"Yo dude i heard you had a radical party last night." "Dude, it wasnt just any party, it was a.....tomato party" party in your mouth!

Ok...so I've been in the cooking mood and have loved inviting friends over all week to try to new recipes made with the seasonal vegs from the farmers market. Their enthusiasm and compliments of our vegetarian dinners only encouraged me to want to cook more. Unfortunately for them, they did not come over the night I made the following recipes. Fortunately for me, I got to eat it for the next two days.

I adapted the recipe a little bit from the Plenty cook book, because of the vegs and grains I had available. From the Exeter farmers market I got this awesome quart filled with baby eggplants, yellow blush tomatoes and red roma tomatoes with half a bulb of garlic from Jeff's New Roots Farm. He had a recipe to cut in half, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic and roast in the oven at 400 for about 20 minutes. I had also picked up a very ripe yellow and striped greed tomato and a green and a yellow hot pepper from Meadow's Mirth. There are so many fun colors, shapes, and sizes of tomatoes that this definitely is appropriately named a Tomato Party. Choose what you can find to get a variety of colors and textures. Fregola can be substituted for Israeli couscous (which I included as well) or just double the quantity of couscous and leave the fregola out. I think the texture of it is really fun and adds an addicting, satisfying bite. So I'll include my changes in italics below. 

 these tomatoes yell EAT ME

 3/4 cup whole wheat couscous

salt

extra virgin olive oil

2/3 cup boiling water

1 cup fregola

1/2 cup Israeli couscous

3 medium vine-ripened tomatoes, quartered

3/4 tsp brown sugar

black pepper

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 cup yellow cherry (or blush) tomatoes, halved

1 cup small eggplants, halved

1 cup small roma or plum tomatoes

2 tbsp roughly chopped oregano

2 tbsp roughly chopped tarragon

3 tbsp roughly chopped mint (I didn't have any but added dill)

3 garlic cloves, crushed (I roasted mine whole with the tomatoes)

1 small green tomato, cut into small wedges

1 yellow tomato, cut into small wedges
1 hot pepper

3/4 cup chery tomatoes, halved 

Preheat the oven to 325F. 

Put the couscous in a small bowl witha  pinch of salt and a drizzle of oil. Pour over the boiling water, stir to coatand cover the bowl with lid. Set aside for about 12 minutes. Fluff with a fork and leave to cool. 

Place the fregola in a pan of boiling salted water and simmer for 18 minutes until al dente. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold running water and leave to dry. 

 Meanwhile, spread the quartered vine tomatoes and garlic over half of a large baking pan and sprinkle with sugar, salt and pepper. Drizzle over balsamic and olive oil. Place in the oven. After about 20 minutes, remove from the oven and increase the temperature to 400F. Add the other roma and blush tomatoes to the other side of the pan and season with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Add the halved eggplant to a second baking pan, season with salt and drizzle with olive oil then place in the oven. Return the tomato pan to the reheated oven and roast for 12 minutes, until tender, and then remove from the oven to let cool.

In a small pot, heat some olive oil and add the Israeli couscous. Cook until toasted golden. Cover with water or stock, bring to the boil, and simmer for about 10 minutes, until al dente. 

Mix together the couscous, fregola, and Israeli couscous in a large bowl. Add the herbs, cooked tomatoes with their juices, green and yellow tomato and the pepper. Very gently fold in and mix together, using your hands if necessary. Taste for seasoning - more salt, pepper, or olive oil if needed. Topped with some feta cheese or goat cheese I had was the perfect salting. 

tomato partaaaayyyyy

blog post title's quote is from urban dictionary's "tomato party" entry.