Over the summer I’ve jammed tomatoes, dehydrated tomatoes, made a slow-baked (four hours) tomato sauce with roasted eggplant and garlic, and created an astoundingly simple yet delicious tomato sandwich with salted heirloom tomato slices enveloped between two slices of cracked-wheat sourdough bread slathered in mayo. Oh, and there was also that small pizza in my air fryer, featuring sliced tomatoes, basil from my garden, a splash of extra-virgin olive oil, and plenty of mozzarella and red pepper flakes.
I wish I could say the tomatoes were from my garden, but my tomato plants were stingy this year. Nevertheless, it’s been a joyful tomato season that I’ll miss as we go into fall.
So, it’s time for one last explosion of tomatomania before we pull our plants and have to live with the less-flavorful imported fruit on display at the market. I called on my longtime friend chef Christina Ng to help me with a bit of a seasonal tomato blowout we can all savor.
In her El Cajon kitchen, chef Christina Ng seasons tomatoes for the galette. She recommends using firm, meaty tomatoes with a lot of flesh so the bottom of the crust doesn’t get soggy.
(Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Ng may not be a familiar name to you. She’s not a restaurant chef, although she’s worked at plenty of restaurants since attending UC Davis, where she studied food science. But she is cherished by fellow San Diego chefs for her generosity and sublime cooking and baking skills at food events. She has a catering company, Chinita’s Pies, and considers herself a food educator. Currently, she’s the foundation cultivator with the Berry Good Food Foundation, which supports a local, sustainable food community in San Diego County and Baja California.
Ng came up with two great ways to enjoy the end of the season. The first is temporal — a gorgeous savory tomato galette meant to be enjoyed now with her salsa verde. The second takes us through the cooler months with a recipe that allows us to savor today’s fruit months from now — a fragrant, rich, tomato and peach chutney.
The galette is a very simple pastry and great practice for anyone wanting to sharpen their pie crust-making skills. You only make one pastry crust and place tomato slices in a circle in the middle, leaving room to pleat the edges of the crust over a couple of inches of the tomatoes.
Ng used three baseball-size tomatoes; if you can use tomatoes of different colors, it adds an extra visual pop. She advised going with firm, meaty tomatoes with a lot of flesh to avoid a soggy bottom — beefsteak, for example, or the meatier heirloom varieties. Hers came from her friend Joseph Balistreri of D’Acquisto Farms in Bonsall.
Although you can use kosher salt to sprinkle on top, Ng likes Himalayan pink salt for its flavor and crunchy texture. For the herbs, you can go with whatever you like or have — just basil or a mix of fresh herbs.
Ng rolls out the dough for the galette in one direction, rotating it to keep it in a circle.
(Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Ng offered tips for rolling out the dough.
“There are a couple of tricks to this,” she said. “First, if you start with a circle you’ll end up with a circle. So, when you prepare your dough and you wrap it in plastic while it’s soft, you can form it into a disk before chilling it.
“When it’s time to roll it out, you’ll take it out of the plastic and make sure that you flour both sides before rolling to keep the dough from sticking to the board and your rolling pin. So, flip the dough over every three rolls and keep sprinkling with flour. The trick to (keeping) the dough a circle is to roll in one direction, then rotate the dough 90 degrees, roll, and rotate until the dough is 12 inches in diameter. Then place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.”
But, added Ng, don’t fret if it isn’t a perfect circle.
Ng tucks the pastry crust around slices of fresh tomatoes seasoned with salt, pepper and fresh herbs.
(Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“It’s meant to be rustic,” she said. “We celebrate the ugly edges and the fact that it’s kind of a circle, but not really.”
Once you have the circle of dough on the baking sheet, start placing the tomato slices on top of it. Leave about an inch-and-a-half border around the edge of the dough and overlap the slices, working your way to the center. Then season the tomatoes with the salt and herbs and bring the outer edges of the dough over the tomatoes, pleating them to maintain the circle. Most of the tomato slices will be exposed. At that point you’ll put the galette in the oven for about half an hour, until the pastry is browned.
Ng chops peaches for a chutney that brings summery fruits to the table after the season is over.
(Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Those 30 minutes are plenty of time to make the salsa verde. Basically, it’s composed of herbs — parsley and cilantro — along with green onion, garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, salt, red chile flakes, sugar and olive oil. Put all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until all the herbs are finely chopped and the mixture comes together. That’s it.
When you serve the galette, drizzle some of the salsa verde over each slice. Ng suggests serving it with a green salad. When I tasted it, the crust had a beautiful snap to it, the tomatoes were sweet and a little salty, flavored by the acidity of the salsa. It was a perfect fete of the fruit.
The chutney mixture simmers over low heat to allow the juices and sugars to release from the fruits.
(Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
While the galette is a celebratory dish for today, Ng’s tomato peach chutney is ideal for when it’s January and you’re making, say, a roasted pork loin or chops or a grain bowl filled with winter squash. It has the flavors of summer, but with the comforting warmth of the spices, particularly the garam masala, that you crave in chilly weather. Garam masala is a spice mixture filled with a variety of spices, most commonly cinnamon, peppercorns, cardamom, mustard and coriander seeds, clove, mace and nutmeg.
This chutney, too, is easy to make — just requiring some simple prep work of dicing onions, mincing garlic, grating ginger and chopping the tomatoes and peaches. Once that’s all done, you’ll heat a neutral oil in a pot and saute the onion, garlic and ginger. You don’t want to brown them, just get them soft and fragrant. Then you’ll add the black pepper and garam masala before finally adding the rest of the ingredients.
Stir the mixture, letting it simmer over low heat and work its magic. It’s a good idea to stir the chutney periodically so that all those sugars released from the fruit don’t create a sticky mess at the bottom of the pan. After about half an hour, use an immersion blender to break up the large chunks and the skins of the fruit. Don’t puree it, though. You don’t want some chunkiness and texture. Did I mention how aromatic your kitchen will be?
At this point, the sweet and acidic chutney is ready. The question is, do you want to use it right away, like over the next couple of weeks, or do you want to save it for cooler months? If the former, just keep it refrigerated and enjoy it during that brief time. Ng likes to add it as a condiment on a cheese board. I’m enjoying as an accompaniment to roasted chicken and in sliced chicken sandwiches.
If you want to keep it longer than two weeks, you have a couple of options. One is to freeze the chutney in small containers to defrost within the next six months. The other option is to do water-bath canning. This involves sterilizing jars and their lids, washing the bands that screw onto the jars, and bringing a large pot of water to a simmer. When the chutney is ready, carefully spoon it into your jars, topping it with the lids, screwing on the bands, and submerging the jars in the water bath for 30 minutes.
If this is new to you, I recommend the “Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving,” which can walk you through the steps. It’s my preserving bible. My other advice is that if you’re going to the trouble of canning, double Ng’s chutney recipe so you have 4 pints to enjoy until next year’s tomato season starts. Yes, it’s that good!
The tomatoes in the galette cook up sweet and salty, flavored by the acidity of the salsa verde.
(Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Tomato Galette With Salsa Verde
FOR THE PIE CRUST:
1¾ cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1½ teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
4 tablespoons ice water
FOR THE GALETTE:
1 disk of pie pastry (recipe above)
3 large tomatoes, sliced
1 teaspoon salt, either kosher or Himalayan pink salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chopped fresh herbs (basil, chives, rosemary, thyme are good choices), optional
Salsa Verde (recipe follows)
FOR THE SALSA VERDE:
2 bunches parsley
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch green onion
1 small clove garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon red wine vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch of red chile flakes
Pinch of sugar
¼ cup olive oil
Make the pie crust: Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.
Add the butter cubes to the bowl, then toss them in the dry ingredients.
Flatten the butter cubes in the flour, while continuing to toss each flattened cube to coat in the flour mixture. Continue until all the butter is about dime-size.
Add the ice water gradually and combine into the butter/flour mixture with a rubber spatula.
Transfer ball of dough to a sheet of plastic wrap, and wrap. Flatten ball of dough into a disk and allow to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes up to overnight.
Chef Christina Ng gathers fresh herbs from her garden in El Cajon to season the tomatoes for the galette and to make the salsa verde.
(Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Make the galette: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll out pie pastry to a diameter of 12 inches. Place on lined baking sheet.
Arrange tomato slices in concentric circles, working from the outside in and overlapping the slices on the pastry, leaving a 1½-inch border on the edges of the pastry. Season tomatoes with salt, pepper and herbs.
Fold the edges of the pastry over onto the tomatoes, slightly overlapping each fold.
Bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until pastry is browned on the top and underside.
While galette is baking, make the salsa verde: Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until all herbs are chopped finely and mixture is cohesive. Set aside.
To serve galette, drizzle with salsa verde and sprinkle flaky salt. The galette goes well with a mixed green salad.
The tomato and peach chutney can be jarred to save for a future charcuterie spread.
(Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Tomato Peach Chutney
Makes 2 pint jars
2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as grapeseed or sunflower
½ onion, small dice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1½ teaspoon garam masala
4 cups tomatoes, skin on, chopped (a combination of tomatoes is great)
2 peaches, skin-on, medium dice
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
Ng chops cherry tomatoes to add to peaches, diced onions and larger tomatoes in a bowl for the chutney.
(Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
In a medium pot, heat oil and saute onion, garlic and ginger on medium heat until fragrant and softened, about 2 minutes. Add black pepper and garam masala and continue to cook for a minute.
Add tomatoes, peaches, sugar, apple cider vinegar, and salt. Stir to combine.
Reduce heat to low and allow mixture to simmer for 30 to 35 minutes. Stir periodically to keep the mixture from sticking to the bottom. Using an immersion blender, break up large chunks and tomato skins. It should be mildly chunky.
Place chutney in clean jars and let cool before serving.
Serve on a cheese board, or as a condiment alongside your favorite proteins.
The chutney can be refrigerated for up to 14 days or frozen for up to 6 months. Alternatively, if you want to do water-bath canning, distribute the chutney hot into presterilized jars, place lids on, and submerge in water bath for 30 minutes.
Recipes by Christina Ng.
Golden is a San Diego freelance food writer and blogger.