My love affair with tomatoes

I had a ton of tomatoes this year - seriously I filled up a massive bag with them and sorted them out between the "green" bag and the "red" bag. I actually love the idea of using green tomatoes in cooking. The idea that something doesn't have to be just about the awesome flavor that comes from a beautifully ripe tomato, but that it can also be about the blandness (think eggplant) and about the texture.

I made a whole lot of green tomato salsa this year out of the green tomatoes, and as I'm far too paranoid to can tomatoes I gave the majority of the salsa away (it was pretty awesome go here: http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2005/09/saving-harvest-green-tomato-relish.html for the recipe - she calls it a relish, I figure as I'm foreign and have no clue about the difference between a salsa and a relish I am hereby renaming it a salsa).

With all the lovely red ripe (sometimes VERY ripe) tomatoes I decided to slowly roast them with some garlic and onions, salt and pepper and make a simple red sauce with them. Out of this I made pizza sauce, and a simple pasta sauce. Man I love having a P-patch.

A simple pizza dough

I love pizza, and I love the fact that it can be so versatile. This is a dough recipe that I use all the time. It makes two huge pizza's and it works out everytime.

Pizza Dough, taken from Williams-Sanoma "Essentials of Baking, p. 2
Ingredients for Dough
2 packages of active dry yeast (5 tsp.)
560mL warm water
2 tsp. sugar
60 mL olive oil
780g flour (bread flour/ AP flour)
1 Tbs. salt

Method
1. Place the warm water and yeast into a large bowl and whisk together. Let rest for 5 min.
2. Add the sugar, oil, flour and salt and mix with your hands until a rough ball forms.
3. Scrape dough onto a floured work surface and knead for 10 min until the dough is soft, smooth and elastic.
4. Place into a oiled bowl, and wait until the dough has risen to around twice its original size (1-2 hours).
5. Preheat oven to 425F.
6. Divide into portions and place topping on.
7. Bake until the color is a light brown, and toppings look baked.