Heirloom tomatoes are here! This week, I got a massive one.

Heirloom tomatoes are known for looking a bit… crazy. They’re different colors and not the perfect round tomatoes that you see in the grocery store. I did get some “perfect” roma tomatoes this week as well.

While I was on vacation, I missed two farm share pick ups. One I gave to my friend Naomi, and for the other I signed up for a vacation hold. That meant that I got to elect for a double box another week, which happened to be this week. So in addition to the box pictured (which I picked up two weeks ago after getting back from vacation), I picked up a double share last week with very similar vegetables. Hence the tomato overload.

Solution – tomato sauce. It’s easy to make and easy to freeze (in a plastic bag with all of the air squeezed out) for later use. The recipe I use isn’t quick but it doesn’t really need much attention. It’s a good recipe to make on a Sunday when you have some things to do around the house. Just let it go on the stove and stir occasionally.

Before I get to the recipe, here’s what came from this week’s share:

• Tomato sauce (see below)
• Miso soup with roasted bok choy, rainbow chard, Portobello mushrooms, and tofu. New obsession: miso paste. You can find it in the Asian food section of your grocery store and have miso soup in under 5 minutes.
• Marinated tomato and cucumber salad over romaine with corn, shrimp, and cilantro.
• Sauteed dandelion greens with carmelized onions (which I froze for later use)

Easy Tomato Sauce

In a large saucepan, saute ½ diced onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil until translucent.  Add ½ tablespoon of your favorite dry Italian herbs (I use a combination of oregano and basil) and cook for a few minutes. Add 2 cups chopped tomatoes and 1 tablespoon salt. If the tomatoes are really juicy, remove the seeds from half of them before adding to the sauce. Also, no need to make this a pretty chop – leave the skins on and just rough chop them into 1 inch pieces. Cover and cook over medium heat until the tomatoes soften, then remove cover and let reduce for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and blend (I always prefer a hand blender – less mess!). Put back on the heat and add ½ cup wine. You can use red or white – white gives it a brighter taste (more like a marinara), and red gives it a heartier taste. Simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes until the wine cooks down.