We had so many fresh tomatoes that they started to go bad. This made me particularly sad, as I love a fresh tomato - I just couldn't seem to use them up quickly enough. In fact, our counters are almost overwhelmed with the bounty of the season, and I have really been trying to find ways to take advantage of these wonderful fresh foods.
Then something in an old cookbook caught my eye, and I gave it a try. And friends, this is easy and simply delicious. I used 4 fresh dead-ripe tomatoes and...
1 clove garlic
1 tsp sea salt
juice of 1/2 lemon
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
1 fresh basil leaf, chopped
baguette, sliced
And at the end, we had the most yummy crostini that we have ever had at my house!
Here is what I did....
Brought a pot of water to boiling. Added 2 tomatoes and counted, slowly, to 15. Using a slotted spoon, I move the tomatoes to a colander in my sink. Then I did the same thing with the last 2 tomatoes.
I let the tomatoes cool to where I could handle them, and peeled the skins right off. Then I cut the tomatoes in half, and with my cutting board half over the sink I smooshed each tomato half with my hand, crushing most of the seeds right out of them. I rinsed the seeds and juice into my compost bowl, and took the tomatoes and diced them.
In a medium bowl, I crushed one clove of garlic, added the salt, and mixed until it formed a sort of thick paste. I added the juice of 1/2 lemon.
Then I added the tomatoes. I drizzled them with olive oil and a shake of balsamic vinegar. I added the chopped basil and stirred.
Already, the tomato mixture smelled fabulous.
I took the baguette slices and put them on a cookie sheet and broiled them in my oven until the top was golden brown.
Once I took them out of the oven, I turned them over and put a heaping spoonful of tomato mixture on the untoasted side, letting a little of the juices sink into the bread. No picture of the finished crostini as they were all gone by the time I got back with the camera!!!
Honestly, these were YUM! If you like fresh tomatoes and garlic, you should give these wonderful easy little snacks a try!
2 comments:
Dear, that is not food, that is HEALTH!! Hugs Nilla
What a fantastic recipe, I am going to copy it to my cook book. This summer in Portugal we also had tons of tomatoes. We ate them fresh, and made gazpacho, tomato sauce, tomato chutney, tomato curry, tomato soup, baked tomatoes, and whatever other recipes we found. But your recipe sounds divine. Thank you for sharing. And thank you for your lovely comment. Glad to have you back.
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