homegrown tomato – Chez Nous

Seared Steak with Roast Carrots, Tomatillos, and Carrot Top Chimichurri

This weekend, I had the pleasure of gathering another half a dozen beautiful tomatoes, a little purple bell pepper, and I decided to dig up my carrots. I have been looking forward to pulling those carrots out of the ground for months. It was finally carrot time!

I grew one large carrot, and the others were kind of wonky, but still delicious. I grew heirloom rainbow carrots and was thrilled to see that I grew some orange, some white, and one really pretty purple carrot. Since the harvest was rather small, I wanted to make sure I present them honorably, and wanted to make use of the carrot tops, which were very plentiful.

Baked Tomatoes

The rains keep coming, and so do the tomatoes! I am really excited about my harvest this year! I was keeping count up to 90 on my 2 tomato plants, but now I have lost count of how many gorgeous tomatoes we have cooked and eaten this summer. I combined of our tomatoes with some super sweet wild cherry tomatoes from the Waverly Farmers Market that I bought and proceeded to forget about until today. The tomatoes already wilted a bit in the fridge, so I figured I would bake them up to use as a topping on pork or salmon or a spread on a slice of Kalamata Olive and Rosemary Baguette!

Homemade Magic Tomato Paste

I have read that homemade tomato paste is much better than the store bought (which I also love and live by), but wow, it is magic! I read in one of my cookbooks that someone referred to a stewed tomato sauce as tomato magic, I want to steal that! This is my Tomato Magic!

Roast Eggplant and Tomato Pizza

Eggplant is so tempting this time of year! I think I will try to grow some next summer! In the mean time, however, I keep buying it every weekend, so we have to keep cooking it. This week, I also wanted to make a bit of mozzarella and some pesto since my basil plant is getting pretty hefty.

Want to make your own pesto? I like a combination of arugula and basil for mine. I take about 4 cups of basil leaves and arugula leaves each, a half a cup of pine nuts, a cup of grated Parmesan, 4-6 garlic cloves, and enough olive oil to get to the consistency you like. Season with a bit of salt and pepper and adjust to your tastes.

Roast Eggplant Caprese with Herb Lemon Vinaigrette

I was thrilled to find that my garden was gloriously producing dozens of tomatoes, so it was time to harvest them! I was missing my caprese salads in Hawaii (well not too much, since I was feasting on poke and fresh mango daily). I decided to add a bit more intricacy to the dish by roasting up some eggplant to make a bed for the sliced tomatoes and torn mozzarella. I marinated them in a bit of salt and pepper while the eggplant roasted, and drizzled the whole situation with a simple lemon herb vinaigrette. It was glorious. I am sure this portion was meant for at least four people, but Nico and I almost ate the entire dish!

Caprese with Homemade Mozzarella

There is no better accompaniment to homegrown tomatoes than a fresh cheese! For our first little harvest of tomatoes, we made some homemade Ricotta for an Herbed Ricotta and Tomato Salad. Today, I wanted to share with you my recipe for Fresh Mozzarella! Mozzarella is a bit tricky, but if you are patient and pay…

Homemade Herbed Ricotta and Tomato Salad

This is my first year growing tomatoes, and I have been patiently waiting while my first three tomatoes ripen. Today was the day, they smelled delicious and their skin was a perfect red, we decided to harvest our first tomatoes! How do you do your first tomatoes justice though? I didn’t want to cook them…