The answer to yesterday’s mystery freezer question is pesto—roasted tomato pesto. It must have been one of those days near the end of our ripening tomatoes, especially the ones brought into the garage to ripen after the season, when, faced with a mountain of ripe tomatoes, I did what I usually do—roast them with a little olive oil and salt, then figure out how to eat them. At least some of them went into the pesto. Roasted tomatoes make an interesting twist to that concentrated, thick paste. I could taste the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and walnuts, garlic, and parsley, which I prefer to cilantro. We ate it in spicy beef wraps, like these—Spicy Braised Beef Tacos— but without the extra crumbled cheese. I cooked the beef in the oven, in a large cast iron dutch oven, with about 3 cups of crushed tomatoes from the garden (also in the freezer, but recognizable).

What are your favorite ingredients to add to pesto to change it up?