September Tomato Work

Tasty ways to use the bits of summer

As the summer begins to wane, I want to capture as much of the local bounty as possible. Little nuggets of flavor in a jar, stashed in my freezer for a winter meal. These types of kitchen projects are the “work” and I assign myself tasks through the week or more as tomatoes languish everywhere in my kitchen ripening, ripening. Here are two inspirations for the fleeting flavor of fresh summer tomatoes

Golden Cherry Tomato and Calabrian Chile Butter 

This is just lovely spread on garlic rubbed toast, tossed with roasted vegetables or potatoes, stirred into beans or pasta. Make a big batch and freeze for holiday gifts. 

Makes 3 cups 

4 cups cherry tomatoes, washed. Larger ones halved (approx 1.5 lbs) 

4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

4-6 branches thyme

½ tsp salt 

⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil 

1-2 tsp calabrian chili, minced.

¼ tsp turmeric 

1 tbsp minced chives

½ tsp thyme leaves, chopped 

Zest of one lemon 

Sea Salt (Maldon would be epic here) and FGP (fresh ground pepper) 

1 pound proper butter** 

Heat oven to 350 degrees 

Place cherry tomatoes on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. 

Add the unpeeled garlic cloves, thyme, salt and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss well to coat everything. 

Place in the middle of a heated oven and roast until tomatoes are jammy, tender, charred and caramelized in spots. Approx 1 hour. Could be 45. Keep checking. You don’t want them burned and dry, but also, too wet and your tomato butter won’t hold.

Remove from the oven and cool. Remove skins from garlic and obvious thyme stems, but keep the crunchy thyme leaves and all the juices. Mash the garlic cloves into the tomatoes. 

Add cooled mixture to a food processor. Add the calabrian chili and turmeric. Pulse a few times to break down tomatoes and garlic, but keep it pretty chunky. Add the room temperature butter to the food processor and pulse again until the butter and roasted tomatoes come together similar to chunky guacamole. Take care not to overprocess. 

Remove tomato butter to a bowl and add the chives, thyme, lemon zest and using a rubber spatula, fold the tomato mixture gently to incorporate.  Taste and add Maldon sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Fold again and place in jars. 

**Fresh Life tips for wellness: 

- the quality of the olive oil and butter count tremendously creating a recipe that is health supportive and you can slather in on anything. 

- For vegans or those sensitive to cow dairy my plant based butter of choice for both quality and ingredient integrity but also flat out damn delicious - Mykinos 

-  For those who can eat animal butter, there are many excellent ones. Look for local, look for goat or sheep butter. Fatworks makes a goat ghee and there is buffalo butter, which is of the same casein molecular identity as sheep and goat rather than cow.

- Only organic cherry tomatoes please and from your farmers market if you run, summer is waning.

- This can also be made in a bowl similar to guacamole, mashing and folding the tomatoes and room temperature butter until desired texture.

Jammy Golden Tomato Confit

Confit means cooked in fat and I love having these roasted tomatoes that can be spooned into soups, braised beans or plucked from the jar and into your mouth! They are also fantastic with a cheese board  or smeared on fresh bread. The tomato and garlic infused olive oil is great drizzled over market greens with a spritz of fresh lemon juice.  

15 medium super ripe yellow (or red) field slicers (or any delicious ripe tomato) 

½ cup extra virgin olive oil 

6 cloves garlic left whole, unpeeled 

6-8 branches of fresh thyme 

Sea salt and FGP 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

Wash tomatoes and cut in half lengthwise. 

Cut each tomato half into thirds or quarters. Distribute evenly between two sheet pans lined with parchment paper. 

Pour over the olive oil and add the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper, splitting between the two sheet pans. Toss to coat and distribute evenly on the pan, taking care not to overcrowd the tomatoes. 

Roast in the oven until the tomatoes have collapsed and release their juices. An hour? Maybe more, keep checking often as soon as the kitchen starts to smell tomato-ey. Cook until the tomatoes are soft but jammy and the juices are becoming concentrated and syrupy among the olive oil and the tips of the tomatoes are beginning to char. 

Remove from the oven and let cool. Remove garlic skin and transfer tomatoes, garlic and juices to glass mason jars or other glass storage containers, tucking more fresh thymes into the jar as desired. 

Refrigerate, moving to the freezer only when the tomatoes are thoroughly chilled to avoid breakage.