One of the things I love about summer is the abundance of fresh produce either from my garden or the profusion of famer's markets. I especially love when tomatoes are ripe and ready. Have you ever noticed the difference in taste of a tomato that you grew yourself and the taste of the grocery store bought tomatoes? The homegrown tomatoes are so much more luxurious and have a ton more flavor. This isn't just because of personal pride in growing a tomato (although that does help).
Commercial tomatoes have been bred to be hardy and transportable at the cost of flavor. They are also picked at a green mature stage. Tomatoes are a fruit that can continue to ripen after being picked so they are harvested when they are on the verge of turning red and when they are still hardy enough to be transported without damage. Unfortunately, tomatoes ripen at different times so you are bound to get tomatoes that haven't developed their full flavor yet. In addition if a pallet of tomatoes happens to get stored in a cooler, or even rigt next to a refrigerated unit, and they fall below 50 degrees that also majorly impairs their flavors. Left to grow and mature on the vine at home the tomatoes are able to develop their full flavors which is why your homegrown tomatoes will, pretty much, always taste better than store bought.
This all leads me to my recipe for this week's Frugal Friday. Somehow I have a bunch of roma tomatoes that ripened already. I'm used to tomatoes not ripening until August in my garden but "whoop" there they were! I also have a profusion of basil out back too and the combination of tomato and basil brings to mind pizza for me, specifically pizza margherita. Sure you can buy a frozen pizza but just read the ingredients, how many of the words can you easily pronounce? Now read my ingredient list. Big difference. You can also make your own flatbread very easily (Prudence Pennywise actually has a great recipe for flatbread and a more complicated and gourmet version) but for convenience sake I bought whole wheat flat bread. Another great thing about this recipe is you can be as basic, or gourmet, as you taste buds and your wallet allow. You can sub the packaged cheese for fresh grated fontina and mozzeralla and load up on the toppings or you can go basic and generic.
Ingredients:
4-6 roma (or plum) tomatoes halved: picked fresh from the garden (or about $2.00 at the grocer)
5-6 sprigs fresh basil: fresh from the garden
3 cloves of garlic (or 2 Tbs garlic powder if that's what you have in stock)
4 8 inch flatbreads: $2.80
3 Tbs olive oil
2 cups cheese (either prepackaged or fresh grated mozzeralla and fontina in equal parts): $2.50
My total cost: $5.80
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425
Add the tomatoes, basil, and garlic into a blender or food processor and puree until coarsly chopped. Season with salt and pepper to taste
Brush the flatbreads with olive oil and spread an equal amount of sauce evenly over each flatbread.
Sprinkle cheese over each piece then add whatever toppings you have handy (I had leftover mushrooms and green olives that I threw on top of mine)
Bake 10-12 minutes so that the cheese is nicely melted and the flatbread is browned.
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