We had some beautiful and sweet tomatoes sitting on our counter. I wanted to make something different. I've seen many "tomato tart" recipes and decided that's what I'd make I looked over dozens of recipes to try and decide how I wanted my dough and what seasonings to use. I ended up creating my own using some great hints I learned from reading the other recipes. Enjoy! Diane
Ingredients: 2 Large Tomatoes Salt Pepper Italian Seasonings Puff Pastry, thawed Melted Butter 1/2 Cup Parmesean Cheese, Finely Grated 1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese, Grated Olive Oil Papertowels & Parchment Paper Directions:
Roasted Tomato & Chile Salsa Ingredients: 2 pounds Roma tomatoes 1 medium onion 2 Anaheim peppers* you can use 2 jalapenos 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 Cup Cilantro, finely chopped 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 Cup fresh lime juice (about 6 limes) Yield: approx. 6 half-pints Directions: Preheat oven to 450F.
**photo note: I oven roasted some red bell peppers I had on hand - its a great way to prep those for later use too - if you ever see red bells on sale - buy them and roast them!! they are great in so many dishes! I cut and pack my finished red pepper strips into a half pint canning jar and top off with olive oil and store in fridge. Recipe Adapted from: Ball's All New Book of Canning "Salsa Ranchera" Processing a lot of tomatoes this Summer? Why not take a few extra steps and treat yourself to an overlooked by-product of tomatoes! When you blanch or roast your tomatoes for your various canning or cooking projects - make sure to give your tomatoes a good wash in a white vinegar & water bath...that removes any debris and dirty bits from the skins, once tomatoes are then blanched or roasted and you have the skins - save them! I place mine in a large Ziplock bag as I go along and keep in the refrigerator. I then lay the skins out flat on my dehydrator trays and dry until crisp. We do not have much (if any) humidity here so this takes me about 3-4 hours on the highest heat setting. IF you don't have a dehydrator - place skins in a single layer, flat on parchment paper on a baking sheet and dehydrate in your oven at 200F for about 2-3 hours.
Once the skins are crisp and dry, place them in the bowl of a food processor and whirl until you get your tomato flakes as small as the processor will let you...IF at this time you think your flakes feel "damp" - place back in the oven on parchment paper for 60 minutes at the 200F until your flakes are completely dry. Once dried, let the flakes cool and place in an airtight container for use as flakes. IF you want to go one step further and get tomato powder - take the flakes and fill a spice grinder with them and process into a finer powder. I process mine into half flakes, half powder... Enjoy! Diane We've been tweaking the base NCHFP spaghetti sauce without meat recipe over the years - tweaking by way of spices!! We also prefer to omit mushrooms and green peppers from the original recipe. This year we decided to try roasting the tomatoes instead of blanching them to remove skins. Thanks to my friend Mary for pointing out what a time-saver roasting tomatoes for sauce is!!!! Our recipe must be pressure canned. Enjoy! Diane
Baker Roasted Spaghetti Sauce Yield: About 5 Quarts Ingredients: 25-30 pounds Roma Tomatoes 1/4 Cup White Vinegar *divided 1 teaspoon Vegetable Oil 1 Cup Chopped Onion 1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced Garlic 4 1/2 teaspoons Pink Salt 2 Tablespoons dried Oregano 2 Tablespoons dried Parsley 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar 1/4 Cup Soy Sauce *can omit if canning Citric Acid Directions: Preheat Oven to 425F.
Save your skins to Dehydrate Skins into Tomato Flake or Tomato Powder Save your 'reserved' liquid from roaster to turn into Spicy Tomato Juice. There are so many ways to cook chicken and its various parts... Have you ever thought about stuffing just the chicken breast? It's not as hard as it sounds, in fact, its quite easy and turns out super tasty! In this recipe its best to utilize your cast iron skillet which moves from stove-top to oven. The chicken is seasoned with a wonderful sun-dried tomato and basil pesto, along with spinach and mozzarella. There are so many stuffing options as well, another family favorite is the Chicken Popper Stuffed Breast - recipe soon to follow! In the meantime, enjoy my Caprese stuffed chicken. ~Diane
Skillet Caprese Stuffed Chicken Breasts 4 boneless skinless Chicken Breasts, trimmed of fat One 10 oz. box of Frozen Spinach; thawed & well drained. 1 Cup Sun-dried Tomato Pesto with basil & cheese. (I use "Simply Pesto" DeLallo brand) 2 Cups shredded Mozzarella 2-3 Tablespoons Italian Seasonings Salt & Pepper to taste 2-3 Tablespoons Olive Oil Preheat oven to 400º. Take each chicken breast and fillet in half horizontally without cutting all the way through. Open up the chicken, flatten out on your work surface and pound to 1 1/2 inch thickness if needed (this will help the chicken cook evenly.) Sprinkle with Italian seasonings, salt & pepper. Spread 1/4 cup of the tomato pesto over the entire inside surface of each chicken breast. Place spinach, and mozzarella over half the coated surface (see photos below) Fold the chicken breast back over onto itself. Secure with toothpicks. Sprinkle chicken (top & bottom) with more salt, pepper and Italian seasonings as preferred. In a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat, heat olive oil. Sear chicken until golden, 3 minutes per side, then transfer the skillet to the oven and cook, about 25-30 minutes until meat thermometer in thickest part of top piece of chicken reads above 165. Remove toothpicks and serve. Recipe & Photos by: Diane Baker for Canning and Cooking at Home |