Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The Tomato Harvest

Every year I plant a large number of tomato plants, and this year I focused on some bigger varieties with the aim of a bumper crop.

I been slow posting these pics, but you can see that by mid Sept they veg had well and truly taken over the garden!  The tomatoes were growing like crazy, and some weird mini pumpkins had decided to grow all across the gravel paths!



Alfie started picking a few a number of weeks back;


And I picked a load to ripen up whilst we were away last weekend.  And yes, that one at the front is ONE tomato!


But before then I collected about 1.5kg of ripe toms and made the most awesome sauce.  Its kinda the reason I grew them, I wanted a big stock of sauce ready to go for pasta and pizza bases.


So here's what you do.  In a big stock pot sweat an onion in a good glug (or five) of olive oil.  Add a diced apache chili.  Add your 1.5kg of toms (chopped).  Once they start to reduce and give out a little liquid add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and just under a tablespoon of caster sugar.  Leave over a low heat until it has reduced to the consistency you desire.

When needed, just add a generous handful of fresh basil and it is tomato perfection!

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