Marcella's Tomato Sauce

Now that my work life and personal passions are so wonderfully, blissfully aligned, I find myself trying things in the kitchen that I wouldn't have otherwise had the gumption to.  I've made homemade bread, TWICE, in a week.  It was pure elation eating homemade grape jelly on my inaugural loaf of bread last week. 

This inspiration has lead to  more exploration with tomatoes,  which as you may know, is an unexpected turn.  When I read about Marcella Hazan's passing, I knew it was time to try my hand at her tomato sauce.  Run to your local market, scoop up the last tomatoes and do the same.   I included a few yellow heirlooms creating the lighter hue.

Marcella's Tomato Sauce
Ingredients  

• 2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, (skins peeled**) or 2 cups canned imported Italian tomatoes skin less, cut up, with their juice
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
• Salt to taste 

Directions 

• Put the tomatoes, butter and onion in a saucepan, and cook uncovered at a simmer for about 45 minutes until the butter slick floats on top. 
• Stir from time to time, mashing up large chunks with the back of a wooden spoon.
• Taste, add salt, discard the onion and enjoy. It's best soupy over pasta with freshly grated cheese. 

**Boil water and drop the whole tomatoes in for just a minute.  Remove, let cool slightly and peel. 

Tomatillo and Avocado Dressing

I have been patiently waiting for tomatillo's to arrive so I could share this recipe with you. Inspired by my favorite Midtown lunch spot, this dressing is so easy to make, so versatile and oh so yummy. Between this dressing, and last years tomatillo salsa I am obsessed. I couldn't stop taking pictures of these little treasures, as you will see below, and have used one batch of the dressing three ways this week already!

It has served as as:

1. A dip for crudites at work;
2. Water-downed as a dressing for a tomato, cucumber and mozzarella salad, and
3. As the sauce accompaniment to roasted shrimp over rice.  (Toss shrimp with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon zest and roast for 8-12 minutes at 375.)

Scoop up the next tomatilos you see and enjoy this easy peasy recipe with me.

Tomatillo and Avocado Dressing
Ingredients

• 1 ripe avocado 
• 10 small to medium tomatillos 
• 3 spring onions
• Salt and pepper 
• Water

Directions

• Bring a small pot of water to boil, and drop in the peeled tomatillos. Cook for 6-7 minutes until they turn a nice mustardy yellow.
• Drain, reserving one cup of the cooking water, and let the tomatillos cool.
• Mince the onions in the food processor or blender until finely chopped. Add the tomatillos and avocado and then blend. One tablespoon at a time, add the reserve cooking water until you reach your desired consistency.

Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

Inspired by this delectable sounding sauce, I decided to try my hand at using a butternut squash as a quick marinara sauce alternative.  Butternuts are highly contested in our household -- one of us finds them too sweet often raising a brow when it lands on the table, while the other of us loves it. As the cook, I have probably not disguised who is who whatsoever!  I still sneak into the rotation, roasting it with other vegetables like this, or masking it with other great flavors.  On this night, there was no masking....we had butternut squash pasta sauce for dinner.  Unsurprisingly, half of us enjoyed it.

I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 on the flavor scale.  More importantly, I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5 for ease of preparation.  And lets be honest, mid-week, sometimes ease outweighs all else.

Next time, I would consider more onion or a roasted red pepper.  Do you have a favorite quick sauce recipe? I'd love to hear it in the comments section.

Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 large butternut squash, sliced in half lengthwise and seeds removed
• 1/4 cup Parmesan
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1.5 teaspoons crushed red pepper 
• 2 - 3 cloves garlic, skin intact
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• Salt & Pepper
• Pasta of your choice + 2/3 of a cup of reserved pasta water

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400F
• Toss the onion, squash and garlic with olive oil in a roasting pan
• Sprinkle with salt, pepper and the crushed red pepper and roast for 30-35 minutes, until browned 
• Meanwhile, prepare the pasta reserving 2/3rds a cup of pasta water*
• Remove the pan from the oven, separate the skin from the squash and garlic
• Blend the squash, onion, garlic and parmesan until mixed in a food processor or blender.  In 1/3 cup increments, blend in the reserved pasta water until you reach your desired sauce consistency
• Toss with the pasta, sprinkle with additional cheese and enjoy

*I often throw sturdy green vegetables into my cooking pasta with 1-2 minutes to go. Brocolli and green beans stand up well and add color and nutrients to the plate.

Lauren Lately: Veggies with Goat Cheese, Lemon or in Pasta Sauce

Most of my meals are not documentation worthy, however I still enjoy preparing and eating them. "Lauren Lately" is a series that will feature a few go-to items in my dinner rotation on those nights when I want to cook, but don't have the gumption to create a blog-worthy meal.

1) Roasted Veggies with Chili Oil & Goat Cheese  
Ingredients

• Sturdy vegetables, i.e. turnips, beets, carrots, butternut squash, peppers, onions, potatoes and/or parsnips
• Chili Oil
• Goat Cheese
• Salt, Pepper and an Herb (dried or fresh thyme, sage or rosemary)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375. 
• Peel, clean and chop vegetables into 1-inch cubes. If squash or potato heavy, consider smaller cubes or 3 minutes in the microwave to speed cooking time.
• Toss cubes with salt, pepper, chili oil to coat and a few dashes of herbs. Personally, I'm in a dried thyme phase.
• In a roasting pan or tinfoil boat (much less clean up!), roast the vegetable for 35-45 minutes, tasting for readiness.
• Remove from the oven.  While piping hot, mix in a bowl with a tablespoon or two of goat cheese which will melt into a tangy and perfect coating.

2) Steamed Veggies with Lemon Olive Oil
Ingredients

• Green vegetables, e.g. Pole beans, string beans, broccoli, chard, kale, snap peas and/or brussel sprouts
• Lemon Olive Oil

Directions

• Clean, trim and chop green vegetables into bite sized pieces.
• Lightly steam (3-4 minutes for the soft greens, a minute + for the beans, a bit longer for broccoli or brussels). Steam in a glass dish with water in the microwave, stove top in a steamer basket or in a set like ours. Just avoid steaming in plastic, a no-no according to my dietitian friend, because of possible chemical transfer (phthalates and BPA, eek!).
• Toss the veggies with a few glugs of artisanal lemon flavored olive oil* and serve along side grilled chicken or fish. 
• If you don't have lemon olive oil on hand, combine a few healthy squirts of fresh lemon juice with regular olive oil, (then read the note below and contemplate an order!)

*Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Lemon has been a secret obsession of mine since reading about it in this newsletter.  Simple salad dressing or on veggies as above it is delish. Its so NOT LOCAL, I almost didn't fess up. However the eco-friendly merits slightly cleared my conscious since: a) Nudo farms organically, b) They market a lovely adopt an olive tree program and c) They employ a policy to ship by sea and land wherever possible. The chili oil in the roasted veg recipe above is also Nudo, and a part of their "Three Tenors" trio (Hello holiday or housewarming gift!)

3) Pasta with A Quick Homemade Sauce
When I first went "public" with this blog, a dear friend jokingly remarked she enjoyed it even though heating up pasta sauce was daunting to her.  I laughed... then started obsessing about quick homemade sauce recipes for her.  Below are my general guidelines.  Is the end result fine-dining? Probably not. Is it an easy and enjoyable homemade supper? You betcha.

Ingredients (must have and totally 100% optional)

• A large white onion
• Herbs of some sort (basil, thyme, oregano)
• 4-6 fresh tomatoes or a a can of whole tomatoes
• Parmesan Cheese
• Salt & Pepper
• Pasta
• 100% totally optional ingredients: Protein (ground chicken, sausage, lamb etc.), Fennel, Carrot, Celery, Garlic, Hot Pepper Flakes or Cayenne

Directions

• Meat base: Over medium heat, break up and begin to brown the ground or chopped protein of your choosing (turkey, chicken, beef, lamb, veal, sausage). About 1/4th a pound per person, though the end result will easily freeze if you have left overs. I love meat combination's here (lamb and veal, chicken and sausage) and just as often stick with straight veggies. 
• Veggie base: Add a few glugs of olive oil to a saute pan and continue.  
• Add one half a chopped onion to the meat or olive oil (or a full onion if serving more than 4 people), and saute over medium heat until glistening.  If you have it on hand, this is where you can add chopped fennel, carrots or celery sauteing it all for 5-7 minutes.
• Add freshly chopped tomatoes (4 for two people, more for additional eaters), or a can of tomatoes to the pan, and lower heat to medium low. 
• Add in the chopped or dried herbs (a pinch of dried oregano, a few full basil leaves...its not scientific), and a few cranks of salt and pepper. 
• Optional: Add 1-2 cloves of chopped garlic, and/or a dash of cayenne or a dash of hot pepper flakes to kick it up notch.
• Cook for 15-20 minutes, mixing every 5 minutes or so to break down the tomatoes.
• Meanwhile, bring pasta to a boil on the neighboring burner. When it's done, add 1/2 cup of starchy water from boiling the pasta to the sauce pan to loosen it up. 
• Pasta + sauce + grated cheese = dinner in about an 35 minutes including chopping.

Tomatillo Salsa, a.k.a. Scrumptious Green Sauce

When it comes to vegetables, Alice Waters is my goddess.  Her culinary point of view, that cooking should be focused on the finest and freshest local ingredients, is what I strive for and her refined yet approachable take has been inspiring cooks for decades.

While I am offering you nothing unique by professing my love, her Chez Panisse Vegetables is the perfect encyclopedia of vegetable recipes if you are in the market for one.  I read it cover-to-cover as bedside reading.

When these funky little corn husked green tomatillo fruits arrived I knew she'd have the perfect preparation.  I, unsurprisingly, obsessed over her version.  Home made tacos with tomatillo salsa verde: check.  Broiled fluke with the same green deliciousness: check.  Grilled chicken and rice topped with this sauce: check.  A second batch frozen in two separate baggies for enjoyment this winter: double check.  You get the picture!  Make it, enjoy it on just about anything, and see for yourself why Alice is a goddess.

Tomatillo Salsa Verde
Courtesy of Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Foods 

Ingredients 

• 1 pound tomatillos (about 12) 
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and sliced
• 1 cup washed and chopped cilantro
• 2 garlic cloves sliced (I doubled the originally here)
• Salt

Directions

• Peel and rinse the tomatillos. Add them to a sauce pan, cover just with water, add salt and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer.  Simmer for four to five minutes then drain, reserving 1 cup of cooking water.  The tomatillos will have lost their brightness. 

• Blend the tomatillos with the cilantro, jalapenos, garlic, and 1/2 cup of the cooking water
• Check the consistency, and if you want a "saucier" finish, add more cooking water
• Enjoy!

About the Tomatillo

Known to many as the green tomato, ripe tomatillos are bright green and firm.  Found in Mexico as far back as pre-Columbian times, the fruit is now a large domesticated Mexican export with with 80% of the yield sent to the USA.