What Do I Do With All These Tomatoes?

It seems like one minute your tomato plants are covered with green, hard unripe tomatoes and the next minute, all of them are bursting red and ready to be picked! After harvesting these red gems, my husband presented me with more ripe tomatoes than I knew what to do with. I erroneously thought that the only solution would be to make tomato sauce which would use as many as possible all at once. But then I’d have tons of sauce that wouldn’t keep fresh for very long. So this simple, yummy recipe grew from this plethora of red juicy beauties. You can call this a casserole or a lasagna or a strata—I think, by definition, all these terms work.

If you want a more lasagna-type feeling, add a layer of vegan mozzarella cheese after the tomato layers. I wanted to keep it simply veggie but when the next crop comes in, I might add cheese.  As is, it’s substantial enough to serve as the main dish with some sauteed broccolini on the side, perhaps, or this can be the side dish to an entree, as well.  It was even delicious cold the next day.

Of course, you don’t need to be growing your own tomatoes to make this veggie packed dish. When you choose tomatoes at the farmers market or store, the vine-ripened ones or ripe plum tomatoes will work best.

Roasted Eggplant and Fresh Vine-Ripened Tomato Casserole

2 medium eggplants, peeled and sliced lengthwise, approximately 1/4 inch thick

10 vine-ripened medium tomatoes, thinly sliced

4 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup dry bread crumbs

4 Tbs minced garlic

1 fresh lemon

1/2 cup of nutritional yeast

chopped fresh herbs: chives, parsley, rosemary, basil

salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2) Oil a baking sheet and arrange the eggplant slices slightly overlapping each other.

3) Brush the eggplant with oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 15 minutes

4) Oil a large shallow baking dish and layer as follows:

• a layer of eggplant (half of the amount)

• a layer of tomatoes (half of the amount)

• spread 2 tbs of minced garlic

• squirt of fresh lemon all over the tomatoes

• sprinkle half of the fresh herbs

• a thin layer of half the bread crumbs

• a thin layer of half nutritional yeast

5) Repeat the layering and season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil

6) Bake for 20-25 minutes in preheated oven, until top is golden.

7) Let cool for 5 minutes and serve

Enjoy!

xox Ellen