sweet sour
the great tomato harvest, and baked good mishaps
It was nice to take a little break last week, but I’m happy to be writing to you again. I gave myself somewhat of a break in the kitchen, too: we enjoyed some sushi and curry takeout, and celebrated our anniversary with a patio dinner at Orto, a fresh pasta restaurant that we love. Their outdoor dining space is within a garden where they grow vegetables and herbs to use in the restaurant, so being there feels extra homey and verdant, despite being only blocks away from Marine Drive and Capilano Mall. It was a grey day when we went, but it had stopped raining and so sitting on the covered part of the deck was cool but comfortable, with the greenery smelling fresh from the rain.
Their dinner menu changes frequently as they use local suppliers and seasonal ingredients; I don’t think I’ve ever ordered the same pasta there twice. But one thing that’s always on is the bread: sourdough made fresh in their attached bakery, and served with fruity olive oil, black olive tapenade, and caramelized onion butter. If you wouldn’t sell your soul for some caramelized onion butter, that’s only because you haven’t tried it yet.
In 2020 I was still unemployed around harvest time, so I did a lot more sauce-making, freezing, and canning, but I still managed to get to a bit of it this past little while. I accidentally ordered two pounds of Chioggia beets instead of two beets, singular, so I made pickles. I was tired of baking with peaches, so I made jam. Last year I went hard trying to use up as many apples from our tree as possible, but found that I didn’t do much with the applesauce or apple butter and still have several jars left, so I just made another batch of apple chutney (which we actually use) and called it a day. And maybe I’ll get to some more apple chips with the ones that are still in the fridge. I’m just thankful the hottest days seem to be behind us, unlike last year, when I was canning, baking, and oven-drying in a 29-degree kitchen. And I can tell I’m ready for summer to be over, because I’m spending almost no time in the yard and lots of time on fancy candle websites.
We currently have so many tomatoes, my freezer is filled with sauce: the Smitten Kitchen and Samin Nosrat versions I mentioned in my previous newsletter, basic purées for pizzas and soups, and a deliciously versatile roasted vegan ragù with tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms— I’ve included my recipe toward the end of this newsletter. I had an enormous eggplant, so I grilled it and made a big batch of rigatoni alla norma and froze half. And of course the beautiful heirlooms are making their way into salads and sandwiches, or on toast in the mornings, dusted with flakes of smoked salt. I also tried this tahini-parmesan pasta salad and used roasted cherry tomatoes and a little red wine vinegar and garlic oil, and it was superb. (Quick PSA, the perfect tool to re-incorporate separated tahini or nut butters is the humble chopstick, not a spoon or knife!) We ate this as a side with the hot dogs I’d been craving since I heard each one takes 36 minutes off your life.
I always feel a bit overwhelmed by all the produce seeming to ripen at once, but filling up my freezer and pantry this time of year feels like a little gift to my winter self— I love being able to open the freezer on a cold, unhappy day in November or January and find a lovely sauce or soup I’d forgotten about. Then I get to have a delicious meal with little effort, and allow the reminder of summer’s abundance to temporarily relieve me of the defeat of dark midwinter days.
Speaking of tomatoes, I could not let the summer end without making a tomato tart. My usual choice is this roasted garlic and tomato puff pastry from Smitten Kitchen, but I came upon this tomato cheddar crostata from Melissa Clark and my mouth started watering— I knew I had to try it. I used hot honey to infuse with the thyme for the filling base, which was excellent, and I had three colours of heirloom tomatoes to work with. Caramelizing smashed garlic cloves in olive oil on the stove created some of the flavour of roasted garlic in a quick and straightforward way, which was nice. I made the pastry in the food processor as specified, thought it seemed a little sticky, but didn’t think much of it. Later, after prepping the tomatoes and rolling the dough out, I looked again at the rest of the filling ingredients. And then I realised I’d put the 1 cup of cheese that was supposed to go in the filling into the dough, which was only supposed to have ½ cup. But it was too late to turn back.
Luckily, no permanent damage was done; the pastry was perhaps a little less flaky than intended, but still delicious. My real mistake was brushing the leftover thyme honey onto the edges of the crostata— it caramelized almost instantly in the oven without the tomato juices as a buffer. Again, not totally ruinous, but the edges of the pastry came out more browned than anticipated (next time I’ll add the extra after baking). Overall this was amazing, filled with toasty, salty cheese flavour and light acidity complemented by the thyme honey and garlic, and crisp, buttery pastry contrasting with soft tomatoes and crunchy bits of thyme leaves. If it was this good in spite of my errors, I can only imagine how fantastic it’d be if I’d actually managed to make it properly.
The month of August flew by, and when it came time to make my cake of the month, I wasn’t that enthusiastic about it. “Didn’t I just do this?” It was a given that apples would be involved, since we have so many, but I’ve made so many apple cakes over the years it was difficult to find something new that looked interesting. With Rosh Hashanah coming up, I decided to try this variation on honey cake, which uses apples to complement the traditional spices and add extra moisture. The batter tasted wonderful, so I put it into the oven with optimism.
However, a combination of probably not greasing my bundt pan enough and removing the cake from the oven a bit too soon meant it stuck to the pan like I had never seen. I tried every possible way of freeing it, but it just didn’t want to come loose. Eventually the top half of the cake broke apart from the rest, and I had to dig the remainder out in pieces. This wasn’t one wayward piece I could pin back in place with icing, this was a complete structural failure, a real Nailed It! situation. I ended up crumbling the cake into pieces like a bread pudding, and spreading the remainder of last month’s brown sugar buttercream on top. I thought the spicy, honeyed flavour of the cake was really nice, particularly with the icing, but the edges were somewhat dry despite the cake being almost underdone in the middle. I think a sheet pan or large springform might work better for this, so that it can cook through without such a long time in the oven.
I share these things with you to remind us all that things can go wrong even for people who feel confident as cooks. When you fuck up, or when something doesn’t work like it should, it’s easy to feel discouraged (luckily no one was around to see me screaming while trying to release the cake from the pan, literally begging it to just let go). But ultimately, you have only lost the perfection of a single dish, and whether it was a careless mistake or simply that the recipe wasn’t good, it’s usually easy to figure out what the problem was and file it away for next time.
Finally, I wanted to defrost the deep freeze before summer ended, which is usually my excuse to make stock with my bags of vegetable scraps, reorganize things, and thaw anything else that needs using up. I found some ganache from a past baking project, and used a few of the freezer bananas to make Jeff’s banana bread recipe to put it onto. Let’s pretend that was my cake of the month instead.
ROASTED TOMATO SAUCE
450-500g tomatoes (Romas are best), halved lengthwise*
1 shallot or small onion (60-100g), in large slices or chunks
3-4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 portobello mushroom cap, diced, OR 6-8 brown or white mushrooms, quartered
1 serrano or banana pepper (optional)*
a few thyme and oregano sprigs
a handful of basil leaves
3-4 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
1 tbsp tomato paste (optional)*
Heat the oven to 375°F. Toss all the veggies with the oil, a good amount of salt, and some pepper. Spread them onto a baking sheet, keeping the tomatoes skin side down. Distribute the thyme and oregano sprigs around the vegetables, along with a little more than half the basil leaves.
Roast for 30-40 minutes, stirring and rotating the pan once or twice, until the tomatoes have collapsed and everything else looks browned. When cool enough to handle, remove the skins from the garlic, tomato, and pepper (if using— you may also want to remove the seeds), and pull the leaves off the thyme and oregano. Discard the stems.
Transfer to a food processor or blender along with the remaining fresh basil and the tomato paste. Give any remaining juices in the pan a stir so they’ll loosen any stuck bits, then scrape it all into the food processor too. Blend until it reaches the desired consistency, adding a little olive oil if it looks too thick. Taste for seasoning before using or storing. Makes about 2 cups.
*notes: You can use grape or cherry tomatoes instead of large ones, but in this case, don’t cut them first. They may also cook a bit faster, and you don’t have to remove the skins before blending. I make this often without the hot pepper, but it’s very good with if you’re looking for more of an arrabbiata style. And you can skip the tomato paste in the last step if you’re using the sauce right away, but it does help to bind it together and deepen the tomato flavour.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort. There is so much awful stuff happening this week it’s impossible to choose a cause— if you can, please donate to mutual aid funds for hurricane Ida relief, or abortion providers in Texas, and for the love of god please be extra kind to healthcare and hospitality workers. And now for something completely different.