more?).  Add gur, cook for several more minutes.  Taste and adjust for desired sweet/tart/salty/hot flavor.  *Gur can be purchased at India Direct, as a solid “brick”.  I break into large pieces, place in pan with a little water and heat to melt.  When it reaches desired consistency, strain through cheesecloth to remove impurities.  This can be stored in the refrigerator for many months.

This recipe comes from Diana Kennedy’s “The Cuisines of Mexico”. Diana writes: “There are hundreds of ways of cooking squash in Mexico, and every cook has her own method and seasoning. This was our maid Godileva’s way of preparing them, and the dish frequently appeared on our dinner table. It has an exotic flavor, and is quite unlike any other squash dish I have come across.”

CALABACITAS CON CREMA

1 ½ lb. diced zucchini

2 medium tomatoes, diced
6 whole peppercorns

4 sprigs fresh coriander
2 sprigs fresh mint
1/2″ stick cinnamon
4 whole cloves
2 whole chiles serranos
1/2 cup light cream
Salt to taste

Combine everything in a pot and cook over a very low flame, stirring occasionally so it does not stick. Add a little water if it looks like it is getting too dry. It will take about 30 minutes to cook, the zucchini should be very soft, the milk or cream should be absorbed with no liquid remaining in the pan. The chilies should remain whole and just flavor the squash — it should not be picante. It is even better reheated the next day.