Kids Dish

Whether you call it a fruit or a vegetable, last week’s CSA share came bearing tomatoes of all different shapes, sizes and colors. Grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, striped tomatoes, green tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and purple tomatoes all made appearances in different meals throughout the weekend. Sam mostly stuck to eating the tiny yellow ones raw, but he particularly enjoyed last night’s pizza, made with a tomato sauce I threw together in about 30 minutes, start to finish.

Red, Orange, Yellow and Green Tomato Sauce (enough for one pizza crust)
4 medium tomatoes of different colors, peeled, seeded and chopped (you can just use the red ones if you like, but the different colors sure do make a pretty sauce)
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
half an onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, toasted whole then peeled and minced
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
a few torn basil leaves

To peel tomatoes, with a knife score an x on the bottom of each tomato. Plunge into boiling water for about 30 seconds. Drain until cool enough to handle. Peel. To seed tomatoes, cut them in half and squeeze out the seeds.

While waiting for the water to boil, toast the garlic cloves whole in a dry frying pan over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until brown spots cover all sides. Remove the garlic from the pan to cool. Turn the heat down to medium and pour in the oil. When the oil is hot, cook the onion for 3 to 4 minutes until it’s translucent. Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook ten minutes. If you like your sauce chunky, cook it uncovered, if you like it saucier cook it covered. Stir in salt and pepper to taste and the torn basil leaves.

I made the pizza using a multigrain crust I bought from Trader Joe’s. Boboli will work as well, or you can make your own dough or buy uncooked pizza dough in the supermarket. I don’t have a pizza stone so I stick with the precooked. I put a thin layer of homemade pesto on the whole crust, covered the pesto with the chunky, colorful tomato sauce, and sprinkled the sauce with shredded mozzarella and grated Parmesan. Easy and delicious.

We also enjoyed a white bean and tomato dish that I based on this recipe for Roasted Tomatoes and Cippoline Onions Over White Beans With Garlic-Rubbed Bread Cubes. It was crazy hot so I cooked the tomatoes on the stove top instead of roasting them. When it cools down a bit I’ll try the recipe for real.

Elsewhere on the internet, Farm to Philly offers ten things to do with tomatoes (other than salsa, gazpacho, sauce, or sandwiches)

tomatoes, quick tomato sauce recipe