Tomato Water

We serving palate cleansers after all of our olive oil tastings. They freshen and delight your mouth.  It is like an adult shooter.  Paired with our Balsamic Vinegar Reductions, the palate cleanser is usually served with fresh squeezed grape juice at harvest time, or cranberry juice at Christmas or Apple juice during the Fall. It is fun to make the Balsamic Reduction and very fun to pair it with different flavors.

During August, we always make tomato water, and serve it with our Signature Balsamic reduction.  TOMATO WATER.  What is that?” everyone says. This is delicious, everyone says. Not many people can easily identify the origin of the flavor. It is a fun discussion about what this water, that tastes familiar, really is, and why we serve it frozen.

So here is our not-so-secret recipe plan.

First, go to Peets Coffee, and plead with them to give you a very large coffee filter, or 5 in our case.  Usually they laugh at me, but are always accommodating when I buy coffee.  Certainly, you can do this in smaller filters, but we make lots of tomato water!

You begin with tomatoes, lots and lots of large tomatoes, big beefy red juicy tomatoes.

Go to Larry’s Produce in Suisun Valley or Castaneda Brothers in Vacaville, or your back yard, and get big tomatoes, and put them all in the blender.  Blend the heck out of them, no large bits.

Then you place the blended tomatoes in the filter, in the strainer, over a bowl.  Then you wait.

DO. NOT. TOUCH.

DO. NOT. PRESS.

LET THEM JUST DRAIN!

What comes out is crystal clear beautiful juice. The very essence of the tomato. This liquid can be used to flavor soups, stews, cocktails.  The sky is the limit.  I then take the remainder of the tomatoes and freeze the pulp for use during the Fall and Winter.  So delicious for pasta, stews, and on pizza. The remaining tomato pulp makes a very concentrated flavor addition to your cooking.

So there it is, tomato water.

Enjoy.