Category Archives: tomatoes

Roasted Tomato, Chorizo & Tepary Bean Stew

23 October 2015 by local kitchen

We had a killing frost last weekend. We were away, of course (the theme for 2015, it appears, is “Away“), this time in Bucks County, PA (with a quick side-trip to Hackettstown, NJ to see our friend Joe’s new brewery, Man Skirt Brewing – you should go!) to visit friends. Morning temps dipped below freezing there as well, and we woke up to bright blue skies, brisk wind, and a touch of frost on the grass. I knew this frost was coming: my […]

Categories: beans, fall, main course, pork, sausage, stew, tomatoes • Tags: beans, cooking, fall, food, local, pork, recipes, stew

Black Bean Enchiladas

6 January 2015 by local kitchen

Yes, I’m well aware that you don’t need me to tell you how to make enchiladas. There are plenty of people who are far more versed in Mexican food than I. If you Google “enchiladas” you’ll get about eleventy billion hits before this one shows up. But that’s all good, because I’m not really here to tell you how to make enchiladas. I’m not here to sell you on a 30-minute “quick & easy” version, a 7-hour “authentic” version, the […]

Categories: beans, cheese, main course, tomatoes, vegetarian, winter • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Sauce

10 September 2014 by local kitchen

And the tomato recipes go rolling, rolling, rolling on. Last week I picked up a bushel of organic paste tomatoes from Fishkill Farms; at the same time, I got 20 lbs of heirloom paste tomatoes, a gorgeous red-and-yellow-stripey varietal with a deep magenta flesh, few seeds, and fantastic flavor. (I also grabbed some orchard nectarines, heirloom baby orange sweet peppers, NY maple syrup, and Flying Pigs‘ hot Italian sausage. Fishkill has a great year-round farm market, full of all sorts […]

Categories: canning, preserving, sauces, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, summer, tomatoes

Curried Yellow Tomato Chutney

7 September 2014 by local kitchen

Rarely do I meet a chutney that I do not like. Which is strange, because chutney is basically a pickle and I hate pickles. Hmmm. The exception that proves the rule, perhaps? At any rate, this chutney – this chutney with its adorable, tiny, yellow peach tomatoes, its subtle hint of sweetness, its lightly curried Indian flavors and just enough heat on the finish – this chutney is no exception. It’s simply lovely. I have to give it up for […]

Categories: chutneys, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, tomatoes

Garden-Busting Roasted Tomato Sauce

24 August 2014 by local kitchen

Is the garden erupting with end-of-summer bounty? Are the piles of CSA vegetables taking over your fridge and kitchen counters? Are you feeling as lazy about canning as I am this summer? Well then, you’re in luck! This easy-peasy roasted vegetable tomato sauce solves all those problems and more, in addition to the perennial question, “What’s for dinner?” While I am slowly (oh-so-slowly) surfacing from my post-World Cup funk (two loonnnnggg years before qualifying for 2018 starts), I can’t quite […]

Categories: 100% local, preserving, sauces, summer, tomatoes • Tags: cooking, local, preserving, recipes, summer, tomatoes

Fattoush

17 August 2014 by local kitchen

Fattoush. Fattoush. Fattoush. It’s just fun to say, no? Traditionally, fattoush is a Lebanese mezze, a salad composed of tomatoes and cucumbers, often radishes and green peppers, and some form of greens, usually purslane. It was also a type of Middle Eastern panzanella: a way to use up day-old stale pita bread, which was fried into crispy croutons and then tossed with a fragrant salad, flavored with the distinctive sour note of a sumac, lemon & olive oil dressing. In […]

Categories: arugula, cucumber, mint, parsley, salad, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, salad, summer

Minestrone

27 September 2013 by local kitchen

Well, the minestrones have it: so here you go! Minestrone: there are so many versions, so many seasonal options, that it should really just be called “soup.” Or, more accurately I suppose, “zuppe.” Because that’s the story: “minestrone” is basically a collective noun used to describe any number of thick soups based upon seasonal vegetables and some form of starch, be it beans, pasta, rice, or potato. Usually tomatoes and greens are involved, but there don’t seem to be any […]

Categories: 100% local, arugula, soup, tomatoes, year round • Tags: beans, cooking, food, greens, local, main course, recipes, soup

Restaurant-Style Tomato Salsa

8 September 2013 by local kitchen

Every year it seems, I try out a new canned salsa recipe: one glance at the tomato page will tell you that plenty of them have made it to this space. Some, like salsa verde and grilled corn salsa, earn “instant classic” status and are a must-make on the yearly canning agenda. Others, like basic red salsa and roasted tomato & chipotle salsa, get tweaked slightly every year, depending on availability of ingredients, my schedule and mood. But despite having so […]

Categories: canning, cilantro, hot chile peppers, preserving, salsa, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, tomatoes

New Ingredient Page: Tomatoes!

27 August 2013 by local kitchen

A new page, dedicated to fresh tomatoes. Just in time for the last few days of summer! Link here and in the left-hand sidebar. Happy summer!

Categories: tomatoes • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, tomatoes

100% Local: Summer Tomato & Corn Soup

25 August 2013 by local kitchen

From a wonderful trip to San Francisco & wine country for the happiest of reasons, my friend Melissa’s 50th birthday, to an unexpected and bittersweet trip to Boston for the saddest of reasons, August has sped by in a whirlwind of trains, planes and automobiles, good times with old friends and new, many laughs and not a few tears. I’m well behind on the season’s preserving, but in between trips I did manage to whip up this fabulous light, summery […]

Categories: 100% local, celery, corn, oregano, soup, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian, zucchini • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, summer, vegetarian

Bertucci’s Sausage Soup

14 January 2013 by local kitchen

Back in my laboratory days on Mem Drive, when my co-workers and I felt like traveling further afield than The Sail Loft for lunch, we often ended up at Bertucci’s, home of excellent brick-oven pizza, addictive dinner rolls (hot from the oven!) and the infamous Bertucci’s Sausage Soup. I’ve eaten a lot of this soup in my day: in fact, the real battle in sitting down to lunch at Bertucci’s was in deciding between the delicious brick-oven pizza and the […]

Categories: kale & leafy greens, rice, sausage, soup, tomatoes, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, kale, local, recipes, sausage, soup

Spicy Indian Tomato Chutney

5 October 2012 by local kitchen

I know: I’m all down with the late-season tomato recipes this year, right? Actually, I made this one a few weeks ago, with the very last of my bushel of tomatoes from Fishkill Farms (and a couple of pounds very kindly gifted to us from Tai’s boss‘ garden), but I wanted to let it sit on the shelf for a while before I cracked a jar and tasted it. And my, does it smell amazing when you pop open that […]

Categories: canning, chutneys, condiments, preserving, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, tomatoes

Leek & Tomato Tart

29 September 2012 by local kitchen

This tart, my friends: this tart is the shizzle. I’ve made four of these in as many weeks and they have all been fabulous: quick, easy, adaptable and the best way I know to celebrate the swan song of tomato season. And yet, I can’t take any credit for it: the deceptively simple yet gorgeously flaky tart dough comes to us from France, via David Lebovitz (naturellement), with allium and fresh herb inspiration from Todd & Diane at White on Rice […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, leek, pizza, quick & easy, snack, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, summer, vegetarian

Basic Red Salsa

6 September 2012 by local kitchen

I realized the other day, when in possession of a bushel of organically grown tomatoes from Fishkill Farms I started thinking about my must-haves for tomato preserving this year, that I had never published my basic red salsa recipe. There are lots of salsa recipes represented here at Local Kitchen, both fresh & canned: witness the ludicrously spicy 9-chile salsa, the smoky-sweet grilled corn salsa, a roasted tomato & chipotle salsa, and the my-Spanish-gender-agreement-sucks salsa rojo. There is the classic […]

Categories: bell pepper, canning, cilantro, hot chile peppers, preserving, salsa, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian

Bruschetta Risotto

11 August 2012 by local kitchen

It happens the same way every year: you wait (and wait, and wait) for bright red, sun-warmed, bursting-with-flavor summer tomatoes. Basil shows up first: the small-leafed, pale-green, delicate basil of June. You buy some, just to inhale the heady fragrance, and dream of tomatoes. Then, sometime in July, you see the first pints of cherry tomatoes at the farmer’s market: they cost a fortune, and they’re not all that sweet yet, but still: tomatoes. Your spine tingles, your mouth waters: […]

Categories: appetizer, basil, main course, rice, summer, tomatoes • Tags: cooking, food, Italian, local, recipes, vegetarian