Up to my Elbows in Tomatoes

Our kitchen garden is not exactly giving us much joy this year - the zucchini are flowering and flowering but have not produced one single fruit, our lovingly seeded butternut squash does the same, the peppers are probably proud to show one (in numbers: 1!) scrawny little pepper and the only tomatoes that grow are the cherry tomatoes we planted more or less for decoration purposes into pots against a sunny wall. So to our farmer's market I go. There, talk about adding insult to very much bruised gardener's pride, they are selling tomatoes cheaper than ever this summer since they have such a bountiful harvest....

Of course I can't resist and have been spending much time in the kitchen up to my elbows in tomatoes - coring and cutting then cooking them. Then passing them through my newest toy, the "Passatutto Master" that removes skins and pips (and no, unfortunately I don't get paid for this and even bought and paid for this tomato wonder machine myself).

 Tomato skin and pips remover

Once skinned and deseeded in went little chunks of carrots and zucchini, garlic and some onions, loads of basil, a bit of sugar and salt and pepper and lots of tender loving stirring care. Lots. For the best pasta sauce ever. Almost as good as the one a former colleague used to bring back from her Nonna when returning from her summer vacations in Sicily. But I can still practise - tomato season is still on and tomorrow is farmer's market day.

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Almost Wordless Wednesday

 Lunch today: from here

 

and here

onto the table - Tarte Tatin aux Tomates