Tag Archives: tomatoes

{inspired by : sungold spaghetti}

1 Nov

well, summer is gone and we are in the autumn months and slowly transitioning into winter… and as the seasons change, so does my palate and therefore, what i enjoy to cook and eat.

i recently decided to leave the social media world for a while. it’s just too much and it’s not what i signed up for. i only mention that because sometimes i did enjoy getting inspired by other foodies while scrolling and sifting through the mostly nonsense, and i found the recipe for this dish. it is one of my new favourites that i now eat on the regular. it was particularly awesome to make it when i was able to grow my own tomatoes.

i miss having a garden so much it hurts.

this dish is so simple to make. i was so happy to see that i could find sungold tomatoes at my local grocery store since i am not able to grow my own. they are so wonderful!  they are like natures candy… sweet and tangy… and if i’m not mistaken, they are less acidic than regular tomatoes (which is really important to me at this time in my life.) they are so juicy and they pop and burst in your mouth and make a delicious sauce! when i saw they were on sale in the late summer, i bought a bunch with the intention of making some of this sauce to freeze so i could enjoy it during the approaching wintertime. it freezes really well and during the cold months, is so comforting, refreshing, and satisfying.

ingredients are simple, as always – measuring with your heart : 

  • sungold tomatoes
  • sweet onion
  • garlic
  • olive oil
  • spaghetti or pasta of choice (thin spaghetti is the food and foto choice)

i think the key with this recipe is to make sure not to use too much of the onion and garlic. you really want the tomato to be the star. the aromatics help with overall flavour, but we don’t want to overpower the delicate taste of these beautiful summery golden tomatoes.

the best method i’ve found is to add the onion, garlic, and tomatoes to a bit of olive oil in a sauce pan and simmer very slowly, adding a bit of water as to avoid any burning. the tomatoes will eventually burst and create a wonderful base for the sauce.

once the tomatoes are fully cooked, transfer to a blender and marry all those flavours together. cook the pasta until al dente, then add in a bit of starchy cooking water to the fragrant sauce and then add in the noodles. remove from heat and top with freshly grated parmigiano reggiano. transfer to a bowl and finish with (homemade) croutons and fresh parsley. *chefs kiss*

usually i have a small cucumber salad on the side… nom nom.

this really is a dish for tomato lovers!


have you ever tried sungold tomatoes? shoutout to daphne oz for the inspo on this! she’s just so classy and such a foodie!

{final tomato harvest of 2022}

14 Oct

this foto captures only a fraction of the amount of tomatoes i harvested a couple of weeks ago…

easily, upwards of 10 pounds of tomatoes were on the plants before i decided to pull them up. i lovingly called them “jelly bean tomatoes” and to be honest, i think they may have been a self-seed/rogue plant. they are so prolific and delicious! i am going to save some seeds in hopes of planting them again next year…

since so many of them were still green, i pickled some for the first time ever. and i also made some sauce with a blend of both. 🙂

{mini caprese stacks}

10 Sep

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finger food is my favourite!  i believe in touching and playing with your food!!  😉

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and i’m kind of obsessed with tomatoes… i eat them with almost every meal, it seems. i love the colourful variety of them.  little, big, funky shaped, speckled… deep colours, bright colours…

i especially love to make little snacks with tomatoes – any way i can.

and so, i present to you… the most adorable mini-caprese stacks ever.  at least by my standards.

😉 Continue reading

{end-of-season tomato and goat cheese toasts}

17 Oct

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aren’t these cherry tomatoes just gorgeous?!  it’s sad that the season is over… but i’m still eating as many as i can when i find them at the market…

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i just eat them like candy… popping one at a time… nom nom

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i was inspired by the pretty-much-nothing-left-in-the fridge emptiness of me almost moving and therefore having no food in the house… and i looked around at the half-loaf of bread and jar of cream cheese i had laying around…

“it’s like a little mini pizza… kind of.”  {i thought to myself…} Continue reading

{my first tomato ever!}

7 Sep

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this is terrance, my tomato plant.

i haven’t written about him much because i actually thought maybe he was dying… i only got this ONE tomato from the plant and i believe critters got to the rest of the fruit before i could…  i hadn’t seen any new life in almost 2 weeks so i was concerned… but then recently, i started seeing new growth!  i have 10 little tomatoes growing at the moment, woohoo!!

i’m not sure why it seems my terrance is a late-bloomer… most of my friends that have plants are harvesting TONS of fruit right now.  it’s just funny, it seems like everything i own takes on my energy… i’ve always said i’m a late-bloomer… 😉

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this was my very first homegrown tomato – an early girl 🙂

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i picked her at the beginning of august…

stay tuned for the recipe i used this yummy fruit in!

{the perfect garlic and a pretty heirloom tomato}

3 Apr

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just perfect.

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so pretty.

cook ’em up …and put ’em on something… and eat ’em…  a lot!

because this is one kickass combo for health! and tomatoes are more bioavailable when cooked – did you know that? so what that means is your body absorbs more of the nutrients when cooked versus raw.  lycopene is a big one we know of with tomatoes, but this also applies for foods that are in that same colour family {oranges, yellows}… like red peppers, carrots, corn, etc… there is actually way more lycopene in tomato paste than a raw tomato.  fact check me, it’s amazingly true! 🙂

and this is totally why i want a tomato plant of my own very very soon!!!!

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nom nom.

{meatless monday} roasted rainbow zucchini pizza strips

3 Sep

HAPPY LABOR DAY!  hope you are enjoying the weekend – getting some late sunshine, firing up the grill one last time, taking a final dip in the pool, and of course, eating and drinking!

i thought i’d share a fun recipe in honor of the holiday weekend.

these were super fun and easy to make. i made some in the past, but wanted to try a little different approach this time – mostly, more colour. i love zucchini anyway, but the inspiration for this dish was to use up some of the cream cheese i had in the fridge as well as a few of the tomatoes i had lying around – never want those to go to waste!!!  when i spotted the multicolour ones at work, i had to snag them up.  it’s too bad there aren’t too many “blue” foods, or i would’ve made a slightly more festive version 🙂 Continue reading