Our daughter is growing a type of tomato called Aunt Ruby’s German Green. Many of these tomatoes are real bruisers and weigh in around a pound each. The flesh is a bright green. We have a lot of them so I thought it would be novel to make a green spaghetti sauce.
Aunt Ruby’s German Green Tomatoes
First I had to remove the peels and de-seed them. I tried the microwave method and the blanching method to get the skins off. What a burning mess! After I had finally gotten the skins and seeds taken care of, I ran across a recipe that suggested cutting the tomatoes across the equator, removing the seeds and then shredding the insides on a box grater. Your are left holding the skin. Wow, so much easier!
Anyway, I had this beautiful bright green pulp and juice and I stupidly followed a recipe that called for two tablespoons of tomato paste. Needless to say, tomato paste only comes in one color, dark red. So I turned my beautiful sauce into brown sludge. Good tasting sludge but very unattractive. I added some ground beef to it and had a very gravy-looking spaghetti sauce. It was not beautiful but it was delicious over whole grain linguine.
Green tomato ragu over whole grain linguine decorated with cherry tomatoes and fresh oregano
Ugly Greenish Spaghetti Sauce
6 or 7 large ripe green tomatoes, peeled and deseeded (see NOTE below)
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
Salt to taste (it will need a lot of salt)
Combine these ingredients and cook at a simmer to reduce to about two thirds volume. If you have large pieces of tomato pulp use a potato masher to break them up. You should end up with about a quart (or liter) of sauce. If your tomatoes are smaller you will have to use more of them. Divide in half and set aside, or refrigerate or freeze. Sauce will be gravy-like in consistency and very ugly.
6 0z. Ground beef
1/2 half onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 of previously prepared ugly greenish sauce
Pulp from one additional seeded and peeled red or green tomato
Salt to taste
Brown the ground beef and add the onions. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and continue cooking for another minute. Add the prepared green sauce, the additional pulp, the oregano, and salt. Cook at a simmer for about half an hour. If your sauce lacks heartiness add a little fish sauce or a teaspoon of instant coffee. These correcting ingredients work wonders.
NOTE: If you are looking for a less ugly sauce just use very large ripe red tomatoes!
Omnivore 