Tomatoes, tomatoes and did I mention tomatoes?

I just came in the house with yet another shirt full of tomatoes - yes I did say a shirt full. I forgot to grab the basket I normally use to bring in the daily harvest and rather than going back in the house finding it and then back to the garden seemed silly after all there were only a few tomatoes right? Wrong - so many tomatoes. 

What to do with all the tomatoes - bruschetta and gazpacho of course!

The tomato harvest has exploded in the past couple weeks. If your a regular reader I’m sure you saw the first tomato and mayo sandwich post - we we so optimistic and naive but then we are every year because you never know what Mother Nature will throw at you and how your little plants will respond. This year she has been generous and the garden has responded in kind. 

Starting with bruschetta - we’ve been doing some entertaining lately; movie night with Gerd and Maria and last night we had a college friend of Dan’s over for dinner (and her daughter too). Her daughter will be attending the University of Minnesota to work on her PhD so we hope to have other opportunities to have her join us for dinner and of course we hope the parents will visit from time to time too. Both evenings were a lot of fun, great opportunities to catch up and perfect for a batch of bruschetta. 

Bruschetta is best when everything is freshly picked from the garden. On both occasions I picked and washed a large batch of cherry tomatoes and about 15 - 20 basil leaves. I sliced the tomatoes into quarters, added olive oil, balsamic vinegar, 6 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and then shredded the basil and tossed. I served it over lightly toasted, crusty french bread (because Dan does not like crunch bread - it’s a ongoing discussion topic here) it was delicious. 

With Gerd and Maria we served additional appetizers; brie, honeyed goat cheese and marinated cucumbers and roasted beets - quite lovely if I do say so myself. With Dan’s college friend we went a bit simpler; chips, salsa and guacamole - no complaints from either camp. 

So now gazpacho - hands down one of the fastest and easiest soups to put together in my Vitamix - 15 minutes from start to finish and tho I know many recipes suggesting chilling for a couple of hours, I’m fine adding a little chopped avocado to the top and eating immediately - which is exactly what we did. 

I started by taking 1 large and one medium tomato, coring them putting them in the blender and making 1 1/2 cups of tomato juice. To that I added 1 large tomato, 1/2 cucumber (from the garden of course), a green pepper (also from the garden) and a small onion. 

to the veggie mixture I added 2 T olive oil, 1 1/2 T red wine vinegar, a couple of squirts of siracha, and and then salt and pepper to taste. Blend on a low speed for a clunkier soup or on high for something more pureed. Top with chopped avocado and serve - it was delicious. 

Now what to do with the watermelon, cauliflower, cucumbers,eggplant and squash that are soon to be taking over the kitchen. 

Ciao!