{"id":1154,"date":"2016-09-15T14:42:19","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T18:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/?p=1154"},"modified":"2016-11-16T14:21:16","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T19:21:16","slug":"tiptoeing-away-and-taking-tomatoes-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/?p=1154","title":{"rendered":"Tiptoeing Away, and Taking Tomatoes With Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>That’s it for summer as we knew it, 2016… School is\u00a0open and I’m getting\u00a0back in the swing of some things I\u00a0had almost, just almost<\/em>\u00a0forgotten about. \u00a0Like fitting in everything I\u00a0need to do before two fifteen on most days so I can\u00a0get to school, and having to plan dinner when I’m\u00a0not anywhere near ready to think about eating.\u00a0I’m not sure I’m ready to button up and stop living from moment to moment. Among other ways I’ve let it all go:\u00a0I’ve\u00a0ignored my pantry and my freezer.\u00a0Now it’s time to wipe those shelves, throw out last winter’s uneaten candy, and restock. Can I have my cake and eat it too?<\/p>\n

During the first days of September I tiptoed\u00a0slowly towards fall, but I kept a strong hold on summer. I lingered upstate in our quiet,\u00a0Hudson-area village, and spent long days with my son Theo before he had to go back to school, to the\u00a0third grade. \u00a0My little boy will soon grow into a big one, leaving only a trace. There are only some things you can hang on to;\u00a0the days were getting shorter.\u00a0I made a last grasp, just to see how much of the summer I could keep.<\/p>\n

At the farmstand up the road, tomatoes were selling for ten dollars per case… that’s heavy: a \u00a025 pound box, about 11 kilos, or about half a Theo. The tender ears of corn were five dollars for 13 – a baker’s dozen- and so\u00a0very, very sweet.<\/p>\n

The linoleum-covered floor in my summer kitchen tilts comically, and there isn’t much\u00a0counter space. When we moved into the house I purchased a small kitchen\u00a0island for chopping on. \u00a0Now I stationed myself there. Before long, the narrow wooden surface was fully covered in tomatoes. I don’t have a lot of equipment, nor was I prepared with jars and\u00a0supplies for\u00a0canning- but I do have a new foodmill and I was very excited to use it. Truthfully, in my heat-induced torpor I was looking for the simplest possible way to preserve the summer. \u00a0So, in between our yard sale adventures and an afternoon visit from friends, I made a batch of tomato sauce in my largest pot. And when that visit turned into dinner, I decided I would save my energy and work in stages\u00a0(in fact, two days is preferable so that your sauce can chill down nicely before you need to put it away for its hibernation). That night I stood in the little kitchen\u00a0after everyone had gone to bed, turning the handle of my food mill and watching slips of tomato skin pile up in its metal teeth. When the tomatoes were effectively a pur\u00e9e, I cooked it down until it was a light sauce, and then returned the giant pot to the refrigerator for the night. The following day I divided it into smaller containers and froze them. Any extra tomatoes were\u00a0peeled and frozen whole.\u00a0And before we tidied\u00a0the house and loaded up the car for the city I quickly\u00a0cooked the corn cobs, then\u00a0shaved off yellow kernels into a pile… I watched the steam rise, and when it dissipated I knew it\u00a0was time to bag those little bits of sunshine up and pop them in the freezer;\u00a0not saying goodbye, but\u00a0more\u00a0like\u00a0arrividerci.<\/em> Until we meet again…<\/p>\n

\"img_4984\"<\/a>September Tomato Sauce<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recipes for tomato sauce sometimes call for a pinch of sugar. \u00a0Towards the end of cooking time, taste your sauce to see if it is lacking a certain mellowness that a bit of sugar can help along. But I can’t imagine\u00a0that any\u00a0September tomatoes you cook with aren’t sweet, holding inside, as they do, all the sunshine and warmth of your summer days.<\/p>\n

15 pounds plum (Roma) tomatoes<\/p>\n

extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom of your\u00a0pot by\u00a01\/4 \u00a0inch, about 1\/2 cup<\/p>\n

8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced<\/p>\n

coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)<\/p>\n

a handful of fresh herbs stems: basil, thyme and marjoram or oregano, or a mixture<\/p>\n

crushed red chile, optional<\/p>\n

1. Quarter tomatoes through the stem. Place\u00a0a large, heavy pot or a stockpot on the stovetop and add oil and garlic over medium heat. Cook just until you can smell the fragrance and garlic is becoming soft, do not let it brown AT ALL. Add the tomatoes all at once, and a large pinch of salt.\u00a0Raise heat to medium high and cook until the tomatoes on bottom begin to collapse, about 10\u00a0minutes. Add herbs and continue cooking, stirring often to distribute tomatoes,\u00a0until the\u00a0pot is full of bubbling, juice and tender tomatoes, about 30 minutes. Mash the tomatoes up a bit with the spoon.<\/p>\n

2. Let tomatoes cool, at least 20 minutes, and up to two hours. Strain through a\u00a0foodmill fitted with the coarsest blade. The skins and some of the seeds will be left behind, and you’ll need to scrape them out of the food mill from time to time. The tomatoes will be a coarse\u00a0pur\u00e9e. For a smoother sauce, use the smaller blade. \u00a0Return all of this loose pur\u00e9e to the pot. \u00a0Place it over medium heat and cook again, stirring occasionally until deep red, saucy and as thick as you like it. I didn’t cook mine for very long; a sauce with a\u00a0light body and fresh tomato flavor\u00a0can be a lovely thing to have on hand in winter. When you defrost it, you may\u00a0need to add a bit of simmering time until it’s\u00a0thick enough to\u00a0coat\u00a0your pasta, but it will be a versatile thing, and can be used in place of canned ground tomatoes- and so much more flavorful. Taste and add more salt, and a pinch of hot pepper if you like. Cool to room temperature before transferring to smaller containers and refrigerating or freezing.<\/p>\n

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That’s it for summer as we knew it, 2016… School is\u00a0open and I’m getting\u00a0back in the swing of some things I\u00a0had almost, just almost\u00a0forgotten about. \u00a0Like fitting in everything I\u00a0need to do before two fifteen on most days so I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,8],"tags":[155,106,151,20,152,157,89,28,194,165,181,154,135,226,15,156,158,33,153],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ICYG-iC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}