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For a tomato side dish, borrow an idea from summer fruit

Recipe: Try a savory crisp with yellow tomatoes

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED AUG 4, 2019

My yellow tomato varieties this year, clockwise from top left:
Pork Chop, Chef's Choice Orange, Limmony
and Lemon Boy. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

My counter runneth over with tomatoes.

The heat this past week meant lots of ripening, and I wanted to use some of this fresh bounty quickly before I got into canning or freezing the rest.

Gazpacho is always a possibility, or a quick pasta dish, but I poked around for ideas among the go-to recipes for other summer produce such as peaches. Cobbler, sure, and what about crisp?

Sure enough, I found a couple of recipes, latching onto one developed by a pair of gardeners who also cook, at whiteonricecouple.com . Since this seems to be the Year of the Yellow Tomato in my garden, I decided to use all yellows, a mix of heirlooms and hybrids. (Well, one pink Brandy Boy that HAD to be used immediately snuck in there.) This produced a mild crisp in which all the spices were in the crumbly topping. It was delicious served alongside turkey meatballs and green salad. Italian sausage would be another good accompaniment.

The yellow tomatoes I used, if you’re taking notes for next year, were: Lemon Boy, Limmony, Pork Chop, Chef’s Choice Orange (OK, it’s gold) and even a couple Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes, just to say I did. I also peeled most of them -- they were very ripe and peeled easily -- but that’s up to you.

Savory tomato crisp

Adapted from a 2013 recipe at whiteonricecouple.com
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing dish

For filling:
2 pounds tomatoes, peeled if desired, cut into wedges
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Bubbly filling and a crunchy top: It's a tomato crisp

For topping:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons minced parsley
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick or instant)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 2-quart casserole or baking dish.

Place the tomato wedges (peeled if desired) into the dish. Sprinkle the cornstarch over the tomatoes, stir, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Set dish aside while you make the topping.

Whisk together the flour, cheese, parsley and thyme. Stir in the garlic, brown sugar and the 1 teaspoon salt. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingers until the mixture is crumbly. Blend in the rolled oats.

Sprinkle the topping evenly over the tomatoes. Bake the crisp 45 to 50 minutes, or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Let cool slightly before serving, or allow to cool to room temperature.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipes tomatoes gardening heirlooms Sacramento backyard produce produce management farm to fork

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Garden checklist for week of April 19

After this midweek storm, start getting serious about spring gardening. Flowers are blooming about three weeks ahead of schedule. That includes weeds!

* Get ready to swing into action in the vegetable garden – if you haven’t already. As nights warm up over 50 degrees, set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash; wait on pumpkins until May. Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Smell orange blossoms? Give citrus trees a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants. If leaves look yellow, your tree may need an iron boost -- apply some chelated iron fertilizer.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden needs nutrition. Give shrubs and trees a slow-release fertilizer. Mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost, which helps the soil, but keep it a few inches away from trunks and stems.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

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