I'm not ready to stop talking about tomatoes.

I love the fact that tomato plants produce so much fruit that their owners (farmers and hobbyists) feel they can’t keep up. Talk about a better problem to have. They have already stocked their pantries with sauce, eaten an eternal amount of tomato salads and still have kilos on their fruit basket. It just makes me happy to see a city plumped with tomatoes. 

Beautiful plump tomatoes ready to become sauce.

My family is big on tomatoes. As big as you can get without having a tomato farm. Every day we would have tomatoes, in a salad, as a snack or sauce. Whatever that meant. My passion for tomatoes is definitely not my particular trait, it's part of my genetics. While I was making my annual batch of tomato sauce, my parents (really my Mom) were doing the same thing. The bought a huge bag of tomatoes last week and that was the only thing I could think of for a few days. I was jealous I wasn't there to experience the bag of tomatoes and the eventual sauce. 

My parents know how to tease me with some tomatoes.

When my little sister Cami, was a baby, the doctor used to say her cheek were so red because of all the tomatoes she would eat, but it wasn’t any more than the normal amount we would have at home. I remember my favourite snack to take to school was half a tomato that I would sprinkle some salt. My classmates would look at me weirdly eating a tomato like an apple. What can I say, that snack brought me a lot of joy. 

We could say no more tomatoes to that cute face. She barely even had teeth!

My family eats an alarming amount of Caprese salad, and there is no double guessing that there is always some at home. Lucky for me, my roommate and best friend, Sofi, loves tomatoes as much as I do. 

Our attempt to harvest tomatoes this season was a complete disaster. We shockingly were able to grow only one tomato at home. It takes a lot of skill to only grow one sole tomato I must say, not a lot of people can say that. When the awaited moment came and it was ripe enough to eat, Sofi said, and I quote, “I think this is the worst tomato I have ever had.”

Freshward, the mediocre tomato that was deeply loved but tasted awful riped. July 2022 - Aug 2022

Yeah yeah, so my skills don’t lay in the cultivating of the tomatoes but I still wanted a tub of tomato sauce that I wish could last me a few months but in reality, was gone a few days after. Homemade tomato sauce is not only the most delicious thing in the world it's almost impossible to get wrong. 

I didn’t follow a recipe as you already know but this is what I ended up doing:

• 1.5kg of Roma Tomatoes

• 2 large onions

• 2 heads of garlic (yes its a lot and that is the whole point)

• Olive oil

• Salt & Pepper

• A tbs of sugar (as a nod to Steve, Ian’s dad)

I have little control when it comes to tomato sauce. My spaghetti is usually swimming in the sauce if I’m platting. This is actually my absolute favourite food. This sauce filled the spot in my heart that was waiting with so much anticipation to be fullfillled.

For a while, at my house, we switched ketchup to tomato sauce as a healthy alternative. Dipping nuggets on tomato sauce took a bit to get used to but don’t knock it until you have tried it. As a tomato lover, you should try it.

Now I place the question on to you, do you like tomatoes? Do you get excited about tomato season? Do you have a delicious tomato recipe?

Special mention to my lovely Mom that promoted my love for tomatoes and did all this work.