Oh, tomatoes...

This weekend a friend gave me a bunch of tomatoes from her garden to help get me through that withdrawal period between my own tomato crops (my beautiful Heartland reds are recovering from a couple days of neglect, which in the desert is much more severe than it sounds, during which I lost two of my plants and the small green tomatoes that were growing on them). Anyway, the Sweet 100's I ate that very afternoon with my daughter, who loves any kind or color of small tomato. They're absolute heaven, small and round and sweet, bursting with rich fresh flavor when you bite. The large reds, however, I had no idea what to do with. I'm tired of the ubiquitous "it's summer and it's hot" salads. Fast-forward to a few days later - they are very ripe and need to be eaten right away, so I decided to stew them.

Here's the lovely stewed tomato recipe I found. The author recommends eating them as a stew with homemade croutons, which I'll bet is very delicious, but I've come up with other uses, the best of which will wind up here for my adoring fan to try. On the list for tomorrow's cooking are:

• Sweet tomato-carrot soup
• Tomato and nectarine bisque with roasted garlic (I'm thinking this one has lots of promise; at any rate, it will make a nice change from my usual lazy-ass canned soup for lunch)

My kitchen is, at the moment, quite poorly stocked, but I think I can whip up a few good, simple recipes using what I've got.

Note that I've modified the stewed tomato recipe slightly. My changes are as follows:

5 cups cored, peeled, roughly chopped fresh ripe tomatoes
7 Tbsp good quality salted butter
7 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
8 large Genovese basil leaves, torn

Toss tomatoes in large pot; add butter, sugar, and pepper. Simmer 25-30 minutes. Remove from heat and add basil.

Please note that, to suit my intentions for the tomatoes, I've omitted any salt (except the little bit in the butter). If you're preparing a more savory dish you'll want to add a teaspoon or so, depending on your tastes. Personally I'd rather have sweeter more versatile tomatoes - you can always add salt to your recipe later.