When Life Gives You (Lemons) Yellow Pear Tomatoes - Part 2

Our surprise Yellow Tomato crop was abundant this year!

After we had many quarts of our yellow tomato sauce in the freezer, there were still hundreds of little gems on our vines.

My master cook, Tony, said we should make some roasted tomato soup with them.  We usually do this with our red plum tomatoes, but since the sauce worked out, 

why not soup??

Here's what Tony did:

On a large baking sheet (with shallow sides) he layered

-tomatoes cut in half

-Vidalia onion slices

-carrot slices

-raw corn cut off the cob

-red bell pepper slices

-hot pepper slices to taste

-garlic cloves

Then he tossed everything with olive oil and added a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.

We put this into a 350 degree oven on convection, 

stirring every 20 minutes, for about an hour or so until the carrots were soft and everything was cooked through.

Tony put the vegetables in our blender with enough chicken stock to make a thick soup consistency.

Here's what it looked like in my lunch bowl!

It was very tasty😋

I poured the soup into plastic quart containers to

keep it in our deep freezer for at least a year.

I can't wait to savor this wonderful summer taste in the middle of January!!

Fresh Yellow Tomato Sauce - The Recipe!

Since tomatoes are in abundance now, why not make some Fresh Tomato Sauce? 

We currently are trying to use our surprise yellow pear tomatoes (that we thought were going to be 

meaty plum tomatoes!).  Since I'm embracing 

my mini yellow pear tomato crop,

I decided to take photos of our efforts!

 They actually make a tasty sauce that I can use

over pasta or on a lasagna.

This heavy stainless steel pan is 12 inches across.  Tony uses an entire head of garlic per pan of sauce.  Yes, that is many chopped cloves!!  Don't be afraid of using garlic for this recipe.  Tony also chopped 2 small chili peppers from our garden for a little heat.  You could sprinkle a few red pepper flakes instead.

Heat the garlic on med-low heat until golden brown, then add your tomatoes.  I pulsed my mini yellow tomatoes in my food processor.  If we were using plum tomatoes, we would cut them in quarters, and then into smaller pieces.

Tony chopped lots of fresh basil and oregano from our garden and added them to the sauce.  Here's a visual for the amount.

Finally, don't forget lots of salt and pepper!

Cook the tomatoes slowly, don't stir, just move the tomatoes slightly in the pan.  Otherwise you will separate the skins and end up with tomato skins floating on top of your sauce.  (If that ever happens, just put the whole batch into a blender and puree it for a smooth sauce.)

After about an hour or so...here's the final product!

I put the cooled sauce in quart containers and keep it in the deep freezer for up to a year.

When Life Gives You (Lemons) Yellow Pear Tomatoes

In May when our hopes were soaring high about summer gardens and planting, Tony bought "Roma" tomato plants from a local nursery.  Obviously the flat was mislabeled because the stalks and leaves grew much larger than any plum tomato plant we ever had.  And also because these were the fruits of our labor:

 My daughter-in-law suggested I write about this unfortunate event in our gardening history.  She even gave me the title:  When Live Gives You Lemons or Yellow Tomatoes

You must understand that it's in Tony's DNA to grow RED meaty Roma tomatoes every summer.  He derives much pleasure from watching the plants grow, staking them, pruning, and then finally, making quarts and quarts of beautiful tomato sauce for the winter.  By this time every year my counter is usually lined with dozens of tomatoes ready for cooking. This year Tony resorted to buying bushels of lovely red plum tomatoes from local farmers and made his sauce.  His disappointment in our harvest didn't stop him!

Last week I decided to pick as many of these small yellow tomatoes as I could and try to cook something with them.  Tony took the lead and made a beautiful sauce flavored with lots of garlic, Italian spices, and Romano cheese.  It looked more like corn chowder than tomato sauce:)

I used it to make a lasagna and it was wonderful!  I also sliced a bunch in half and dehydrated them for pizza toppings.  They really are sweet and delicious.

So I guess my little life lesson here is to be ready for surprises, work with what I have, and not quickly be disappointed.  Sometimes things work out in ways I could never anticipate or expect!