My last post was a tale of woe about the lack of damsons on the trees this year, compared to last. This summer has been a wash out here in the UK. We had a few days which were beautifully sunny but they were few and far between. Nevertheless, the garden has performed quite well this year, despite the lack of summer or perhaps because of it. The runner beans have flourished and we tried a purple bean this year, which has been lovely, although it loses its colour when cooked and looks like a green bean. Sweetcorn has been a great success, last year it was hopeless, and it is hard to describe how sweet and delicious corn is when cooked within minutes of picking. We have pumpkins in abundance. So many, I am not sure what we will do with them all. I have so many cucumbers, from just the one plant, that I could supply the local supermarket.
Our tomatoes though have not been as successful as previous years. We tried several varieties and a yellow and a cherry variety have been the most successful. However, the woodlice really like the yellow variety and have been enjoying themselves no end once they were finished with the strawberries. As a result, no woodlice were spared when I was splitting a load of logs the other week. No longer do I have any sympathy with the wood louse! Despite all of this, we have still had enough tomatoes to make a few batches of this roasted tomato sauce. I have used it as a pizza sauce; mixed into a risotto to stuff a roasted pumpkin; as a base for soup; and as a pasta sauce.
Roasting the tomatoes makes them sweeter and even more tomatoey. I add garlic cloves (unpeeled) and thyme or oregano, salt and pepper and plenty of extra virgin olive oil. Cook them in a moderate oven (180°c, gas mark 4, the baking oven of the Aga) for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool a little, pop the garlic out of its skin, and then blitz the whole lot in the processor (or you could use a food mill). I don’t bother to strain through a sieve, but if you want a smooth, seed-free sauce then you should.
Kath, it sounds as if you had a very nice crop of vegetables.Can’t wait to see what you do with the pumpkins.The tomatoes you did get look gorgeous, and the roasted sauce atop the pizza sounds quite good.
Hi Michele, We did have a good crop, some successes and some not so good as last year, but that’s half the fun of gardening. It is really good on a pizza. Which reminds me, I must try that nutella topping for a pizza that you talked about once one of these days.
Ah, the AGA ……. it’ll be back on tomorrow! Yippee 🙂
I l-o-v-e tomatoes and yours look particularly delicious.
Oh Caroline, how do you survive the summer without it? Well, I suppose it gives you a reason to look forward to the end of summer.
What a gorgeous colour and I imagine a pretty gorgeous, silky taste. I’d like some on pasta, lets say fettuccine, please.
I must buy a food mill – I am sure it would be even more silky then. I nearly did yesterday but the price put me off. I need time to think about these things.
a garden will always surprise and stump you—each year is completely different from the next. our cherry tomatoes did the best this season; our other heirlooms have had a haphazard time. Roasting them into a sauce captures all the best flavors of summer. And I love the color. I’d love to see your recipe for the risotto stuffed pumpkin!
The risotto stuffed pumpkin was lovely Nancy, but I forgot to take a photograph – too eager to eat it! I will try to make it again so I can show it to you. I look forward to our crop of tomatoes every year. They seem to take an age to ripen. I will miss them when it comes to clearing the greenhouse for winter.
I am very impressed with the different fruit and veg you manage to grow. I’m not that successful with it, I think I have more of a brown thumb than a green one lol. Never mind, I am in full admiration of your tomatoes and the lovely sauce you have made from them, it looks and sounds delicious.
My ‘companion’ and the barbie! Oh but it’s sooo toastie in the kitchen now 🙂
Enjoy toasting your toes.
I am a big advocate of the roasted tomato. I have a jar in my refrigerator right now and will probably make more this weekend. It is hard to believe tomorrow is the first day of autumn. Where did the summer/lack of summer go? Time for pumpkins!
Hi Denise,
Have you been suffering from the lack of summer in your part of the world too? It is really disappointing when summer doesn’t live up to our expectations of it. Pumpkins it is then.
I had 2 cherry tomato plants & they are still triving & mass producing! I also love roasted tomatoes to bring out their sweeter flavour!
I love roasted tomato sauce – so useful and delicious! And what is it with the woodlice this year? I have about ten times what I had last year. I am thinking of opening a woodlice theme park, if only I could train them to do tricks.
Ha ha. I love that idea. The ones here do tricks, they munch a little bit of every tomato on the vine.
Congratulations on all that wonderful produce Kath. I am trying not to be envious of your copious amount of squash – we haven’t had a single one. it’s been an absolute rubbish year for us – courgettes, runner beans, a few potatoes and luckily our annual crop of garlic, but nothing else. Last year I managed to make up a few jars of roasted tomato sauce and it was very excited – this year we’ve not had any. Yours sounds delicious and I love it that you have yellow ones in there too.
I really love the yellow tomatoes, they are so beautiful. This year has been a funny one for gardeners. Next year you will have loads of squash and I will probably have none 😉
The tomatoes look beautiful and I’m envious of your pumpkin crop. We had only one pumpkin in our garden this summer and just when it was about finished changing colors from a dark green to a bright orange, some small animal gnawed at the stem and killed it.
I discovered the tragedy one morning when I noticed that the bottom of the pumpkin and all of its seeds were resting on the ground in a slimy mess. Ever have this problem?
I, too, am looking forward to one of your pumpkin recipes. Happy autumn.
Thankfully I have not yet come across any nibbling of the pumpkins, but there is plenty of time in the next couple of weeks. The biggest problem we have in this garden is deer. They just wander in, nibble whatever takes their fancy and wander out again. I have tried shouting at them but they just look at me as if I am deranged. PS I have started putting my coffee grounds on the blueberries now in case the tarragon doesn’t like them.