The man's desire is for the woman but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Who's got recipes? With all these damn scrumptious tomatoes, I need 'em. Here's the very serviceable one I've been using from allrecipes.com:
* 10 ripe tomatoes
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 green bell pepper, chopped
* 2 carrots, chopped
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
* 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
* 1/4 cup Burgundy wine
* 1 bay leaf
* 2 stalks celery
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
DIRECTIONS
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds. Chop 8 tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor. Chop remaining two tomatoes and set aside.
2. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes. Stir in chopped tomato, basil, Italian seasoning and wine. Place bay leaf and whole celery stalks in pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours. Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours. Discard bay leaf and celery and serve.
I've yet to include either celery or tomato paste in my trials. You need salt, particularly if your butter is unsalted. I used a fruity South Georgia wine, nice to cook with and nice to sip (the Hahira Red from Horse Creek Winery)--although it's not absolutely essential. I've also doubled the carrot and increased the tomato requirements by half, based on the superabundance of tomatoes and carrots on hand. Mushrooms are a good throw-in as well.I'm ready for variations and new culinary adventures. Any suggestions? Anything with zucchini (I've got some ugly ones probably unfit for market)? Bring it on.
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