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Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Zucchini Sauce

You do not need to remove tomato skins for this recipe! Just toss your garden fresh picks, roast, serve warm over pasta or fish or puree for a rich, delicious sauce you’ll love for every dish. Freezes well!

Ingredients:

Tomatoes, cherry or romas (cut into same size chunks as cherry tomatoes). Leave skins on.

Peeled zucchini squash, cut into same size chunks as tomatoes. Use a 3-to-1, tomato-to-zucchini ratio.

Chopped garlic to taste

Seasoning to taste

Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Directions:

Toss cut up ingredients with olive oil until all are well coated. Season with your preferred seasoning (we use Italian Seasoning). Spread in a cookie sheet in one layer. Roast at 350° until tomato skins are shriveled (check at 30 minutes). Let cool and puree in food processor to your preferred consistency. Make sure you get all the juices and oils from the pan for flavor.

If you prefer, add fresh herbs such as basil before blending. You could also add roasted root veggies like carrots or rutabagas but roast those separately as they will take longer to cook. Freezes well. Toss with pasta, use for a soup base, add to casseroles, or make into a hearty winter tomato soup.

Ingredients for Roasted Tomato & Zucchini Sauce. No need to remove skins.
Blend until preferred consistency, Skins just blend right in and add a more robust flavor.
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How to Harvest Tomatoes

(Browse our Tomato Collection Here)

Your hard work and patience are about to pay off and your tomato vines are loaded with big, plump tomatoes! Visions of BLTs, caprese salad (recipe here), and fresh salsa dance in your head and you just can’t wait to pick them. So how do you know when the right harvest time is?

Unlike other veggies (i.e. peppers or cukes), tomatoes do not improve when left on the vine too long. Even picking a day early is better than waiting for that perfect moment. After all this isn’t a grocery store . . . you have complete control over when you pick your precious tomatoes. Here’s a few tips to get it perfect.

  1. Tomatoes continue to ripen after picking (thank you Ethylene gas). Release of this gas is what turns the tomato from green to yellow, red, or orange. Store bought tomatoes are typically picked at the mature green stage and let to ripen in transit but this does result in some loss of flavor and texture.
  2. As your tomatoes ripen, watch the color. A pinkish blush will start on the bottom and work its way over the top of the fruit. Once fully red (or yellow, orange, or pink depending on variety) and very slightly soft to the touch, you can harvest. See below for a handy color chart from the USDA. Exception to this rule: Heirloom varieties should be picked before they reach the “full color” stage. Pick when the bottom of the fruit has fully changed but the stem end still has flecks of green and the fruit is slightly soft to the touch. Let ripen the rest of the way on your kitchen counter. A handy hint: fully ripe tomatoes will sink in water.
  3. If you have tomatoes on the vine at the end of the season when a freeze is imminent, pick them all and store in a brown paper bag with a banana peel or two. The released ethylene gas will continue the ripening process.
  4. To pick without damaging the rest of the vine, gently grab the tomato with one hand and twist until the stalk breaks away from the plant. Do not pull straight up or out as this could dislodge the whole plant. If you’re growing indeterminate varieties (those that produce all season long), be careful not to knock off baby tomatoes or new blossoms.
  5. Gently wash and dry the fruit and store indoors and out of direct sunlight. Do not store tomatoes in the refrigerator! 

Cooking hint: to easily remove the skin for making sauces or salsa, cut out the core and make a small X on the blossom end. Submerge in boiling water for about 30 seconds or until you see the skin start to split. Remove with a slotted spoon and submerge into ice water to stop the cooking. The skins will practically fall right off.

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Deck Lighting that Naturally Repels Mosquitoes.

  mosquito repellent candle as centerpiece

   So can we all agree that tiki torches are only good for a 70s-themed pool party or a Gilligan’s Island Revival? Stinky, smoky, and unattractive, they do not belong on your gorgeously decorated deck, patio, or worse outdoor event! But they do have one redeeming quality: the bug fighting power of essential oils (yes, citronella is an essential oil). Mosquitoes just hate that lemony smell and it’s a great non-chemical, non-toxic solution to keeping our outdoor spaces bug free.

Mosquitoes hate these essential oils . . .

If you’ve been on Pinterest (or even to a grocery store these days), you’ve heard about essential oils. They seem to have downright magical properties! We couldn’t possibly list them all but we do know one thing for sure, there are a few essential oils that work fantastically to repel bugs. For centuries, folks have been using plants to deter bugs and unwanted critters. In Victorian times, herb and plant sachets were not only pretty but widely used to keep homes free of pests. But once modern science got involved, everyone turned to chemicals like DEET (which is potentially toxic to kids and pets). With the recent popularity of essential oils, people have come back to a more natural (less toxic) approach and have found that they really do work!

  These plants — Citronella Geranium, Lemongrass, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Rosemary, Tea Tree and many herbs — have been proven to ward off pesky insects. And the essential oil of these plants is the super concentrated form. But a vial of essential oil can be hard to find, expensive, and comes with a bit of learning curve if you’re going to use the raw form. And besides, who has time for another DIY project?

   The trick to using essential oils for bug protection is to get the scent spread around so it creates a “bubble” of mosquito protection. And burning it is a great dispersement method (which is why our grandmothers liked tiki torches!). Luckily, candlemakers have improved on that idea and we now can infuse a normal candle with the essential oil and that lovely, subtle scent will hover around your spaces. Even better, mixing them into a soy- and citronella-based candle gives us a longer burn time and a lot less smoke.

   And, of course, if you want to go true Pinterest-worthy, you can choose a color and scent that actually matches your deck décor. Check out our gorgeous scents here.