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Chatting Tomatoes, Corn, Zucchini & More with Margaret Roach
By Alexandra Stafford
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Last Updated: 05/20/2025
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Funny story: My aunt Marcy (the one with the dogs in Vermont) came to visit me on Tuesday. She arrived with a bag of special Vermont plums (delicious!), a tub of pineapple tomatillos (irresistible!), and a glass pitcher filled with an orange-y hued purรฉe I recognized instantly as Julia Moskinโs gazpacho, the one everyone is making.
Surprise Aunt Marcy: Iโve been making it too! I opened the fridge to reveal a mirror image, a glass pitcher filled with an orange-y hued purรฉe, the silky smooth Spanish gazpacho I had blitzed on Monday evening.
Friends: have you made it? I learned about it via Jenny Rosenstrach and Cup of Jo, and Iโm finding it to be as miraculous of a little recipe as promised: it takes about five minutes to whip up; it yields a huge quantity; it puts to great use so much of the peak summer produce; itโs delicious and not to mention totally refreshing and incredibly healthy. I like mine drizzled with chili oil.
Hooray: itโs tomato season! Morning- noon- and night-tomato season! But also: up-to-our-eyeballs zucchini season. And: Donโt-blink-how-did-it-pass?ย corn season.
So much to savor, so little time.
Good news: My friend, Margaret Roach of A Way to Garden, and I have some ideas. We recently chatted about all the tomato, all the zucchini, and all the corn recipes we could squeeze into 25 minutes. Margaret also shares her tips for ripening tomatoes, her method for roasting tomatoes in preparation for freezing, and her go-to, easy skins-on tomato sauce recipe.
Iโve linked to all of the recipes (and more!) below. You can listen to the podcast over on A Way to Garden and enter to win a copy of Bread Toast Crumbs there, too.
UPDATE: GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. WINNER IS WENDY. I HAVE EMAILE YOU. But before you go! Enter to win a copy of Margaretโs award-winning A Way to Garden here: Leave a comment below. Tell me what youโre currently most excited to be eating or cooking or what youโre looking forward to making most.
Tomato Recipes
Get All the Tomato Recipes Right Here โ Tomatoes
After youโve had your fill of open-faced tomato-and-mayonnaise sandwiches, tomato-topped cream cheese-smeared bagels, BLTs, pan con tomate, simple salads, and pico de gallo, here are some ideas.
But first! Have you seen the new Alexandraโs Kitchen recipe filter? Click on โRecipesโ in the top navigation bar. Then filter away!
A Few Perennialย Favorites:
- Tomato and Corn Galette (Iโve been making this David Lebovitz recipe for nearly 20 years.)
- Oven-Dried Tomatoes + Bruschetta (Summer in a jar.)
- Tomato-Red Bell Pepper Sauce (My favorite summer sauce: so delicious, so fast.)
- Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce, Simplified (No peeling!)
- Roasted Tomato and Bread Soup (If youโre feeling fall.)
From Around the Web:
- Margaret Roachโs Skins-On Tomato Sauce
- Julia Moskinโs gazpacho (A new favorite! Pictured up top.)
- Spaghetti with no-cook Puttanesca (Eager to try!)
- Margaret Roachโs Roasted Tomatoes
- Turkish Scrambled Eggsย (Looks so good.)
- Naked Tomato Sauce (Long-time Smitten Kitchen favorite.)
Corn Recipes
Get All the Corn Recipes Right Here โ Corn
When youโve had your fill of corn on the cobโฆ
A Few Perennialย Favorites:
- Raw Corn Salad with Tomatoes,ย herbs, lots of acid, and feta (Mark Bittman)
- Fresh corn polenta (A must-make once a summer.)
- Soup with a corn cob stock: Deborah Madisonโs or Samin Nosratโs
- Fritters with Cheddar and Scallions (Deborah Madisonโs)
- Melissa Clarkโs creamy (no cream!) corn pasta
To Try:
- Milk Streetโs Pasta with Corn and Tomatoes (Eager to try!)
- Grilled Romaine and Corn Salad (Looks so good.)
Zucchini Recipes
Get All the Zucchini Recipes Right Here โ Zucchini
A Few Perennialย Favorites:
- Summer Squash Spaghetti
- Raw salad with olive oil, lemon, parmesan
- Roasted or Sautรฉed with pine nuts and herbs
- Zucchini Parmesan
- Zucchini Involtini
- Zucchini Fritters
- Zucchini Bread
- Roasted Ratatouille
From Around the Web:
- Heidi Swansonโs pasta with smashed zucchini cream (Loved this one!)
- Zucchini Pickles (Zuni cafe recipe)
- Canal Houseโs Marinated Zucchini (Food52)
- Zucchini Butter (If youโre looking to cull your haul.)
- Zucchini quesadillas (Smitten Kitchen)
- Stuffed Globe Zucchini (Cookie + Kate)
- Oven-Baked Zucchini Fries (Marilenaโs Kitchen)
Enjoy these last few weeks of summer, my Friends! Comment below for a chance to win Margaretโs beautiful book!
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
148 Comments on โChatting Tomatoes, Corn, Zucchini & More with Margaret Roachโ
Love all your recipes especially the ones with home grown tomatoes.
And you an Margaret make a good team.
Would love to own one of your books and hers.
Thanks for all the excellent recipes that inspire me!
Most excited about Zucchino Rampicante Squash. Its the first time Iโve grown it. The young squash is a wonderful summer squashโฆzucchini, nice consistency, tastes great sauteed. Its also a winter squash too. I have several sitting longer on the vine to toughen the skins. Canโt wait to taste it this winter!
Can never have too many books!!
All the corn recipes. It is delicious right now. Love all the recipe ideas.
Corn galette looks wonderful. Canโt wait to try it.
I love my fresh heirloom tomatoes but with 3 under 5 I am not gardening right now ๐ I am looking forward to cooking all the fall things, I just got Jerusalem, the cookbook and am so excited to start working out of that although not sure when Iโll have access to pomegranates much less some of the other less than basic ingredients. Iโm gonna give that gazpacho a whirl though!
Iโd like to try the Tomato-Red Bell Pepper Sauce!
During the tomato season, my favorite thing to make for myself and friends is a sort of bruschetta thatโs like a margarita pizza: slice a baguette in diagonal slices and toast or grill with olive oil and garlic, then top with goat cheese, your favorite cherry tomatoes from the garden (a mixture of colors looks great), julienned fresh basil leaves and fresh ground pepper. Sometimes we experiment with other fresh herbs. Itโs perfect with a glass of wine.
I grow Sungolds, Bumblebee, Supersweet 100โs, Mattโs Wild, Indigo Kumquat, Chocolate cherry, and Midnight Snack.
I feel inspired just looking at the photos. So many great ideas! I canโt grow vegetables (condo community rules), but can sneak a few herbs into my garden plantings. Farmerโs market produce is where I get my summer bounty of veggies. Would love the book to put together new-to-me combinations. Thanks for the chance to win your book.
Puff pastry brushed with EVOO with chopped garlic. Thin sliced lemon with skin on. Sliced tomatoes with more olive oil, fresh basil and either crumbled feta or mozzarella balls.
Yum.
The tomato โ red bell pepper soup sounds delish! I love soups and chilis in the fall โ any time really, but especially when it gets cold outside. Yum!
Love Margaretโs insights into gardening
Roasting tomatoes, and making pesto. Your mouth watering photos lead me to yearn for more delight of this season.
Eggplant with basil & jalapeno pesto kabobs!
I tried the roasted tomato recipe with our homegrown Principe Borghese. I added olive oil and some of our fresh garlic and thyme, oregano, and sage. So awesome and sweet. Served it on crusted Olive loaf from a local bakery. We ate it all! Good thing I had roasted some earlier that I did manage to get into the freezer!
My husband and I started a micro small farm adventure after retiring a few years ago after our garden tomatoes continually grew up and over their tomato cages. We now grow about 250 plants and trellis them up to a 9 foot trellis wire on twine. Right now it looks like a tomato jungle because I been busy harvesting the fruit and have gotten behind clipping the vines up as they grow to the sky, or at least the top of the high tunnel. I have always preserved vegetables we grew but now we get to share what we grow with the local community and our family. We even take boxes of harvest tomatoes, pots, pans, and canner across a few state borders to our grown kidsโ homes to set up an impromptu summer kitchen with a 4-foot portable table, etc. recently to make over 44 jars of sauce together.
Enjoying roasting tomatoes, onions and garlic in the oven for the most delicious roasted tomato soup with shreds of basil. I add some more cracked black pepper and coarse salt to taste. So good. Love reading your blog posts. Inspiring.
Plums and more plums. They practically throw themselves with abandon at passers-by on the streets and have such beautiful colors.
Every tomato season I get excited to make tomato pieโฆfor years nowโฆever since I read about in a southern living magazine (tomato, cheddar and bacon pie). Yet somehow when I get the tomatoes home from the farmers market, they get eaten too quickly. That said, I have my eye on the one from Vivian Howardโs Deep Run Roots, hoping this year will be the year!
Have been making gazpacho all summer but look forward to trying this one. Also have been meaning to try the roasted rattatouille and the red pepper tomato sauce. Iโve also been roasting halved tomatoes with herbs from the garden and canning them in 16 oz batches every end of summer so I donโt have to use canned tomatoes all year. I love that you try to keep the skins on various fruit and veggies! All of these recipes look wonderful! I will be checking out the zucchini recipes to use up the huge number my friend gave me from her garden as well as those from my garden.
Hi Ali, I have made the gazpacho twice in the last few weeks of tomatoes. Both times it was delicious, but the color turned out more brownish than pale red. The first time I attributed it to some of the heirloom tomatoes that were greenish, so the second time I only got red and yellow tomatoes, but it still didnโt look anything like yours. Too much basil or herbs maybe? Iโd love to hear your opinion. The color is a bit of a turnoff, especially if making it for a dinner or for clients. Any suggestion would be appreciated!
Susanna, hello! That is bizarre. Iโm thinking it must be the herbs. I have not added herbs yet. Have you made an herb-less version? I would try making an herb-less version and see how it turns out. And if you really want to add some herbs, you could make an herb โsalsaโ and keep it on the side for your clients to stir in to their liking? Samin Nosrat has a lovely herb salsa for her corn soup โฆ I feel like that would work here. Let me know what you do! I know weโre nearing the end of tomato season, but Iโm curious. xo
Canโt wait to try the gazpacho. A batch of rosemary semolina bread is rising at the moment. Seems like it would go well with that. I came across your bread recipes a month or so ago, and am having fun baking bread again.