Tomatoes and Courgettes. (Vegetarian)

Member Name: SueMagee

Product:	Vegetarian
Date:	17/08/01 (215 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tastes of sunshine, economical and easy to make, freezes beautifully.

Disadvantages: None!

If you have a look around the Fruit and Veg stalls at the moment you’ll find that tomatoes and courgettes are particularly good value. In fact, if you’ve got any friends who are keen gardeners now’s the time to pop round, just to see how they are. I bet you come away with a bagful. I know this to be a fact; from now until the middle of September I have an amazing number of friends, but it’s something of a relief because the tomato plants in the greenhouse are so rampant they try to close the door behind me when I leave!

How to make best use of them though? The first suggestion is a simple mix of the two which makes a good vegetable to accompany chicken, sausages or fish. You’ll need:

500gr tomatoes
500gr courgettes
1 large onion
A glug of olive oil
Oregano. A tablespoon of fresh, or a generous teaspoon of dried.
A couple of cloves of garlic (optional)
Salt and Pepper

First skin the tomatoes. I usually do this by dunking them in boiling water, waiting for the skin to burst and then pulling it away. If you haven’t got fresh tomatoes the dish doesn’t come to any harm if you use a can of tomatoes, which is what I regularly do if I see courgettes at a good price when I haven’t got a ready supply of fresh tomatoes. Chop the tomatoes and put them to one side. If you’re using a can of tomatoes use the juice as well unless it does look as though there’s a disproportionate amount. Trim the ends off the courgettes, wash and slice to the thickness of a £1 coin. Chop the onion into reasonably small pieces.

Heat the oil in an oven-proof casserole and add the onion. Allow to soften, but not to brown – this usually takes about two minutes. Add the chopped garlic and cook for another minute. Being bone idle I often make use of those jars of “Lazy Garlic” if I don’t have fresh available. Add the courgettes and stir round so th
at everything has a nice oily, onion coating. Cook for a further couple of minutes and then add the tomatoes and the herbs. Season to taste, cover and put into a medium oven for about 25 minutes. It’s a forgiving dish and won’t worry if you put it in for a shorter time at a higher temperature or a longer time at a lower temperature. I have done it on the hob, but it does need quite regular stirring and I much prefer to put it in the oven and forget about it for a while.

This will feed 3 – 4 people. It’s easy to increase the quantities, which are, in any case, only a rough guide. If you like a more intense tomato flavour add a tablespoon of tomato puree. I usually make this quantity for two of us and freeze the balance. It freezes beautifully, and if the taste is good now, imagine what it would be like in February with sausage and mash! One other use for a surplus is to whiz it in a food processor and put it through a sieve to use as a sauce with pasta.

You might, though, prefer my Lazy Pasta Sauce.

You’ll need sufficient tomatoes to cover the bottom of a reasonably wide, oven-proof dish. Don’t bother to skin them. They should touch each other, but there shouldn’t be more than one layer. Put a glug of olive oil in the bottom of the pan, put the tomatoes in and then add quartered onion, garlic, sweet red pepper and a few herbs (all of these, or any combination) if you’ve got them available. If you haven’t, it doesn’t matter. The sauce will still taste good without them. Add a generous helping of salt and pepper and then give another glug of olive oil so that everything looks as though it’s got a light covering. Sprinkle over a teaspoon of sugar and about a tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Cover and put into a medium oven for about 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and remove the lid. The tomatoes should have burst and the smell will be wonderful. Do a
bit of prodding with a fork to make certain as much of the juice as possible has been released. Return to the oven, uncovered, for a further ten minutes and then remove.

Ladle the tomato mixture into a food processor. Do this very carefully because it will be scaldingly hot. Whiz until the mixture is fairly smooth and then sieve. Serve with pasta and a helping of parmesan cheese. Once again, any surplus will freeze beautifully until you feel like a taste of sunshine on a dull winter’s day.

Happy eating!

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