Summertime Labor - Tomato Sauce

It's summer and tomatoes flood the Farmers' Markets this time of year. While I am not a fan of raw tomatoes, I do love tomato sauce. This year I've been making Roasted Tomato Sauce. Here is sort of a recipe. Your results may vary, but using your home-grown or your trusted farmers' market vendor should produce tasty results.

First of all, get about 10 pounds of tomatoes. This past Saturday Casselmonte Farm had 10 pounds of organic San Marzano tomatoes for $2.50 a pound at the South of the James Market. Because you are making sauce, the look of the tomato is not as important as the taste. Casselmonte Farm usually carries "seconds" as well, and I will cut those up to make sauce and they are cheaper. Bottom line - obtain some good tomatoes.

Rinse the tomatoes in water and turn your oven on to 425 degrees to preheat.

Cut up the tomatoes and place in a large bowl. Cut away any brown spots and discard or compost. I keep the skin on since I puree at the end and the sauce seems thicker with the skins.

Grab about 7-10 springs or fresh oregano. De-stem and add to the bowl of tomatoes. Oregano is my go-to herb for roasted sauce. Try others like sage, thyme, or even a jalapeno pepper depending on your mood and taste preference.

Roughly chop up a head of garlic (or more or less depending on preference). Add to bowl of tomatoes.

Add a teaspoon of salt and 1/3 to 1/2 cup of olive oil to the bowl of tomatoes.

Gently mix to coat the tomatoes with the olive oil. Vigorous mixing might generate escapees, so be careful.

Get a few rimmed pans (I used four for 10 pounds of tomatoes) and line with parchment paper. My pans are the bottoms of the broiler sets. I have accumulated a few over the years.

Place tomatoes in a crowded single layer on the pan. Pop in the oven and roast for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how brown you want the tomatoes and how much liquid you want to retain.

Let the tomatoes cool.

Once cool, place the tomatoes in batches in a food processor or blender and puree the heck out of them.

The 10 pounds of San Marzanos yielded about 9 cups of sauce. Keep to use right away and freeze in batches.

Delicious. It takes some time, but having a taste of summer in January is worth it. And the sauce is flexible. I can use as is with some fresh tagliatelle or add sauteed onions and ground pork for a meat sauce with penne. Oh the possibilities!

Flowers, Tomatoes, Turnips, and a Poptart - All at SOJ

This past Saturday we had a great time at the South of the James Market. Lots of goodies and the cutest Poptart ever - just waiting to be adopted.

Check out the photos:

Poptart - a cutie pie who wants to be adopted

If you have pics of any of the area markets, please add them to the RVA Farmers Market flickr site.

Still Life by Aryz

Still Life 3 a photo by pjpink on Flickr.

Cool.

SOJ 7/30/2011

At the South of the James Market yesterday we bought orange strawberry tomatoes, onions, green beans, purple hulled peas, parmesan-oregano bread, a whole chicken, goat cheese, and fingerling potatoes. The market is bursting with lots of spectacular produce in a variety of colors.

Here is a weekly sampling of photos:

If you have any photos of any of the local markets, post them here.

Amuse Pictorial

We enjoyed brunch at Amuse last Sunday.

Where Do You Suppose My Hubby Wanted To Go For His Birthday?

Acacia, of course. And we had to sit at the bar (not because the dining room was crowded, but because it's our favorite place to sit at Acacia). And, lucky us, our favorite bartender was there, even though he was supposed to be off.

We had to try a new craft cocktail. For hubby, a Mai Tai with three different types of rum!

For me, bourbon with plum puree and Strega.

I never tire of watching the bartenders here ply their craft. They are very knowledgeable and strive for perfection. This is an art form that stirs all of the senses. Alas, I wax poetic...

For wine, we ordered a bottle of 2008 Torbreck Woodcutter's Shiraz from Barossa Valley. Full bodied, with a touch of spice.

We shared the smoked mozzarella and heirloom tomato salad. We have had this salad before. It's good. Get it while they are still offering it.

For entrees, I had the duck breast stuffed with apple and wrapped in applewood smoked bacon and served with cheesy polenta. All good. Every time I order this dish, I rave.

Hubby ordered the sauteed flounder and he raved about it. For me, I've said it before: I am not a huge fish fan. And I never eat flounder. My better half (at least on this night!) insisted that I try it. Oh ny god!!!!! Superb! If I had known, I would have ordered the flounder. Perfectly sauteed with just a bit of crisp browning and no chewy fishiness at all. I was mightily impressed.

Since it was hubby's birthday, we had dessert. He had a grown up root beer float.

I had the almond financier with cream and cherry compote.

Yummy, yummy.

For the past few years whether it was my husband's birthday or mine or our anniversary, we have not had good luck going out to eat. We hit the jackpot this time and it was at the bar!

Today at SOJ

Today at the South of the James Market we purchased:

White corn on the cob
Fresh Cornish hens
Peaches
Fresh tagliatelle
Garlic
Onions
Cherokee and Brandywine heirloom tomatoes
Hungarian peppers
Zucchini
Chocoalte chip cookies
Chocolate espresso pound cake
Chicken empanada
Blanchard's iced coffee
Koralee Indonesian tea

Here are pictures of the market today:

Support your local farmers. Have fun at one of the many markets in Richmond.

If you ahve any market photos, post them here.

Homemade Pizza

We had pizza last night. Mmmm.

I made the crust in my bread machine using equal parts white flour, wheat flour, and semolina. The sauce was made with yellow tomatoes from Amy's Garden and garlic from Fertile Crescent Farms. The pepper was a purple one from the Chester farmer at South of the James Market. I used home grown fresh basil (what little that is still surviving this heatwave). The sausage was San Miniato from Belmont Butchery. I picked up fresh mozzarella and parmesan from J. Emerson.

Go ahead have another look -

While waiting for the dough to be ready, I enjoyed some rose from La Vielle Ferme

And sipped Saldo while eating.

This Week at SOJ

The SOJ Market tempted us with tantalizing tidbits across the food spectrum. Bison flank steak, whole chicken, Boston butt, orange tomatoes, sweet corn, white potatoes, pale yellow and purple peppers, wild blackberries, verbena shortbread, blt's, Asian pork tako, Blanchard's coffee, and tea from Koralee Coffee rounded out our purchases. And we also bought a new CD from Markiss Blowfish, the Underground Blues Player.

Beautiful weather continued to bless us as we participated in our weekly pilgrimage/party/ritual.

If you have any local market pictures, post them here.