Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

I love tomatoes. Really, I do but lately they have been taking over my life. Seriously, I am running out of ideas of things to do with them. Every day I go out into my little garden and there are at least four or five more that need to be picked. I have had tomato sandwiches, salad, soup, sauce, salsa, bruschetta......the list goes on and on! It's funny how in the winter all we talk about is how we are looking forward to that first garden fresh tomato sandwich. Now, it's no more tomatoes, PLEASE!



I have to admit though, last night, thanks to all those tomatoes, I made the BEST marinara EVER! I had a pile of tomatoes on the counter that were starting to get funky so I cooked them up. It will be a cold day in hell before I willingly waste food. Basically, I squished them into a pot and boiled them down. Once cooked I ran them through a food mill that I borrowed from my mom. (Thanks Mom!) The result was a very watery tomato sauce. I put that in the fridge for a couple of days while I tried to think of something to do with it. I would have frozen it but my freezers are still jam packed. Since I was feeling particularly lazy yesterday, I decided that we would have pasta for dinner. I figured it would be a perfect way to use up that watery squished tomato stuff that was hanging out in the back of the refrigerator. Rather than make a traditional meat sauce that would require more effort than I was willing to put forth, I poured all of squished tomato stuff into a large pot, brought it to a boil, and cooked the pasta directly in it. My reasoning was that the dried pasta would absorb the excess water and the starch would thicken it up into a nice sauce. For once I was right! YAY Success! While the pasta was cooking I added some salt, chopped garlic and some fresh basil and oregano from the garden. The end product was AWESOME! I ate it until I thought I would burst!



This afternoon I think I will cook up some more tomatoes as the garden is full of ripe ones again. Take that tomatoes! You will never overtake me! HA HA!