My mom has a small garden that I benefit from every summer. She has had so many Cherry Tomatoes and I have been eating them all summer long but I am starting to get more than my fill so I knew I needed to think of some ideas on how to use them up so they don't go to waste. I decided that I would smoke them on my tabletop charcoal grill and let me tell you they made an amazing Pasta Sauce! Wow. My husband thought they were awesome to just eat whole right off the grill--they are good that way but I love the flavor they add to recipes. I think I'm going to make a salsa with them too but roast the peppers as well so everything has a smokey flavor--sounds good!
You Will Need:
Tomatoes--any kind big or small will do
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Whole Garlic Cloves
Hickory Chips
Grill (Gas or Charcoal)
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Gather your ingredients
Coat the tomatoes with olive oil and salt and pepper. I added whole garlic cloves as well. Toss to coat all the tomatoes.
Soak your Hickory Chips for at least 30 minutes in water.
While the chips are soaking use a Chimney Starter to get your coals good and hot (this is just for charcoal grills).
Have the husband come out and dump the hot coals on the grate.
Move the coals to one side of the grill then add the wet hickory chips (make sure to drain the water off). Let the chips smoke a few minutes.
I made a foil tray sprayed with cooking spray and poured my tomatoes into it and placed it on the side of the grill that had no coals on it.
Let the tomatoes smoke for several hours. I checked mine every thirty minutes to make sure they weren't burning too much.
Once the tomatoes have cooled down peel the skins off the tomatoes. Add the "meat" of the tomatoes to a food processor and puree.
Add the smoked tomato sauce to a saucepan and make a great pasta sauce. I didn't have enough tomatoes to make a large batch of sauce so I just purchased a large bottle of marinara sauce and then added the pureed smoked tomatoes to that and boy did it flavor it nicely--it was the perfect amount of smoked flavoring.
I did a second batch and did it with larger tomatoes and scored an X across the top so the skin would peel right off after they smoked. I also did a batch of larger cherry tomatoes and just scored the side of each tomato and the skin just slipped right off.
I am going to jar some of the Smoked Pasta Sauce and save it for gifts for the upcoming holiday season. I know it would be something I would really enjoy if I received it as a gift.
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Seriously? I would have never thought of mixing hickory chips with tomatoes but it sounds pretty amazing. We have a little garden and this is a great idea on how to use up all the tomatoes.
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