Will it vacuum seal?

It's time to start saving summer produce.

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tomatoes getting ready for confit

As I write this, it’s late August and I am not sure how we got here so fast. It feels like yesterday that we were kicking off summer, but even though there’s a month of the season left, we’re all starting to turn towards fall.

I always get slightly depressed this time of year. A little bit because the long days are winding down, but mostly because of the fleeting nature of all the summer produce. Maybe it sounds ridiculous, but I get overwhelmingly sad that the best produce of the year will soon be gone.

While endlessly shoving cherry tomatoes into my mouth is one way to curb my sadness, the other is stocking my freezer to the brim with sauces, raw vegetables, and other things made with using peak summer produce. It takes a bit of prep work to get there, but being able to use corn in January that I froze when it was at its best is an absolutely elite move.

This year, I got a vacuum sealer and it’s become my entire personality. I have been vacuum sealing everything. Blanched spring asparagus, spring peas, muffins, pita bread, pesto, salsa. If I have put it in my freezer recently, I have tried to vacuum seal it. As I’ve been using it more, I am realizing that not everything needs to be vacuum sealed (the muffins get too squished), but it’s created dramatically more space in my freezer. More space means more room for produce.

vacuum sealed veg and tomato confit

This year’s freezer plan has pulled back on tomato sauce since I have a couple quarts from last year and I am not using plain sauce as frequently, and has increased in raw vegetables, salsas, and a few other base sauces.

Here’s my plan for this year:

• Blanched: Asparagus, chopped broccoli and broccolini, snap peas

• Raw: A lot of corn, green beans, blueberries

• Sauces: Confit tomatoes, ramp pesto, basil-garlic scape pesto

• Salsas: 4 salsas from Salsa Daddy, frozen in 1 cup portions

I use the blanched and raw vegetables in stir frys, side dishes, and I’ll probably try tossing some thawed vegetables into a chopped salad.

The sauce bases are great to provide a jumping off point for a meal or toss directly with pasta for a quick dinner. Here are a few sauces and what I make with them:

• Easy Tomato Confit

• Tomato confit and chickpea pasta

• Green sauce base - Use for a chimichurri, or swirl into soups

• Tomato sauce base - Use with pasta or in place of a can of tomatoes

Do you also love your vacuum sealer? Tell me how you use it!

freeze pesto in a sheet tray and then cut into portioned cubes

A bulk batch of basil-garlic scape pesto

There’s a vendor at my farmers’ market that sells essentially an entire basil plant that’s perfect for making a very large batch of pesto. Obviously if a whole plant isn’t available, you can buy a few bunches to get the amount you need. Freeze in a sheet try and cut into squares so you can just take what you need. Each cube was about ¼ cup.

Makes about 4 cups

15 loosely packed cups of basil, leaves separated

2⁄3 cup pine nuts

1 head garlic, cloves roughly chopped

3 cups plus 1 tablespoons olive oil

1 bunch garlic scapes, trimmed and cut into 1inch ish chunks

2 tablespoon kosher salt, separated. Plus more.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and add a tablespoon of salt. Add the basil leaves and cook for one 1 minute. Strain to a bowl with cold water and ice to let cool. Once cool, remove out and squeeze out as much water as you can and set aside.

In an oven or toaster oven, turn the broiler on high. Place the garlic scapes on a tray, toss with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, and toss. Toast under the broiler, turning occasionally, until slightly charred. Timing will depend on your broiler so just watch them.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Toast the pine nuts until golden brown and toast for about 2 minutes. These will go from raw to toasted very fast so I’d keep an eye on it and continually move so nothing gets burned. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Add the pine nuts, garlic, and garlic scapes to a blender or food processor and add about ½ cup of the 3 cups oil. Blend for a few seconds to break down. Add the basil and 1 ½ oil and blend. Add the remaining 1 cup oil and blend until basil is broken down and everything is fully blended. Add 2 teaspoons salt, mix and taste, add remaining teaspoon (or more) if you choose.

To save, line a quarter sheet tray with parchment paper and pour in the pesto. Let freeze and cut into squares (4x4) and place in a ziplock bag back in the freezer. Alternatively, you can vacuum seal ½-1 cup portions of pesto.

Pesto-Chicken Pasta

This recipe comes from the summer I studied abroad in Paris … a very long time ago. This recipes is clearly not French, but we were cooking dinner in the communal dorm kitchen that some of my classmates were living in, so we made something easy with grocery staples. You can certainly use jarred pesto here, but the point is to use some of the big batch you made and froze in the summer!