sauce or soup? soup or sauce? Who cares, let's use the tomatoes

Ah, it is that time ragazi.  Yes, it is truly summer when Annalena cannot find enough ways to use the tomatoes fast enough.  As a result, she is "forced" to make and eat many tomato salads.

Life could be worse, huh?

Seriously, Annalena equates summe with tomatoes.  When she cannot get local, field tomatoes anymore, summer is over.  And she mopes. And sulks.  And gets upset that she didn't do more.

So, when tomatoes are rampant, so, too, are the eggplants. And Annalena has a CSA.  For those of you who are familiar with these, you know what that means:  yup, ragazzi, a box filled with eggplant as big as Annalena's not insubstantial forearm.  There is only so much eggplant parmagiana one can eat, and Annalena is still working on the surfeit of eggplant.  What follows, however, is a recipe that uses both. And, let her point out at the start, this is a vegan recipe.  And it can go two ways:  you can make it a sauce (which is what Annalena did), or you can make it into a soup (which is it's original intention).    You have, here, a picture of the beast in sauce form:

 If Annalena does say so herself (and she does), it is delicious.  You will be cutting and peeling and chopping a bit, but this is worth it.  As a sauce, you'll get about six cups.  As a  soup, up to ten.  So, who's with Annalena and ready to make something yummy?  She dedicates this recipe to her cousin in law,  Liz, and to her cugina vera, Kim, who got the one Annalena missed .  Let's go ladies:  roll up your sleeves (if you got em), tell the kids to watch tv, and let's cook.

You're going to need three pounds of plum tomatoes (we do NOT use  heirloom tomatoes when we cook:  they will work, but why do you want to lose the flavor and color?)  Cut them in half, and toss them in a big bowl, with a bunch of carrots that you've cut into small chunks.  Now, add the cloves from two bulbs of garlic.  You can do this two ways:  you can peel them, which will make things easier at the end, or you can leave em whole, which will complicate your life a bit at the end.  What does your schedule say?   

Ok, now toss all of these with a couple teaspoons of salt, and a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  Preheat your oven to 425 and then, dump this all onto a baking sheet.  If you want to make things MUCH easier on  yourself,  put the tomato halves skin side up, and use parchment paper.  You will not regret it. 

Put that one aside, while you do the next one:  you chop up about 2 pounds of eggplant into chunks.  Don't peel it.  You want the chunks about bite size.  Put these in a bowl, together with a cup and a half of cooked chickpeas.  (the original recipe called for canned:  if you must, take a 16 ounce can and drain it.  Annalena made hers.  Now, combine those with two teaspoons of curry powder, or more - especially if you're going the soup route.  Again, line a pan with parchment paper, and lay the stuff out on it, after you've stirred another two tablespoons of olive oil into it. 

Put these into the oven, and roast them for 45 minutes or so.  Switch positions about half way through.  Your kitchen is going to smell wonderful:  first the curry, and then the tomatoes, and then the subtle, but unmistakable smell of baking eggplant.  You'll feel very exotic, so if you feel like dancing the Dance of Seven Veils, make sure the kids aren't around. 

Ok, so you've baked the stuff for 45 minutes. NOW, what do you do?  Well, you let those things cool down, first of all.   And when they're cool, peel the skin off of the tomatoes.   You are permitted to marvel at how easily they come off.  If you didn't peel your garlic, squeeze it out of the skin, right onto the tomatoes. 

The tomatoes, the carrrots, and the garlic are going into your food processor, and get it going.  If you want soup, now you start adding water.  This is going to break down your tomatoes even further.  You will want to add cup measures, and probably stop after three.   If you had particularly dry tomatoes, you may need four. 

This is going to cut the salt of the tomatoes, so now taste that liquid, and add more as you need it.  

Now, just dump all that eggplant and chickpeas into the tomato soup.  You may want to add some more curry.  In fact, if Annalena makes this again this year, she will do just that.  

As she says, six cups of sauce, or ten cups of soup.  You know what that means, carini:  it means sharing, or freezing. 

As Annalena said, this is a vegan recipe.  (Did she say that?  She doesn't remember).  If you use it as sauce, and put it on dry pasta, made southern Italian style, you don't have any eggs in it, and you're still vegan.    And that is how Annalena did it.  And if you're watching your gluten, well, go for the gluten free pasta. 

Next one goes the other way:  we're going to turn a sauce into soup, and make an Italian classic.