Tomatoes in the Winter

On February 22, 2008 in Recipes, Tomatoes

Once a week, on recycling day, I become fully aware of just how many tomatoes that I eat, my bin overflowing with washed and unlabeled empty tomato cans. During the winter, when tomatoes are woefully out of season, I resort to the tinned variety to whip up some tomato sauce for whatever purpose. Canned tomatoes are a perfect ingredient to remind me of summer, even if February still seems like an impenetrable barrier from spring. Their freshness is preserved in the can from when they were picked at their peak.

Although tomatoes are available year round in the supermarket, the watery globes available in the winter are bland and inedible. The one tomato product to grace the produce shelves that still has some redeemable qualities are the tiny cherry or teardrop tomatoes. The smaller tomatoes are typically sweeter than the larger varieties and still quite palatable, even in the coldest months. Since they can still be a touch bitter during the winter season, roasting them is a great way to bring their natural sweetness to the forefront. In fact, roasting any vegetable will caramelize its natural sugars and make them taste sweeter. Bell peppers, onions, garlic, and any root vegetables, which are fantastic during the winter anyway, such as carrots and parsnips, are great examples of this.

Charred Tomato Salad
Charred Tomato Vinaigrette
  • 1/2 cup cherry or teardrop tomatoes, halved
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • A hefty tablespoon of good balsamic vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons maple syrup or honey
  • 1 clove of crushed garlic
  • Salt and black pepper to taste
  1. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees
  2. Toss tomatoes with the olive oil, put in a baking dish and toss them into the oven. Bake them until their skins blacken. You could also add some thin slices of red bell pepper, red onion or whole garlic cloves at this point, if you wish.
  3. Remove the tomatoes from the oven when they’re blackened, allow them to cool slightly and then remove the charred skins, leaving behind delicious, sweetened pulp.
  4. Put the vinegar, maple syrup and garlic into a bowl. Gradually whisk in the oil and tomato juices to make a vinaigrette. Gradually whisking in the oil to the vinegar helps it emulsify. If you add it all at once the oil and vinegar will stay separate and it’s not as great of a dressing.
  5. Taste this and add salt and pepper as desired, then gently mash in the tomatoes.

This makes a great sauce for roasted or grilled meats (pork, chicken, fish, kebabs, etc.) or as a salad dressing. I like it just with some raw baby spinach and some Parmesan curls, as pictured.

Basic Tomato Sauce
Basic Tomato Sauce
  • 1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 16 ounces canned whole tomatoes
  • sugar and salt to taste
  1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat with the chili flakes, garlic and bay leaf, stirring occasionally.
  2. Once the garlic begins to turn lightly golden, add in the tomatoes and their juice.
  3. Allow the tomato sauce to simmer until the tomatoes begin to naturally break apart. Depending on the quality of tomatoes this can take 20 minutes or more than an hour.
  4. Puree or mash the tomatoes to your desired consistency and add tomato paste to thicken, if necessary.
  5. Since canned tomatoes can be a touch acidic, add sugar to balance and season with salt to taste.

This is just a basic tomato sauce. Sometimes I add onion, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I add other vegetables. Sometimes I add white wine, sometimes I add red wine. Sometimes I add herbs. Sometimes I add cream. It doesn’t take much to make a good tomato sauce. It doesn’t take hours to cook.

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