Sunday, September 27, 2009

Cherry Baby

We spent a little time roasting down tomatoes yesterday for the freezer. One pan of tomatoes consisted largely of shriveled cherry Tiny Tims (useless plant; never again unless I need a six-inch specimen for a bitty pot — cute gift). After roasting, they were, of course, even more shriveled. It did not look good for running them through the food mill to extract sauce from this pan of hot tomaisins.
But, ooh, they smelled good. Not the sort of thing you'd just chuck onto the compost pile. And I said, "Why would I even want to scrape off the lovely skins and seeds? This is food."
Sometimes when the house smells insanely delicious and the roasted baby tomatoes look adorable and edible, you can't be bothered to think in an orderly, recipe-like fashion.
We slapped this stuff into a pile of pasta shells with nothing more than a couple of gratings of various cheeses. We forgot all about herbs. Salt wasn't necessary. It was just... food.
Times like that, I really like food.

6 comments:

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Food, food is good.

Zoomie said...

I'm with you - gilding that particular lily would have just ruined it. Simplicity. Purity. Zen.

Heather Jefferies said...

I love eating like that. I remember coming home late from Nantucket last year with the cranky hungry nanny and running out to the garden in what was almost dark. I picked a handful of tomatoes, maybe 7 or 8 even, found some onions and garlic, a lemon and some dry dry dry white wine and in 20 minutes, skin and seeds included we had absolutely gorgeous food. Just food.

Anonymous said...

Oooooo this looks good. Whenever I roast tiny tomatoes its hard for me to not eat them all up right out of the pan. I usually sprinkle them with sea salt and snack- trying all the while to put some aside.
I admire the fact that you actually had the patience to pair them with pasta- nice work...sounds delicious.

Cheers,
Cherie
http://www.cheriepicked.com

cookiecrumb said...

Cherie: What a great idea! Can't you see these in a tapas bar? Shoot, I think we ate them all up already.

Michelle said...

Ha! Tomaisins. Sometimes the best dishes have no recipe. Sucks when you try to make them again and realize you can't. But that's ok too. They were 1 night stands.