Sometimes, I’m a little ambitious in my new role as a full-time homemaker. Last month, when the sign-up for peaches and tomatoes from a local farm went around the room in Relief Society, I decided to get some. The only problem is the smallest units were 8 pound of tomatoes and 23 pounds of peaches.
“Well, there’s nothing like fresh tomatoes or peaches!” I think. On Tuesday, I picked them up, realized I was in way over my head, and promptly dropped off as much as I could at my mom’s, my dad’s and my in-law’s homes.
I still have an obscene amount of both, despite having found half a dozen new recipes for both fruits. So, if you have any favorite recipes, I’d be forever grateful for a few more ways to get rid of all my produce!
Here are two of my favorites from this week:
Cheese-Stuffed Tomatoes
(Adapted from Rachael Ray’s recipe )
2 beefsteak tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¾ c whole milk ricotta cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 scallions, finely chopped
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 egg yolk
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Preheat oven 450 degrees F.
Cut each tomato in half across its circumference. To create a cavity, use a melon ball scoop to remove the seeds and pulp from the wide, fleshy side of each tomato cup. You don’t have to be too fussy about this. You are just trying to create enough room to hold the filling. When scooping take some care not to puncture through the bottoms of the cups. If you do puncture it, don’t worry, it is not the end of the world, just keep moving forward. Season the inside of the tomato cavities with salt and pepper. Reserve the seasoned tomato cups while you make the filling.
In a small mixing bowl combine the ricotta cheese, basil, garlic, scallions, Parmigiano and season with salt and pepper. Taste the mixture. This is your last chance to adjust the seasoning. Once you’re happy with the flavor, add the egg yolk and mix thoroughly. Divide the filling between the 4 tomato cup cavities, pushing it into the cavity with a rubber spatula or spoon. Drizzle some extra-virgin olive oil into a baking dish. Arrange your stuffed tomatoes in the dish, transfer to the hot oven, and bake for 15 to 17 minutes. The stuffing and the tomatoes should be fully cooked and the top should be lightly brown.
Fresh Peach Pie
Coconut Almond Crust:
1 c almonds
1 c canned moist-style coconut, flaked (I’ve used regular sweetened coconut in a bag and it works fine)
¼ c sugar
¼ c butter
Preheat oven to 375. Grind almond medium-fine. Mix with coconut. Work in sugar and butter with fingers or spoon. Press evenly in bottom and sides of a 9-inch glass pie plate, reserving 3 T crumbs for top. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown. If edges get too brown, cover with foil. Place remaining crumbs in pan and toast in oven, same time as pie shell, about 5 minutes.
Filling:
1 c sour cream
dash salt
6 T powdered sugar
1 t orange juice
1 t shredded orange rind
1 t vanilla
4 to 5 large peaches, peeled and sliced
1 c whipping cream
Beat sour cream. Add salt, 4 T powdered sugar, orange juice, rind and vanilla. Spread on bottom and sides of shell. Cover with peaches, arranged in attractive manner in shell. Whip cream. Fold in remaining 2 T powdered sugar. Cover peaches with whipped cream. Sprinkle top with remaining mixture from pie shell. Chill.
11 Responses
I don’t have any recipes that I know are good, but I’d try making some salsa. I found a couple(#1 #2) recipes for Peach & Tomato salsa. Good luck. 🙂
I love this peach pie…From O Magazine…
This is the perfect dessert to show off ripe peaches. Depending upon the sweetness of your fruit, you may want to use a little less sugar. Or if the fruit’s not as flavorful as you’d like, add 1/2 teaspoon almond extract and 1 teaspoon lemon juice to the filling. As a variation, try using 2 cups blackberries with 4 cups peaches. The pie must be refrigerated at least 2 hours before serving.
INGREDIENTS
Cream cheese crust:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
6 Tbsp. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 cup sugar
Peach filling:
9 ripe peaches
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
To make crust: Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and stir to mix. Set aside. With an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese and butter until well blended. Add vanilla and almond extracts and stir to blend. Add sugar and stir until well blended. Add flour mixture, and blend thoroughly. Do not overmix.
With lightly floured hands, form dough into a flat round. Wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to handle, about 1 hour (dough will be slightly sticky).
On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough out into a 12-inch round, 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Roll dough up onto rolling pin, then place in a 2-inch-deep, 9-inch pie pan. Press dough lightly into bottom and sides of pan. Trim excess dough. Using a fork, press edges of dough down on lip of pie pan. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes or overnight before baking.
Preheat oven to 350°. Bake crust until light brown and puffy, 25 to 30 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.
To make filling: In the meantime, peel, pit, and slice peaches. Mix with 1/2 cup sugar and spread evenly over prepared crust. Whip cream in a bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form; add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff. Top peaches with whipped cream and refrigerate at least 2 hours but no longer than 8 hours
Oh Emily, I _so_ wish that you were my neighbor (or that I had a ward where women ordered produce in bulk)! Fresh peaches and tomatoes are my passions. IMO, reading the recipes that you’ve posted is titillating like porn.
Can’t. Get. Enough….Must. Have. More!!!
🙂
I wish you were my neighbor too. Here’s my favorite tomato recipe–I make it every single week during tomato season (well, except this week since I slept through the farmer’s market this morning). I always make it with sungold tomatoes, but I’m guessing it might work almost as well with other ripe, sweet tomatoes:
Sungold Tomato Pasta
1. Chop up 4-6 cloves of garlic and brown in a couple tablespoons of butter.
2. Chop up and add tomatoes to garlic (I usually use about two pint containers of sungold tomatoes–this is probably 5-6ish medium sized tomatoes). Add salt and pepper to tomatoes and let tomatoes wilt.
3. Add a pint of cream to tomatoes and let simmer. The cream will thicken a bit naturally, but if you want a thicker sauce, you can also add some flour or cornstarch.
4. Once the sauce has thickened, add a cup or two of freshly chopped basil.
5. Cook some pasta, top with the sauce, and throw some shredded/grated parmesan cheese on top and enjoy!
I don’t really have any good peach recipes. When I get good peaches, I usually eat them all before I can cook anything with them!
Not exactly cooking, but I love caprese salad. Layer slices of tomato with fresh mozzarella and fres basil, sprinkle with a little olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar. Scrumptious alone or on bread for a cool summer treat.
My mom always got lots of peaches. I remeber those long summers of canning, and freezing. We also did apples, apricots, cherries, and pears. It just depened on what season someone was driving down from Utah. We did it a lot and it was not by the pound but by the bushel.The frozen ones she would make into shakes in the blender, or add to an ice cream recipes. It was always yummy. She also often had bananas and strawberries on hand in the freezer. The shakes went kind of like this: Add frozen fruit, sugar or juice concentrate to sweeten and finally water or milk to make it blendable, and then blend. Really the only limit is your imagination. Have fun and be creative.
Starfoxy, those peach and tomato salsas look perfect to use up both ingredients!
Trimama, I think anything that has a cream cheese crust has to be delicious.
Seraphine, I’m really excited to try this recipe since it looks so easy and creamy. Thanks!
Dora, I love a good caprese salad too. I had one for lunch every day last week. Those fresh tomatoes make all the difference.
Mardell, I’ve been lamenting that I have no idea how to can. The freezing is a great idea. I’m just sad that they won’t be quite as good as when they’re fresh, but using them in ice cream and smoothies would make the texture change unimportant. Thanks!
You can do some peach freezer jam. Just buy some freezer jam pectin (I like the kind in the purple pouch) and follow the directions on the package. Super easy and you will be glad all winter.
I second the freezer jam idea. Super easy, and very tasty.
Here’s my newest tomato fix: Tomato Pie
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make up a 9″ pie crust (there are dozens of recipes around, or you can even just buy one ready made if you aren’t into making pastries). Shred a whole bunch of mozarella cheese into the pie crust, at least enough to cover the entire bottom of the pie crust. Add as much fresh cut basil as you like. Top the cheese with sliced tomatoes, add more basil on top of that if you like, and then drizzle olive oil over the whole thing. Bake it all for about 30 minutes, or until the crust looks golden brown and everything else looks bubbly. The tomatoes will look a little sad, but trust me, the whole thing is delicious. It tastes like an original thin crust Italian pizza. Yummy!
Heather O., that tomato pie sounds so good! Thanks for sharing.
Ana, thanks for the freezer jam “how to.” I ordered more peaches today (alas no more tomatoes–although I think I may have to try tomato pie with store-bought tomatoes. talk about an easy dinner!)