Summer Tomato Sauce

Pablo Neruda in his Ode to Tomatoes writes: "...the tomato, star of earth, recurrent and fertile star, displays its convolutions, its canals, its remarkable amplitude and abundance, no pit, no husk, no leaves or thorns, the tomato offers its gift of fiery color and cool completeness."*

It has been a fertile summer for tomatoes in Ontario - hot with little rain. I tend to buy baskets of the small, vine-ripe tomatoes which I find have less chance than the big, beefsteak kind of being mealy. To be honest, I've never been a huge tomato fan. I've typically found them too acidic and oddly unsatisfying. The pasta dishes I prefer our often non-tomato based. But recently I've been exposed to the delicious simplicity of a straight-up pureed fresh tomato sauce tossed with fresh pasta and it was exquisite. I'm preparing my own fresh tomato pasta sauce and it's as simple as 1-2-3.

Adapted from Anna Thomas's The New Vegetarian Epicure:

Summer Tomato Sauce
Makes about 3 cups of sauce

3 lbs. ripe tomatoes
1 tbsp green olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Scald the tomatoes in boiling water for 45 seconds and slip off their skins. Trim their stems and process briefly in a blender or food processor until thick and not too thin and liquid-like.

Heat olive oil in a saucepan and add the garlic. Stir for about a minute, then pour in the tomatoes. Add the basil and a little salt and pepper and cook the sauce on medium for half an hour or until reduced by a third.

Use immediately or keep, covered, in the refrigerator for several days.

Another delicious bounty of late summer are BEETS! The thought, the smell, the taste of beets have induced my gag reflex since I was a child. About a year ago, I tried a co-worker's salad that her boyfriend had made for her and it included grated fresh beets and grated carrots. The combination is a common item in many salads in vegetarian/vegan restaurants because of the earthy combination of their flavours but for me it represented something beautifully vibrant, locally harvested, dirt cheap, and rich in vitamins and minerals to add some zip to my lunchtime salads. This Sunday salad included organic raw pumpkin seeds, Mexican queso fresca cheese, grated Ontario beets, avocado chunks, sunflower sprouts and romaine and baby spring lettuce tossed in a light oil and vinegar dressing.

*excerpted from Selected Odes of Pablo Neruda, University of California Press c. 1990

Comments

[Alexandra]

That salad sounds and looks delicious. I may overcome my worries regarding beets and try that...

[Mats Flemstrom]

O.K. Daphne, I give up - WHERE in Chatelaine are you featured???

Mats

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