or What to Do with a Few Yucky Tomatoes...
Submitted by Linda Muth
We have all been there - harvesting in the garden and plucking a couple of big, red, seemingly beautiful tomatoes off the vine, only to discover that the bottom half is rotten or the top is cracked and oozy. In the spirit of "no food goes to waste" you take these ugly tomatoes home.
My general feeling is that tomatoes with blossom end rot, tomatoes which are cracked and red on one side and green on the other, tomatoes which have endured bird pecking or insect nibbling, are a secret bounty. Wash them. Cut off all of the offensive parts, including hard cores, slimy cracks, bite holes and brown rotten spots, and toss the good parts into a sauce pan. Now you are ready to make all kinds of wonderful things like sauce, salsa, preserves...
Yet, if you only end up with a small amount of good tomato stuff in your pot, you might not have the quantity or motivation to create a big tomato recipe or get out the canning jars. This is where I found myself a few days ago...in the kitchen with a small pot of tomatoes and no idea...until...I thought of French Toast! Why not?
Step 1Prepare ugly tomatoes by washing them and cutting off all of the offensive parts. Cut the remaining chunks into 1/2" to 1" pieces over a sauce pan so you can catch all of the juices. For about 2 cups of tomato chunks, add:
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1/2 medium yellow or white onion (or whatever leftover onion chunks are in your fridge), chopped
Herbs (dried or fresh) such as basil, lemon basil, lemon mint, parsley
Fresh ground pepper
Sea salt
Add all ingredients to taste - measuring is not important.
Stew the tomato sauce over medium heat, until it thickens up a bit.
While the tomatoes are cooling, beat 2-3 eggs in a shallow dish. Prepare the rest of your breakfast foods and get your griddle ready. Add about half of the tomato mixture to your eggs. Start by spooning some of the tomato juice in and then add some of the chunkier parts. Do this slowly so that your eggs do not cook from the warm tomatoes.
Soak pieces of bread in the egg and tomato mixture. Mop up some of the chunky parts and place soaked bread onto the griddle (I set mine at 350 degrees). Be sure to cook it all the way through.
Sprinkle freshly grates Parmesan or Romano cheese over the top, or use any grated cheese you might have on hand.
What do you do with a few yucky tomatoes? Send us your favorite recipes which use the gleanings of your gardens!
