Getting Saucy

It is (sadly) the end of summer. But before the colder months officially set in there is one of my favorite foodie seasons- tomato season. Tomatoes are gorgeous right now- and the crows have been snacking on big, plump, brightly colored heirlooms sliced onto fresh bread.

I engaged in my own personal end-of-summer tradition this weekend- getting saucy. Off of tomatoes. Let me explain. I am a total marinara sauce snob- a product of being lucky enough to grow up in a Sicilian family where having jarred sauce in the pantry was the embarrassing equivalent to a dirty bathroom or being out of salt. Simply not done. Every summer my mother would cook an enormous pot of marinara sauce with the tomatoes she grew in her own garden and then freeze individual portions in her large basement freezer. That way there would always be fresh homemade sauce all winter- for pasta, lasagna, eggplant parm- where ever it was called for. And I became spoiled.

So now I follow suite, making my own sauce at the end of every summer. This year I made a total of 7 quarts; from roughly 16 lbs of fresh (although regretfully not homegrown) roma tomatoes. And although my mother's and my grandmother's sauces put mine to total shame, at very least the ten perfectly stacked portions of sauce in my freezer right now assure me that there will be no need for jarred sauce in this apartment this winter.

There is no exact recipe here for this marinara- for things like wine, paste, salt, pepper and basil you have to just taste and add as you cook. But basically for 7 quarts of marinara sauce I used:

16 lbs fresh roma tomatoes, diced with skin on

1 can tomato paste

2 medium yellow onions

1 1/2 heads of garlic.

1 large bunch of garlic

1-2 cups of red wine.

Absolutely, positively, never any sugar. This is law. I don't think I really need to explain.

Total from start to finish this whole operation took me about 1:45- about an hour for prep and to get it started and about 45 minutes to simmer. I tossed some of the fresh sauce with spaghetti and topped with grated parm- served up simple with a side salad. A delicious way to celebrate the close of my favorite season.

Mangia bene!

Pasta Salad Season

One of my favorite things about a summer BBQ or Picnic are the side dishes. Chip and dip platters, roasted veggies, kabobs, cole slaw, your almost full before you even dig into a burger or dawg. My new summer side dish love is the versatile pasta salad. I'm not talking about the stuff you buy at the deli that is drenched in Wish Bone Italian Dressing; I'm talking about these bad boys:

Grilled Chicken Pasta Salad w/Artichoke Hearts & Orzo Feta and Tomato Salad w/Marjoram Vinaigrette

Now these are the Pasta Salads I'm looking to scarf down this summer.

I saw Barefoot Contessa make a yummy Lemon Fusilli Salad with Arugula so I found the recipe online, tweaked it a bit and ended up with a tasty Pasta Salad that I would be proud to present at my next Picnic.


Changes in Recipe:

• I didn't have arugula so I just added extra broccoli
• Swapped the Fusilli for some Bow Ties
• Added the lemon juice at the end, I didn't want the taste to get bitter while simmering on the stove but I still added the zest at the beginning
• Substituted half of the cream with vegetable stock to cut back on some of the richness, but I had to simmer it a little longer to get the right consistency
• NOTES: I know this recipe calls for the broccoli florets, but I happen to really enjoy the steam. If you peel off the outer tough ends, the inside is nice and tender. Also this recipe works great cut in half

Here is my finished product, it's fine served warm or at room temperature. I would love to hear some other Pasta Salad recipes that you Crows are cooking up!

Fettucine! Parmigiana! Ay!

Pasta making: Great success! And holy moly, I never want to eat pasta out of a box again. It's an entirely different meal. Using this great book by Pasquale Bruno (replete with black and white photos of hairy, Italian wrists serving up dozens of what I am sure are delicious dishes but what all look like Bechamel and sausage vomit piles), we made what was exactly two servings of pasta with 2 eggs and 1 and 1/2 cups of white flour. So make much more if you are hungry. Starting from the well, it took about 8 minutes of kneading to get it right.


Pasta rollers are magic!



The best part is that after all the labor intensiveness of making fresh pasta, it cooks in about 1 minute, in a pot, "salty like the ocean." All topped off with eggplant sauce and shit loads of paremesean:

Now I'm hungry again...

2 Lovely Sauces

Let it be said that:

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Mac & Cheese for the summer days

1 lb dried pasta

Bechamel Sauce*
2 c whole milk
3 T butter, 2 T olive oil (I know, I know)
4 T flour

1 lb shredded cheddar
3 handfulls parm cheese
1 c peas
1 c corn kernels off the cobb

1 sliced heirloom tomato

Begin by boiling pasta to an extreme al-dente. Drain, rinse with cold water. Make bechamel sauce by melting butter with olive oil over low heat. Add flour and cook until the flour smell is gone. Add Milk. continue to simmer, never boil, until the milk starts to thicken. Add Parm cheese. Stir and remove from heat. Mix Shredded Cheddar (minues a little for the crispy top) with the pasta, corn, and peas. Put in baking dish. Pour white sauce over pasta. Place sliced tomatos along the top of the pasta, and then sprinkle extra cheese on top. Bake at 350-400 for 40 minutes, and then pop it under the broiler for an extra 5 to crisp the top.

Orange Basil Dressing

Juice from 1 orange, zest from half
6 basil leaves
1 small rosemary sprig
1 t mustard
1/2 medium avacado
salt and pepper
1 clove garlic
small amount of onion- red or green
olive oil

Blend all ingredients, if you want a more acidic dressing add some red wine vinegar. If you have some lemon, I bet that would be yummy. This comes out such a beautiful green!! I recommend enjoying this over a simple salad of mix greens, tomato and onion!

* A wonderful utility sauce that can be used to start a pasta sauce, or be the sauce itself if you add some chopped green onions and extra parm cheese!

Advice CAW

I'm going to try making pasta from scratch tomorrow night. Any tips? I have a roller/cutter dealy...

Curse the Kitchen Elves!

Have you ever planned out an entire meal, purchased necessary items at the store only to come home and find that key ingredients you were counting on are missing from your pantry or freezer. This happens to me all too often. Monday night the kitchen elves made off with my marinara sauce and half a bag of frozen gnocchi- curse those little scavengers who take off with my food while i'm slaving all day at work. Initially I get angry at the Kitchen elves, but then I realize I still need to make dinner regardless of what i have/don't have in my pantry, so then I look at it as a challenge. Drawing inspiration from a bottle of red wine, I decided to clear out most of the leftover veggies in my refrigerator bin and make my own pasta sauce. To deal with my lack of gnocchi I would just mix it in with some whole wheat pasta and this is what I came up with:

Baked Pasta with Gnocchi & Chard


1/2 package of frozen gnocchi
1/2 package of whole wheat pasta
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes
1 medium carrot diced
1/2 zucchini, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch chard, chopped

Parmesan Cheese
1/3 cup dry red wine
fresh oregano and thyme, chopped
Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper and Red Pepper Flakes

• Saute onions, carrots, zucchini and garlic in a deep saucepan with olive oil, salt, pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (reserve one garlic clove and 1/4 of the onion for the chard)
• When onions become translucent pour in red wine and let reduce for 5 minutes
• stir in tomatoes, extra dash of salt and fresh herbs, let simmer while the pasta water comes to a boil
• While sauce is simmering saute onions, garlic, chard, salt, pepper and oil until chard is just wilted- take off heat and set aside
• When water comes to a boil give it a generous salting, then pour in gnocchi and pasta- cook for 3 minutes less then instructions call for
• Combine cooked pasta with sauce in a mixing bowl
• Pour half of the pasta mixture into a casserole dish, spread out chard mixture over the pasta, then add the remaining pasta and top it off with some Parmesan Cheese
• Bake in a 425 oven for 15 minutes covered, then an additional 10 minutes uncovered to crisp up the top
  
  Here's what it looked like without the top layer:

Overall It wasn't a bad meal for a Monday night, I got to use up a bunch of veggies before I got a new batch delivered the next day. The fact that I combined the gnocchi with regular pasta made the whole dish a lot lighter, Nick commented that the gnocchi was like biting into little treats. If I make this dish again I would double the amount of chard I put in- you could also substitute the chard with spinach, kale or arugula.
Holly: 1 / Kitchen Elves: 0
until we meet again...

Also worth mention, there was an impromptu grill and eat out session in my backyard tonight. Totally basic all the way with burgers, hotdogs, and fresh skin-on sockeye salmon marinated simply in olive oil and lemon juice with salt and pepper.

Sides of leftover pasta salad and lettuce from boston organics with sliced fennel and holly's homemade balsamic dressing. Light and satisfying summer meal, great for outdoor mowing.