Can You Have Too Many Tomatoes?

If you garden in Western Washington, you know that you can never count on a big crop of tomatoes. You feel lucky most years if you get any to turn red at all. So, when my mom hauled down 15 tomato plant one day last spring, I didn't get too excited. In fact, I though it was probably a major waste of time and energy to try to raise that many plants, considering that last years crop was dismal to say the least. Little did I know that we would proceed to have our hottest summer in 20 years and that tomatoes would grow like weeds in 2009! I would not dare complain about having too many tomatoes, but I have been feeling pressure lately to use them all up before they get bad. I still have about 20lbs sitting in my kitchen right now and the clock is ticking, so if you live in the area, feel free to come pick some up.

I did discover a recipe last year that I loved for slow-roasted tomatoes. It is almost like sun-drying the tomatoes in your oven, but they stay juicy and are covered in olive oil and garlic. Once you roast the tomatoes, you can keep them in the fridge for a month. I've been putting them on sandwiches, pizza and using them as an appetizer with goat cheese. You can also make a divinely easy pasta sauce with them by just tossing them in the pasta of your choice with some additional olive oil and top with parmeggiano cheese or mozzarella.

The recipe I used was originally from Gourmet Magazine, but I have modified it a little to lighten up the garlic. I would also love any suggestions you might have on how to use up all my remaining red beauties.

Slow-roasted Tomatoes

4 pounds plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
4 garlic cloves, minced ( I put it in the garlic press)
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 200°F.

Put tomatoes, cut sides up, in 2 large shallow baking pans. Combine garlic and oil and spoon over tomatoes. Season tomatoes with salt and pepper and roast in oven 6 to 8 hours (tomatoes will be reduced in size but will retain their shape). Cool tomatoes.

Ribollita

This recipe is a request from my Aunt Diana. It's not a hard request to fill, because this soup runs right along the lines of my philosphy of simple, but awesome food. Ribollita embodies this by taking simple, inexpensive ingredients and creating something that will make you crave it all the time. This recipe is adapted from "Regional Italian Cuisine" by Hess and Salzer. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in authenitic, regional cuisine, plus the pictures are enough to make you drool. This recipe hails from Tuscany and contains the Tuscan standby of white beans. It a dish that is healthy, hearty and easy to make, a winner for sure!

Ribollita

Vegetable Chowder

4 ounces or 4 slices of bacon

1 1/4 dried white Great Northern beans

1/2 fresh cabbage

1 small leek

2 stalks celery

1 sprig fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic

11 ounces of day-old bread

8 cups of beef or chicken broth (original recipe calls for beef, but I prefer organic chicken broth)

6 tbs olive oil

Soak the beans in water overnight and then in the same water, simmer the beans for 1 1/2 hours.

Finely chop the leek, carrots, celery, onion and garlic. In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons of oil and sautee' the bacon and vegetables. Add the stock and thyme. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Thoroughly clean the cabbage and cut it in to chunks and thick slices. Add to the other ingrediants in the pot and cook for an additional 30 minutes. With a food processor, puree half of the cooked beans. Add the bean puree and the whole cooked beans to the pot and bring to a boil once more before serving. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and season with thyme, salt and pepper. Serve with toasted bread slices.

Serves 6

I've been known to use canned beans in this and many other recipes for that matter. As long as you buy good quality beans and rinse them well, they should be fine to substitute for the dried white beans.

Bon Apetito!

Summer in Italy

Summer 2008

Rigatoni with Sausage and Cauliflower, yummy, yummy.

I was a vegetarian for a quite a while, but there was always one temptress drawing me back into the meat world, sausage. Sausage is just awesome and I could seriously eat it every day if given the chance. It is the one thing that you can depend on to be at least edible no matter what terrible restaurant or backyard BBQ you find yourself at. It is also the one ingrediant that guarantees that your recipe will be popular, at least with those who eat pork. This recipe is no exception. After I made it the first time, it quickly became a popular request. It is a dish that is versatile, because you can use broccoli or cauliflower and inexpensive, because it only requires one or two sausages to make. It is also relatively healthy for a sausage dish. So come on and give it a whirl. I can almost guarantee this will be a crowd pleaser.

Rigatoni con la Salsiccia

Rigatoni with Sausage and Cauliflower (or Broccoli)

3/4 lb of Rigatoni

1 small cauliflower (or 1 lb of broccoli)

2 tbs of olive oil
1 small onion

1 clove of garlic

1/4 lb of sausage

1/2 cup of white wine

salt & pepper

2 tbs parmesan

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

If your using encased sausage, remove the casing. Clean the cauliflower (or broccoli )and divide it into florettes. Dice the onion and crush the clove of garlic.

Put the rigatoni into the boiling water and 4 minutes before the pasta is done, add the cauliflower. (If using broccoli, don't put in the pasta water).

While the pasta is cooking, saute the garlic and onion for a minute or two and the add the sausage and cook until browned. Add the wine, salt, pepper, 2 or 3 tbs of the water from the pasta (and the broccoli )if your not using. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring every once and a while.

Drain the pasta and cauliflower when the pasta is al dente and add to the pan with the sausage. Let the flavors settle for a minute and serve with grated parmesan.

Results:Alway good, super yummy. I've made this with both broccoli and cauliflower and like it with both. I often substitute the rigatoni for orechetti when using brocolli.

Cook notes: Keep the peices of broccoli or cauliflower small. Feel free to put more sausage in the recipe and I've also substuted pancetta for sausage. If I have a package of sausages to use, I will use one for the recipe and cook the rest for a second course. I also use a good chicken sausage more often than pork.

Cauliflower Soup

I just can’t eat enough soup in the winter time. It’s fun to make and most of the time it’s a guilt-free meal. I grew up eating mostly chicken based soups and chili’s, but after marrying an Italian, I got to experience a whole new spin on soup. Italians eat soup as a first course often and every region has their own way to make what we call Minestrone here. Italians also favor broths with different kinds of pasta, every kind of bean soup you can imagine and the occasional creamed vegetable soup. The following recipe falls in the last category. There’s no cream in the recipe, but the pureed potatoes give it a real rich flavor.

This recipe calls for the use of broth cubes, which are often used in Italy for soups and risotto. I prefer the natural brands that can be found in the natural foods section of the grocery store as opposed to the traditional Knorr ones that contain MSG and tons of sodium. If you really don’t want to use the cubes or don’t have any on hand, I would substitute the water with chicken or vegetable broth.

Cauliflower Soup

1 cauliflower
2 potatoes
1 clove of garlic
2 cubes of broth
6 tbs olive oil
1 tbs butter
1 tbs chopped parsley
1 onion, chopped
2 cups of milk
¼ c grated parmesan
Salt & pepper
Clean the cauliflower and divide into flowerettes. Cut the florettes into small, bit sized pieces. Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes.
In a soup pot, brown the onion in 4 tbs. of olive oil. Add the potatoes and cook 2-3 minutes on moderate heat. Add three cubs of water, milk and broth cubes and let simmer 20-25 minutes.
In the meantime, sauté the garlic, butter, parsley and cauliflower in the remaining oil. Let the mixture cook for a few minutes, then add salt and pepper to taste. Add 2 tbs of water and continue to cook over low heat.
Turn the heat off the potato mixture and puree the mixture in a blender or food processor (or with a hand blender if you have one) and return the mixture to the pot. Add the cauliflower mixture to the potato mixture and heat through. Serve immediately with grated parmesan cheese.

Recipe notes: Don’t worry too much about the size of your potatoes cubes because they just get pureed anyway. Keep the pieces of cauliflower small, otherwise it’s too awkward to eat.

Results: This is the second time I’ve made this recipe and everyone loves it. We’re talking about fights breaking out for the last spoonful kind of liking it. It’s definitely a keeper.

Lost in Translation

Now that I'm no longer in Italy, I've decided to take on a new project to satisfy my yearning for authentic Italian food. When I left Italy, I brought back the ultimate souvenir. Well, two actually. The first is my dog Pluto, who hails from the hill town of Cortona and the second is the complete encyclopedia of Italian cooking. Collecting the 16 volumes of the encyclopedia was no easy feat. Each week I had to vigilantly buy the newspaper “La Repubblica” and then spend an extra 12 Euros on the next installment. Heaven forbid that I missed a week and then I had to spend the next 2 weeks tracking down a newspaper stand that had one left. Right before we left Verona, I found a little shop that had all the issues, so I left Italy with the compete collection! Yes, I was so happy. Who know how much it cost for me to ship them back here, but I don't care, I love these books so much! They contain recipe after recipe of real Italian regional specialties. The only problem is that they are written in Italian and the measurements are in metrics. This means that every time I decide to make one of these, I have to think a little bit. I've decided this year to translate one or two recipes a week and blog about it. So far, the recipes I've made have been mostly fantastic, so let’s see how it goes....
I’m starting off with a dish I love, but have never actually made myself. It is rich and super quick to make. The recipe does include raw eggs, so be sure to use fresh and clean eggs. Any bacon can be used in this recipe, but if you can find guanciale or pancetta, it will give the recipe a more authentic recipe.
This recipe comes from Lazio region of Italy.

Spaghetti alla carbonara
¾ lb of spaghetti
7oz of pancetta or good quality natural bacon
4 eggs
4 tbs of grated pecorino (parmesan can be used in a pinch)
½ tbs olive oil
Salt & pepper
Slice the pancetta in thin strips and brown in the pan with the oil. When the strips are browned, remove from the pan and with some kitchen tongs.
Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl then add the pecorino and some pepper.
In the meantime, cook the pasta in salted water. When the pasta is al dente, drain the pasta and save about ½ cup of the pasta water.
Put the spaghetti on a serving plate and add the pancetta and stir. Add the egg mixture and stir. If the mixture is too dry, add the pasta water that you saved. Stir and serve immediately.
Advice from the encyclopedia:
It is critical that you add the eggs at the right moment. If the pasta is too warm, it will cook the eggs too much (think scrambled eggs). Add the eggs at the very end and stir lightly and this will create harmonious ingredients and give the dish a creamy effect.
Serve the pasta with a dry white wine.

The Result: This was sooo good. Everyone was licking their plate, including my daughter who doesn't like eggs. The kids had no idea they were eating eggs! It was a hit, but it was really rich, so don't make the portions too big.

Try it!

Happy New Year

The holidays are over, at least for a while, and now we’re back to all work and no play mode once again. That sucks and I always find January a little bit depressing, without much to look forward to, except of course, a good meal. Dinner is to me a little celebration every night. We can celebrate everything from “thank God the kids will be going to bed soon” or perhaps “tomorrow I can sleep in”. There’s always a reason for a good meal and good glass of wine, sometimes you just have to use your imagination a bit more to find it.

One of my favorite winter meals is baked pasta or Pasta al Forno as it’s officially known. This is a concept that is simple and can be prepared ahead of time and stuck in the freezer or fridge until you’re ready to bake. Baked pasta can be as fancy or as plain as you like and when you really go for it, it’s a guaranteed guest impresser. The sky’s the limit on this one! The concept is extremely simple as well. Just prepare your favorite tomato sauce, boil the pasta, but a few minutes less that usually required and prepare your add-ins. The add-ins are what make this a special dish. Traditionally, Italians add in cheeses such as mozzarella, parmesean and ricotta and small meat balls. I’ve also added in things like roasted eggplant and zucchini, chopped into bite size pieces, mushrooms, peas or sausage pieces. Whatever’s in season is the rule for me. This is also a good vegetarian meal if you exclude the meat balls or sausage.

Here’s a break down on how to put together a baked pasta.

You will need:
A double recipe of the basic tomato sauce
1 1/2 lbs of tubular pasta, like rigatoni, ziti or penne (although any past will work) cooked a few minutes less than required by the directions
½ cup of grated parmesan
9x13 baking pan or other large sized baking dish

Optional Ad-ins:
meatballs
1 cup fresh or shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese
roasted or fried zucchini and/or eggplant, chopped into bite-sized pieces
sautéed mushrooms
boiled eggs, chopped (trust me, its good)
sausages, chopped into bite-sized pieces
Anything you want!

In the pan that you cooked the past in, combine pasta and tomato sauce. The pasta should be saucy, but not drowning in the sauce. The past will absorb some of the sauce as it bakes, so be sure it is generously covered.

Add a layer of the pasta in the bottom of your baking dish and then arrange part of your add-ins over it. Continue the process until the pasta fills the pan and the add-in are evenly distributed throughout. Sprinkle the parmesan on top of the pasta.

At this point you can freeze or refrigerate the pasta and just bring it to room temperature when you’re ready to bake.

Bake in a 350 oven uncovered for about 25-30 minutes. You want to monitor it’s progress to make sure the top isn’t getting too crispy. If it starts to brown too much, cover it with foil. You want to bake it long enough that it’s heated through and a little crunchy on top.

Bon Apetito!