It’s harvest time!

When your neighbors drop off heaping bags of produce from their gardens and the farmer’s markets are overflowing, the question remains: “What should I make tonight?”

First, let me start with the admission that I’m merely a home cook with a penchant for recipes and a platform with PenBayPilot. I don’t have Instagram-worthy photos or state-of-the-art cookware. I use what I’ve got and what I’ve learned.

Tomatoes are overflowing this time of year and I got a bunch of heirlooms and cherry tomatoes from various sources this week—almost too much! I never refrigerate tomatoes, so I knew these babies had a shelf life. Here’s what I made.

Cherry Tomato Vodka Sauce

• Dozen cherry tomatoes washed
• 2 bulbs minced garlic
• 1 tsp. minced shallot
• 1/3 cup chicken stock or bone broth
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• Squeeze of tomato paste
• 1 oz vodka
• 3 oz. pasta water
• 6 basil leaves
• Couple shakes of parmesan cheese
• Seasonings; salt, pepper, oregano, minced basil
• Garnish with minced parsley

These funky cherry tomatoes were picked up from the dirt and pavement, still fresh, still viable, but would have rotted if left to the elements, so I washed them thoroughly, then blistered them in a pan with a couple of glurgs of olive oil. I threw in the garlic and shallot until they were aromatic.

Next, I mashed them into a paste, added the stock, simmering that down for about five minutes, then added the cream and vodka, before getting the penne pasta and chicken breasts cooking.

Pasta water is the secret to superior sauce, so I saved a bit of that from draining the pasta and let that come to a simmer.

Lastly, I added the basil leaves, parmesan cheese and seasonings.

What came out is a tangy, cheesy, comfort food sauce, with just the right amount of acid from the tomatoes and the vodka heightening the flavor. (One shot for me, one shot for the sauce so we’re both happy.)

It took 15 minutes all said and done with the chicken and the pasta. Bam, there you go. Dinner for two on a Tuesday night.

Where to get produce

Along with our incredible local farmer’s markets in the Midcoast each week, there will also be a Fall Celebration selling produce at Erickson Fields Preserve on October 14  from 1 to 4 p.m.

There are also a couple of options to get fresh produce, meats, cheeses, and more right to your door including Daybreak Grower’s Alliance, a subscription farmer’s market, and Maine Produce Alliance, an online and offline network of nearly 50 farmers throughout the state of Maine.

I also just took a free Hannaford Supermarket Zoom “Cozy Fall Cooking Class” on how to use fall bounty in your everyday cooking. Here are more free cooking classes that they will be offering this fall and winter.

If you want to see a particular ingredient that you rarely buy and want me to do a test recipe on it, email me below and I’ll give it (and you) a shout-out.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com