Of Tomatoes and Apples

A week ago, I scored a great deal on 26 pounds of Roma tomatoes from my favorite Hmong family at the local farmers market.  Of course, many of them weren't ripe yet, but that didn't deter me.  There's a simple little trick to speed up the ripening process: get yourself an apple.

All you need to do is put the unripe tomatoes into a paper bag with an apple, and then roll down the top to close it.  Let the tomatoes sit in there, percolating in the ethylene gases released by the apple, and within a few days, they'll be ripe and ready for using in whatever recipe you want to attempt.  They do lack that sun-kissed flavor you get from tomatoes that ripen in the garden, but if you're wanting to make a ton of crushed tomatoes, they'll do the trick perfectly.