How to Make Five Great Dishes with Your Garden Tomatoes

When your tomato crop starts producing, you may have so many tomatoes you just don't know what to do with them. I've listed some great dishes using garden tomatoes.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Sliced Tomato & Mozzarella. This dish makes a great snack or appetizer. Slice your tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick. Layer slices of fresh mozzarella and red onion between the tomatoes on your serving plate. Pour olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the slices and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve with slices of fresh italian or french bread.
2. Tomato Salad. Dice your tomatoes into cubes (if using cherry tomatoes, cut in quarters). Add chopped onion, a dash of olive oil and vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Fresh chopped basil also goes very nicely in this salad.
3. BLTs. There's no better Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich out there than one with your own tomatoes. Guests will LOVE you for this one.
4. Tomato Sauce. You will need quite a bit of tomatoes to make a sauce so don't try this with less than 10-15 tomatoes. Blanch your tomatoes in boiling water for about 5 minutes, the skins will peel back a bit. Run the tomatoes through a tomato press. In large stock pot sauté a small amount of minced garlic and chopped onion. Throw in your tomatoes add basil, a dash of salt and pepper and let cook down for a couple hours. Serve hot over your favorite pasta.
5. Cherry tomatoes stuffed with crab salad. (Works great with tuna and chicken salad as well) Cut off the top of the cherry tomato, scoop out the seeds from the inside and stuff with your favorite crab salad recipe.