Bases * Raw tomato sauce

Sure, it is advisable to eat the most fresh vegetables and fruits possible to benefit the most out of the the nutrients from food, so, seen that Autumn is a warm season and it is still possible to enjoy simple, quick, high-vitamines recipes. One being the raw tomato sauce, that can be served as a dressing, a starter, a refreshing soup. 
Fresh and red sun ripened home grown tomatoes

Basil

Parsley

Home made extra virgin olive oil

Home made extra virgine olive oil with chilly

Rosemary flavoured salt

Salt

Garlic (just rub on the chopping board)

Wash, chop with a knife and mince in the kitchen robot and later with the masher (or straight in the masher) the tomatoes. On a side prepare a basil and parsley chop on the (possibly wooden) chopping board where the garlic has been slightly rubbed, spice the tomato juice with salt, extra virgin olive oill, and mince. Leave it on a pan for an hour or so, then add some drops of chily extra virgin olive oil. Perfect for a cold pasta, or a warm pasta especially adding some cubes of mozzarella, adding capers and olives, as a refreshing soup, and as a starter with toasted bread.

Variations: in case of intolerance to garlic, instead of basil and parsley, use for the mince other herbs, such as fresh mint, tyme, savory, etc. or a cream of rosemary. Another variation is adding pepper, or chopped avocado, tabasco sauce, and pennyroyal leafs, or freshly picked raw minced zucchini with oregano.

 

Vegan

©2010
Special thanks to the WR community

Bases * Tomato sauce

Let's go on with conserves and preserves... unfortunately tomatoes get a bit sour during the pasteurization, so the best way to keep unaltered the summer fragrance and taste is to cook and can the sauce or to add additives that would alter the quality and the genuineness of the preserves.

 

Homegrown tomatoes

Oregano

Home made extra virgin olive oil

Basil

Chilly

Rosemary flavoured salt

Salt

Onion (very little)

Warm slightly the extra virgin olive oil in a big pot to cover the bottom, add the finely chopped onion, that doesn't have to become light brown, and chilly, add the whashed and tomatoes chopped in big shot, add rosemary flavoured salt and some oregano. Boil, stirring from time to time. Press with the masher and boil again with some basil leafes. Bottle, boil the jars in a big pot with a lid covered with water for at least 12 minutes, leave it covered wait that they chill naturally and turn upside down before storing in a dry, dark and cool place.

Variations: after pressing the sauce in the masher add pan fried aubergines*, or pan fried zucchini, or peppers and zucchini, or mushrooms; capers, olives.

*Suggestion. Aubergines need a 2/3 hours process to eliminate the bitter water before pan frying: wash and dry, slice, put them on a flat surface, add salt and weights to press them in order to squeeze the water out of aubergines in the sink. After 2 or 3 hours dry them with a dishcloth and pan fry.   

Vegan.

©2010
Special thanks to the WR community

Bases * Small Hillock and Cherry Tomatoes Bottled

The small hillock tomatoes and the cherry tomatoes are at the hearth of Italian cuisine and are quite easy to find fresh in groceries, but the taste of the ones bought at the market all year round and those ripened under the Mediterranean sun is slighly different. With all the good faith in the warm strenght of the Israeli sun it is quite difficult to believe that they might be naturally ripened in open field, warmed up by sun rays. They grow ripe between September and October and prefer mild climate, but how can we preserve unspoiled the sweet freshness? The freezer burns themm and the sauce alter slightly the taste, so bottled!

Small home grown tomatoes

Fresh rosemary sticks

Wash accurately and dry with flawless clean dishcloths the tomatoes, bottle them in jars wholesome with a freshly picked rosemary stick, boil the jars in a big pot with a lid covered with water for at least 12 minutes, leave it covered wait that they chill naturally and turn upside down before storing in a dry, dark and cool place.

Perfects for bruschette, seasoning of pizza and pasta, and for all the recipes with hillock and cherry tomatoes.

Variations: Slice the tomatoes; add capers and olives.

Vegan.

©2010

Special thanks to the WR community

Bases * Giant Ox Tomatoes in a Jar

Stick to the bases and keep going with the recipe for preserving the fillet of giant ox tomatoes, delicious for quick preparations, and to flavour eggs, seitan, mopur, pan cooked tofu.

Homegrown giant ox tomatoes

Freshly picked rosmary

Wash and accurately dry the giant ox tomatoes, fillet them, stuff the fillets in the jars with a rosmary branch, bottle and boil the jars in a big pot with a lid covered with water for at least 12 minutes, leave covered till chilled and turn upside down before storing in a dry, dark and cool place. 

Perfect for the preparation of fresh sauces and gravies.

Vegan.

©2010
Special thanks to the WR community

Bases * Tomato Juice

Just for a start... the basic ingredients are crucial to any diet, the veggie one requires particular attention to food preservation and to the preparation of doughs. So, as many other people, I decided to cultivate a contemporary urban kitchen garden. Healthy habit with strong meditative powers, that put in touch with nature, with ourselves providing all the basic nutrients,  the vitamins and the good flavours of the Earth for a 0 mile diet.

All this sounds very complicated, but is not. Plants grow in the fields but also on terraces and balconies, and if well groomed can give some satisfations. If there is no terrace, garden or balcony available for a kitchen garden, it'll always be possible to ask the municipality if community allotment gardens are available.
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By the way, the most creative part, after the satisfactions in witnessing a small seed becoming sprout and then little plant, is food preservation.

We said we were starting from the beginning and so, that's the recipe of tomato juice preserve.

Ingredients: home grown tomatoes

Wash the ripen tomatoes, press them in the tomato press, for the skins and the seeds, bottle the juice, cork up and put the bottles and/or the jars in a big pot with a lid filled with water to cover the bottles, boil  for not less than 12 minutes, leave covered and wait till they chill. A good habit is to put the jars and the bottles upside down when out of the water before storing them in a dry and dark place.

To use for the preparation of spiced or pizza sauces.  When preserved tomatoes tend to loose the summer freshness and the sour might prevail (in case, add a pinch of sugar to the sauce while cooking) plus they steam a bit during the pasteurization, so the juice might need more spices than usual if you wish to prepare a Virgin Mary.  

Vegan.

©2010.2011
Special thanks to the WR community