Heirloom tomatoes are one of the many reasons I love the summer. I turned a beautiful batch of heirlooms into a sweetly concentrated sauce/spread/jam last summer, and I’ve been dying to do it again. Now that Trader Joe’s has their beautiful boxes of tomatoes for sale, I jumped on the chance to cook up another batch. This spread is both incredibly delicious and surprisingly versatile. You can eat it with a poached egg and piece of toast, spread on some crusty bread as a bruschetta, spread on a sandwich for extra flavor, or use it to top a very delicious pizza.

High quality tomatoes ensure that your tomato sauce will be delicious, so find the most beautiful batch you can. The tomatoes I used equal out to about 6 regular sized tomatoes and yielded about a pint of spread. To make this spread, chop up 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic, and sautée them in olive oil until they soften.

While they cook, chop your tomatoes into thin strips. It might seem like a waste to cook down such delicious produce, but the spread really shows off their flavor, so it’s ok. Make sure you taste each tomato as you chop because they all taste differently. It’s fun! And they’re beautiful. I never imagined I’d spend my Saturday afternoon literally petting produce in the kitchen.

Add your chopped tomatoes and all of the liquid they released to a skillet with the onions and garlic. Season them with salt and pepper.

Bring the tomato mixture to a simmer. Let it cook for about an hour or until the liquid evaporates and the tomatoes thicken. Make sure to stir the tomatoes every now and again so the ones on the bottom don’t burn.

This tomato mixture is a great thing to have in the fridge because it infuses a huge shot of flavor into anything you add it to. I spread it onto some toast and sprinkled fresh basil on top for a play on bruschetta. It was great! Have fun discovering all the ways you can eat these tomatoes, and let me know about them!