Too Many Tomatoes? 5 Recipes We’re Making Before Summer Ends
When the garden starts producing tomatoes faster than you can eat them, there’s only one thing to do: lean into it. These five recipes are on our late-summer list for making the most of the season’s most abundant harvest.
There comes a point every summer when growing tomatoes goes from feeling like an accomplishment to becoming a minor logistical problem.
At first, you wait impatiently for the first one to ripen. You search for a glimmer of ruby amid the lush greenery every morning. You start lusting over the taste of the inaugural tomato sandwich.
And then August arrives.
Suddenly there are tomatoes on the counter. Tomatoes ripening on the windowsill. Tomatoes waiting to be picked. A bow of unwashed tomatoes that seemingly replenishes itself every time you walk away.
This is, of course, exactly what we wanted.
Late summer is the season of abundance, and few things capture it quite like a tomato still warm from the garden. So rather than complain about our high yields, we’re leaning into it—and bookmarking a few fun and fresh ways to put every last tomato to good use.
From a showstopping heirloom tart to a cold summer soup and one recipe worth tucking away for the depths of winter, here are five we’re making before tomato season slips away.
1. For the Pretty Ones: Fresh Heirloom Tomato Tart
Image Credit: Leite’s Culinaria
Some tomatoes are simply too beautiful to hide.
This fresh tomato tart from Leite's Culinaria puts colorful heirlooms front and center, layering them over creamy goat cheese and pesto in a buttery herbed crust. The tomatoes themselves stay fresh rather than baking with the tart, which makes this one particularly appealing for those peak-season heirlooms you want to taste in all their glory.
We can picture this one in the middle of the table for a leisurely late-summer lunch or dinner outside, preferably with a simple green salad alongside it.
Why we're making it: When the tomatoes look this good, let them be the main event.
Best for: Large heirloom and slicing tomatoes
2. For Brunch: Zucchini + Tomato Summer Frittata
Besides stunning, our take on Frugal Nutrition’s dish was both delicious and practical. An easy favorite in our book!
This one has already earned a spot in our rotation.
We made Frugal Nutrition's Zucchini and Tomato Summer Frittata for brunch recently, and we love that it solves not one but two familiar August garden dilemmas: what to do with all those tomatoes and the zucchini that seemingly doubles in size overnight.
The original combines zucchini and tomato with eggs, feta, onion and garlic in a cast-iron skillet, making it the kind of unfussy dish that works just as well for breakfast as it does for lunch or dinner.
We made it our own at the table with fresh basil, a little extra feta, and everything bagel seasoning on top. Highly recommend.
Why we love it: It's simple, satisfying, and puts two of the garden's most prolific late-summer vegetables to work at once.
Best for: When both the tomato and zucchini harvests have gotten slightly out of hand.
→ Get the Zucchini + Tomato Summer Frittata recipe from Frugal Nutrition
3. For Our Northeastern Hearts: Philly Tomato Pie
Image credit: Baker by Nature
We’d be remiss if a tomato roundup from our corner of Pennsylvania didn't include tomato pie.
And, to be clear, we're not talking about pie crust filled with tomato slices.
Philly-style tomato pie is much closer to pizza: a thick, airy crust topped generously with tomato sauce and finished with grated cheese rather than the blanket of melted mozzarella you might expect on a traditional pizza. The Philly-Style Tomato Pie from Baker by Nature makes its sauce with fresh Roma tomatoes alongside tomato purée and paste, garlic, herbs and a little balsamic.
The recipe specifically recommends Roma or another plum tomato, with thin-skinned cherry tomatoes offered as another option. So if your garden is overflowing with another variety, we'd take that as inspiration to experiment thoughtfully rather than let good tomatoes go to waste.
Serve it warm. Serve it at room temperature (yes…it’s actually even more delicious a little cold!). Put it out for a casual gathering and watch it disappear.
Why we're making it: Because sometimes the best way to honor the harvest is with a food that tastes like home.
Best for: Roma or plum tomatoes—and feeding a crowd.
→ Get the Philly-Style Tomato Pie recipe from Baker by Nature
4. For Something Unexpected: Summer Gazpacho
Image Credit: Love & Lemons
When faced with several pounds of beautiful tomatoes, soup may not be your first thought in August.
Cold soup, however? That's another story.
Love & Lemons' Gazpacho uses a generous 2½ pounds of ripe tomatoes along with cucumber, pepper, red onion, garlic, cilantro and sherry or red wine vinegar. Everything gets blended and chilled, turning an armful of garden produce into something refreshing enough for the hottest days of the year.
This is the recipe on our list for one of those August evenings when turning on the oven feels unthinkable. Add crusty bread and plenty of toppings, and dinner is handled.
And here's the rare recipe where having too many tomatoes is practically a prerequisite.
Why we're making it: It's fresh, unexpected, and uses a serious amount of the harvest in one go.
Best for: Very ripe, flavorful tomatoes that are begging to be used now.
5. For January You: Smoky Roasted Tomato Soup
Image Credit: RecipeTin Eats
And finally, when you've eaten all the fresh tomatoes you possibly can, save some summer for later.
There's something deeply satisfying about pulling food (that you reared yourself!) from the freezer in the middle of winter that still tastes of the garden. And we're particularly taken with this Smoky Roasted Tomato Soup from RecipeTin Eats.
It starts with a whopping three pounds of fresh tomatoes, which are roasted to concentrate their flavor, with smoked paprika adding another layer of warmth and depth.
Our plan? Make it while tomatoes are abundant, enjoy some now, and tuck the rest into the freezer in meal-sized portions. A few months from now, when it's dark before dinner and cooking inspiration is in short supply, homemade tomato soup already waiting for us will feel like a very good decision.
And if you're eating it now, we'd be tempted to add a swirl of something bright and creamy. This tangy Cilantro Lime Crema from Love & Lemons uses Greek yogurt or sour cream, lime, garlic and fresh cilantro—and takes only a few minutes to pull together.
Why we're making it: It's a gift from your August self to your January self.
Best for: A serious tomato surplus—and getting ahead on future dinners.
→ Get the Smoky Roasted Tomato Soup recipe from RecipeTin Eats
Bonus: → Get the Cilantro Lime Crema recipe from Love & Lemons
And If You Still Have Tomatoes...
Give them away.
There is no prize for successfully consuming everything your garden produces yourself.
Leave a bag on a neighbor's porch. Bring a basket into work. Invite friends over for tomato pie and send everyone home with a few tucked under their arms.
Part of the joy of growing more than you need is getting to share the abundance.
& Don’t Forget: Savor the Glut
By February, we'll miss this.
We'll miss walking outside and deciding what's for dinner based on what's ripe. We'll miss tomatoes that actually smell like tomatoes. We may even miss the bowls taking over the kitchen counter.
So while they're here, we're embracing the abundance.
Bake them. Blend them. Roast them. Freeze them. Share them.
This is what the harvest is for.
