Hello Zabby, I'm so glad the roasted vegetables worked for you. I made a lot, but it's almost gone now. It's one of those concotions which really comes close to preserving the flavors of summer.

Carol

Is that something canned? Pressure canned? I love roasted vegetables, it is one of my absolute favorite foods. I keep wanting to can caponata or roasted pepper spread but every year when the veggies are fresh I get busy and only manage to do salsa and jam. I often freeze my roasted veggies so I'll have to remember to add them to soups.

It isn't something that can be canned, because it involves olive oil.

But it freezes well. And I sure do recommend adding roasted veggies to a tomato soup. Add a little fresh basil as well (or probably a dollop of frozen pesto) and you get the taste of summer.

Zabby

Close to that, I made roasted red pepper spread. It was done on my gas grill using mesquite wood chunks, and sweet red peppers (pimento types), roasted onions, and also roasted garlic. These are all pureed together, and then I added some dried sweet pepper powder, as well as balsamic vinegar. They got canned using the BWB method, but to insure they had enough acid, I also added a half teaspoon of ascorbic (for color retention) as well as half a teaspoon of citric per quart jar. The flavor was great on crusty bread slathered with olive oil, and placed under the broiler a minute of two. It looks like a thick tomato sauce but will shock you because its mostly all sweet peppers. Oh, don't forget the salt!

Mmm, Ken, sounds great.

I didn't do any roasted red pepper spread last year and now I'm regretting it. The past two years I'd gotten half-bushels of red peppers and made the BBB recipe. SO good to have in winter!

Hopefully this year I'll still be able to get good peppers in October, since I'm getting married in September and expect to be too busy to do as much canning as I'd like.

Zabby

zabby,
i got married last september and it will make it very hard to do all the tasty late summer canning you want to do. I have no tomato sauce or anything

This year I am going to try very hard to do up some pesto and freeze it. In the past, I've only manged to dry some basil from the garden, and I've read that freezing it is far better for the fresh taste.

Anyone have any ideas on which variety of basil is best for drying and which for freezing in pesto? I imagine the genovese would be good for drying. And the larger leaf basil for pesto? I haven't been very impressed with the taste of purple basil when I've grown it.

Peppers still growing in October in Z5/6 may not make it. Alsthough if you pick most off the plants just before a frost, some may ripen to red indoors. Many of mine did this, and they either rot, or turn red, not usually both together though.

Ken, believe me, I know the limitations of zone 5/6. I don't grow sweet peppers myself -- I use the room for hot ones and tomatoes -- but buy them at the farmers' markets. How late the season lasts depends, of course, on the fall weather --- sometimes they're gone by late September, other years they are available well into October. (The year we moved here the first thing I canned in the new home was roasted red pepper spread, on Thanksgiving weekend --- sedond Monday in October here). That's why I said I hope we have a year more like that this year, since I expect if I make red pepper spread this fall it's going to be AFTER my wedding....

(This is also why I put my long-season hot peppers in pots; if there is an early frost I can bring them in. I have a friend in Ottawa, which is more like Zone 4, who regularly gets good crops of habaneros and other long-season peppers, this way. Once John sent me really long-season pepper and I brought its pot into a sunny window in October when all its fruits were still green --- they ripened just fine around Christmastime....)

Zabby

So where is this wonderful recipe? I would love to try it!

Here you go:

Roasted Tomatoes, Peppers, Corn and Capers

Categories: Canning & Preserving Vegetables

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 pounds tomatoes -- peeled if desired
3 1/2 pounds sweet peppers -- (red, orange and yellow), cut into 1-inch chunks - about 12 large
1 1/3 pounds Banana peppers -- (about 5 cut into 1-inch chunks)
2 pounds Sweet Onions -- (Walla Walla - about 3 large)halved and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 2/3 pounds corn kernels -- (about 6 large ears fresh corn)
36 kalamata olives -- pitted and coarsely chopped - (3/4 cup or 4.6 oz.)
1 cup Italian parsley -- chopped (.6 oz.)
3/4 ounce basil leaves -- minced
1 head garlic -- chopped
4 tablespoons capers -- rinsed
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 to 450 degrees (the hotter the oven, the shorter the roasting time).

If using cherry tomatoes, simply remove the stems and halve each one. Halve or quarter other varieties.

Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of the oil in the bottom of a large roasting pan, jellyroll pan or any baking sheet with sides. Add the tomatoes, peppers, onion, corn, olives, parsley, basil, garlic and capers. You can crowd the vegetables together, but don't go beyond a single layer. Drizzle on the rest of the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Roast until the tomatoes' skins turn golden (if unpeeled). Depending on your oven temperature, this will take anywhere from 20 minutes to about 11/2 hours. When done, the tomatoes and peppers will have collapsed and darkened beautifully. Alternatively, you can roast the vegetables over indirect heat on a medium to medium-hot grill (see note), with the lid on.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven or grill and let the vegetables cool. With a metal spatula or wide, flat-sided wooden spatula, stir and scrape the cooled mixture to dissolve all of the cooked-on bits of food.

To freeze, ladle the sauce into freezer containers, leaving about 1-inch head space. Let cool completely, then attach lids and freeze.

Note: To peel tomatoes (don't peel cherry variety), cut a shallow X in the bottom of each tomato. Plunge them into boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove immediately and plunge into cold water. Skins should slip off easily.

Note: To check grill temperature, count the seconds you can hold your hand, palm side down, 2 to 3 inches above the rack, until it feels uncomfortable: 4 seconds for medium; 3 seconds for medium-hot.

Description:
"-- From Jan Roberts-Dominguez (My Variation)"

Carol

Thanks Carol! That does sound yummy!

Other suggestions for using the Late-summer roasted veggie stuff besides spreading on baguettes or adding to tomato soup? They both sound wonderful but I'm sure you've already found lots of other uses, too. Thanks.

Putting it pasta was recommended when it was originally posted. And here I'm going to make an embarrassing admission: for a quick meal, I sometimes make Kraft Dinner (yes, the scary orange processed stuff) and then add a cup of the roasted veggie stuff from the freezer. My husband LOVES this and I find it pretty darned good myself!

Zabby