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A few weeks ago I went to a little party in Washington Park in Groton. It took place outside in one of half a dozen “booths,” each of which has concrete floors, a few dark columns, good solid roofs, and wooden picnic tables with ” chairs ”attached.
It was a very laid back party, with pizzas, already grilled chicken wings, and coolers of beer, wine, soda and water. Good thing for all of these things, as the humidity was high and the temperature, at 4 p.m. on a Saturday, was skyrocketing in the 90s.
I had a lovely conversation with Joyce Hedrick, wife of the mayor of Groton City. Even though Groton has less than 45,000 inhabitants, unlike Gaul (as we learned in Latin II, which is in three parts), Groton has five parts: City of Groton, Town of Groton, Noank, Groton Long Point and half of Mystic.
Either way, Joyce and Keith have a vegetable patch. Keith just canned green bean bags that week, but Joyce was going to start making marinara sauce. She wondered if it could be frozen, avoiding the scorching work of canning.
I said I roast and then freeze tomatoes at the end of summer, thaw for stews, embers and sauces. As for concerns about botulism, tomatoes are so sour that they can be frozen raw or cooked, whether sliced, chopped or mashed.
Of course, tomatoes can be made into marinara (chopped and cooked with garlic, onions and seasonings), although I would wait to add fresh basil before serving.
I often buy half a bushel of Roma tomatoes. In a few large baking sheets lined with baking paper, I cut the tomatoes end to end and place them cut side up on the baking sheets, sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
If you roast them in a 250-degree oven for two or three hours, you can wrap them in plastic bags and freeze them. But I found this recipe to be even better. I could double or triple the recipe and freeze it.
Roasted Tomato Sauce
Extract from “The Four Seasons of Pasta”, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins and Sara Jenkins (Penguin, New York, 2015)
Yield: 2 to 3 cups of sauce, enough for 4 to 6 servings
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion, not too thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed and coarsely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of Greek or Sicilian oregano (optional)
About 2 pounds of ripe tomatoes at will
Set the oven to 400 degrees.
Spread 2 tablespoons of oil on the bottom of the roasting pan where the tomatoes will fit.
Combine the onion and garlic in the dish. Add salt and pepper to taste and oregano if using. Stir vigorously to combine everything; spread the ingredients to form a layer at the bottom of the dish.
Cut the tomatoes in half. Embed the ends of the rod. Place halves, cut side down, on top of the onion and garlic layer. Pour the remaining 6 tablespoons of oil on top (you may not need all of the oil).
Bake 45 minutes to an hour. At the end of this time, remove the pan and let the tomatoes cool. Remove the skins and throw them away. Combine all the roasted ingredients and, if desired, chop or puree with an immersion blender. Or leave it as is – the rustic look can be charming too.
Lee White lives in Groton and can be contacted at [email protected].
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