Tomato overload: oven-roasted, soup, & bolognese.

Our front yard vegetable garden & our friendly farmer from the CSA provided us with a plethora of tomatoes. We almost had tomatoes up to our eyeballs. Here's what we did with them:

First, we tried oven-roasting them. We sliced them, drizzled them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, & some fresh thyme (or lemon thyme, which we had in our garden). They were laid out on a baking sheet & baked in a 300 degree oven for over an hour.

Full of tomatoey flavor. Great for salads & recipes that call for tomatoes for an extra tomatoey bite!

Second, we created a tomato soup. This is a little harder to recall from memory. It was definitely an on-the-fly, invented recipe. But basically:

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add 1 or 1/2 chopped sweet onion. Cook until translucent. Add about 4-6 chopped tomatoes, & cook for about 2 minutes. (Feel free to add some of those oven dried tomatoes.) Add 2-4 cups of veggie broth. Season with salt/pepper & some lots of smoked paprika. Puree. Heat over low heat, add whatever herbs you want (e.g. basil, thyme, bay leaf, etc), & add more veggie broth if you need. You get a nice smoky tomato soup from this. You can add a little milk or heavy cream for a well-rounded tasty soup.

Deeelish.

Third, we created a bolognese sauce that was out of this world. This took us all summer to perfect. & Again, this was an on-the-fly, invented recipe. Basically:

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add 1 or 1/2 chopped sweet onion. Cook until translucent. Add a chopped eggplant & chopped zucchini. Cook for about 4 minutes. Add about 4-6 chopped tomatoes, & cook for about 2 minutes. Add a little crushed red pepper, 1 teaspoon of sugar, a handful or two of fresh basil, some fresh or dried oregano/marjoram. Add 1/4 cup of red wine, such as Chianti. Puree if desired.

In a separate pan, heat a 1 lb. mixture of ground pork, beef, & veal. (Giant grocery stores sells this as "meatloaf mix" - no breadcrumbs or seasoning, though! yay!) If you want to keep some sauce vegetarian, pour only 1/2 of the sauce into the meat mixture. Otherwise, you know what to do.

Let the sauce(s) simmer on the stove for hours. Taste periodically to adjust herbs, sugar, salt, etc.

Let me tell you - this is the best bolognese! We had it with a pasta bake (pasta, ricotta mixed with 2 eggs & some parmigiana, & mozzarella on top). It was great!

First try: Ravioli

Keri here again with a recipe using my brand new pasta maker! I haven't seen gluten-free raviolis yet... Plus, I doubt that they'll ever have pumpkin, butternut squash, or more creative fillings until many years in the future. This year, the man surprised me with a pasta maker to allow me to create pirogies, raviolis, flavored pastas, etc. Let the creativity begin!

We figured that I'd start with something rather basic for my first ravioli recipe. Now, I want to warn you: This isn't an amazing recipe. It's a first try at making homemade ravioli. It was pretty good, but there's room for improvement.

Firstly, the ravioli filling needs to be almost overwhelmingly flavorful. It needs to be able to stand up to the pasta dough - even though the dough is rolled thin.

Secondly, the dough needed to be rolled with a rolling pin prior to going through the pasta maker. Otherwise, the pasta maker couldn't catch the dough.

After that preface, here are my recipes:

Gluten-free pasta dough

I used Mario Batali's Fresh Pasta recipe as a base. For those of you not doing a gluten-free pasta, feel free to use his instead of mine.

4 eggs
3 1/2 cups Jules' Gluten-free flour mix
1/2 cup water (more or less)

Mound the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour, add the eggs. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well. As you incorporate the eggs, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape.

Start kneading the dough with both hands, primarily using the palms of your hands. If the dough has trouble coming together, add 1/4 cup water. Keep adding water until it becomes a cohesive mass. Gluten-free flour tends to be thirsty, but be sparing after the first 1/4 cup of water. If you overdo it, the pasta maker will shred the dough into little pieces. (Hint: If this happens - just add a little more flour, knead again, & re-roll.)

Remove the dough from the board and scrape up any left over dry bits. Lightly flour the board and continue kneading for 3 more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Continue to knead for another 3 minutes, remembering to dust your board with flour when necessary. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 20 minutes at room temperature. (Hint: Keep most of the dough wrapped until needed.)

Roll 1/4 of the dough with rolling pin until 1/4-1/8 inch thin. Feed through pasta roller at largest setting. Then, feed through pasta roller at the ravioli setting. Cut sheet into large rounds. Add a very small dollop of ravioli into the center of a round. Wet the outer edge of the round. Top with another round & press down gently to seal. You can use a fork to flute the edges if you're feeling crafty. (Hint: If the dough tears, use a dough "band-aid." Wet a small bit of dough, & gently press into the tear. Boiling the pasta makes most of these look fairly normal. Plus, there's sauce, right??)

When done with the prep work, boil the raviolis until they float. Top with sauce, & Done!!


Ravioli filling
1/2 lb. ground pork
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
8 leaves fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons olive tapenade (optional)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Cook pork on stove top until browned. Remove from heat, & place pork into large mixing bowl. Add ricotta, basil, seasoning, & tapenade. Taste. Add salt & pepper. Add more flavorings as needed. If you need, add other/more seasonings - Remember: It should be almost overwhelmingly flavorful.

Sauce

1/4 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
1/4 cup diced roasted red peppers plus 1 teaspoon liquid from jar
2 tablespoons finely chopped sundried tomatoes plus 1 tablespoon oil from jar
3 leaves fresh basil, chopped

Mix all ingredients. Taste. Add salt/pepper. Done!

Food & Wine Steak with Herb Nut Salsa

Tonight, the man & I had steak with an herb nut salsa. The recipe came with our Food & Wine Adventurer Club wine shipment.

Aside: Food & Wine introduced two wine clubs last Fall/Winter: a collector edition & an adventurer edition. They ship us 6 bottles with a recipe booklet that pairs each wine with a primary recipe (& 3 alternates). Some wineries also do the same, which is pretty awesome.

The wine was really good for a cheapy wine, & it paired really well with the recipe. Good job, Food & Wine!!

Wine: Domaine de Baumard - Logis de la Giraudière - 2005. Fancy name for a red table wine... but it is really nice. Don't pay over $20 for it. Rating: 3.5/5

Recipe: Hanger Steak with Herb Nut Salsa Rating: 3.5/5

The salsa was salty herby goodness - So, I made very simple sides: roasted potatoes & onions with very little salt & some pepper and halved grape tomatoes with leftover herbs, basil, & shallot. Both cleansed the palate nicely after bites of the steak/salsa & sips of the wine. We made a few minor modifications: no tarragon, no chervil, anchovy paste in lieu of anchovies, less oil.

Also, ignore the recipe's note about 12 minutes for toasting the hazelnuts. Toast until fragrant, & don't wander away. Otherwise, it's a mad dash to open the door, turn on the fan, & cover the smoke detector.

Overall, the dish was very good together. We will probably make this again when the vegetable & herb garden is in full force. I recommend the wine & recipe together as a semi-fancy meal.

Beef Bourguinon

There are high expectations when you attribute a quintessential French recipe to a renowned French chef. You expect melting deliciousness with a well-rounded flavor profile.

Food & Wine listed a recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon with the name Jacques Pepin with it. I thought, "Well if something can pull me back into the cooking game, it's Jacque Pepin's beef bourguinon."


The Preparation Area: Complete with Digital Recipe laptop

First, let me say: There were a few items that I couldn't/wouldn't comply with. The man called me from the grocery store & couldn't find pancetta or cippolini onions. We got bacon & "white boiling onions" that basically resembled large pearl onions. Also, I didn't peel the baby carrots. Who peels baby carrots? The French, that's
who. Nobody else. Being not French, I plopped those right into the mix. (I blow my nose in their general direction!)

When the recipe called for boiling the pancetta, I cooked my bacon in the skillet instead. I wasn't going to boil bacon. That is le gross. Then, I crumbled it into the vegetables (or garnishes as Chef Pepin calls them).

How was it? Well, the sauce was very good. Originally, I didn't put any butter in the sauce as we were fresh out, but it definitely tasted better once I added it.

Words of advice:
1. Get the pancetta. Bacon didn't make it better. There is something about chunks (not scraps) of lardons that make recipes better.

2. Get a full flavored Burgandy, Cotes du Rhone, or Beaujolais wine. I used a South American Syrah, which was rather flat. The French recipe poo-pooed it.

3. Let it stew for longer. The broth wasn't reduced enough as per Food & Wine's pictures. It would've been much better if it was more concentrated.

The man gives the broth a 4/5 stars - but the stew together got only 2 or 3 stars.
I'd give it a 3/5 stars. I liked it, but I'm on the look out for something better. Neither of us packed it for lunch the next day.

Next boeuf bourguinon is going to be Julia Child's from Mastering the Art of French Cooking (recipe here). I hope it's better!