Hey I like to wine.....just sayn'

chickelit said...
Troop. (or anybody): what about when you start with fruits off the vine? Which tomato species are the best? And how do you get from the whole tomato to what the put in cans?

I sometimes cook with fresh tomatoes in the summer. In Cali you probably have a bigger selection since tomatoes come in all year round. What you need to do is get the skin off. So boil a pot of water and drop the tomato right in. In about a minute or two the skin should be soft so you can peel it right off like you were one of those serial killers in "Criminal Minds" who is skinning a coed. Just take the skin off and put it in your food processor. You don't want to have the skins messing up your sauce as they are hard to chew.

Now you want to pulse it a couple of times. If you just blend it you are in effect getting tomato puree. You want it chunky and country style.

Personally I like Pomi crushed tomatoes. Or even crushed tomatoes already in the can. If you use tomato puree you need to add a small can of tomato paste to thicken it up. One can of paste to every two cans of puree.

I personally only use san marzano whole plum tomato when using cans. Once again you put it in the food processor and pluse it a few time. Or alternately when I go camping I just squeeze them through my fingers and cut up the bigger pieces with a small paring knife. But plusing it a few times works best. You want a big cut where you can see the chunks.


A quick fresh tomato sauce recipe:

Ten ripe plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 glass of red wine
3 Cloves of garlic
1 Large bunch of basil

Mince up the garlic and saute in some olive oil. Drop the plum tomatoes in the boiling water as I said above until you see them start to burst out of their skins. Fish out with your spider and strip off the skin. Be careful because they are hot. A safe way to do it is to put it in a bowl of ice water and it will strip right off without you burning your fingers off. Then put the tomatoes in a food process and pluse it a couple of times to chop it up. NOT TOO MUCH OR YOU GET PUREE!!!!!

Debide the pan with the wine and cook a minute. Then add the tomatoes. Stir in the salt, sugar and pepper. Bring to a soft boil and then simmer. About ten minutes before serving put in a bunch of basil leaves. Of course you washed them you slob! Strip off the leaves without any stems as they can be bitter. Float a bunch of them in the sauce. It will give a nice flavor and it looks nice too!

That will give you a chunky country style sauce.

A couple of serving suggestions:

Crack four eggs into the sauce and cook them sunny side up in the sauce. Serve on a flat dish with a loaf of Italian bread.

Add a cup of rice (cooked of course) and a cup of peas and mush around. That is one of my favorite comfort foods. Think of it as a broken rice ball. So to speak.

Mangia!

That's a Spicy Sauce!

john said...
Troop (or anyone) -

Do you have a good o'le family spaghetti sauce recipe, preferably one that has few to no cans of tomato whatever than need to be opened? (Tomato paste is OK.)

We've had too many years of kids to remember what it was like NOT to just open a bottle of store-bought sauce.

Any good recipes or suggestions sincerely appreciated.

Ok here goes.


4 cloves of garlic
1 large sweet onion
1 table spoon salt
1 table spoon sugar
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
3 Cans crushed tomatoes
3 glasses of wine.

Ok here's a quick and dirty sauce reciepe. Chop up the galic and fry it in olive oil. Now use just enough oil to thinly coat the frying pan. Use a large pan or even a wok for that matter. When the garlic is soft add a chopped up union. You can put it in the food processor to really mince it up. It will give the sauce body. Keep turning it as it camelizes.

Add one glass of wine to debride the pan. Then continue to drink the other two glasses while you are cooking.

Add the 3 cans of crushed tomatoes. Now my mom used to love to use Tomato puree but I never did. I prefer to use chopped tomatoes because once again it gives it a thicker country style flavor. If it feels too thick you can add a little water or even chicken stock. Just one tip. Try to add something at the same temp as what you are cooking. Don't put ice cold water into the mix as it is bubbling on the stove. Have a side pan of water boiling for the pasta and as it heats you can add a little to the sauce if it seem too thick to you.

Stir in the salt, sugar, pepper and bay leaves for flavor. Now you can leave out the bay leaves and instead substitute some fresh basil leaves. Put some in at the start to cook in the sauce and reserve some to add in at the end. That would make for an even sweeter sauce.

Bring this to a soft boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Let it cook for about a half an hour. Now some people boil their sauce for hours. Overnight. What a bunch of bullshit. You can make a tasty sauce in an hour. The longer simmer is if you are making a meat based sauce to cook the meats in it. Not so much for a quick marinara sauce.

After it has simmered for between 45 minutes and an hour you are ready to cook your pasta. I persoanlly prefer angel hair. Now your pasta should always be al dente. Or hard. You see it will still be cooking while it is in the bowl on the table. So put the pasta in the hot water you have on the stove and cook it from four to six minutes. Then take it out and add it a few strands at a time to your sauce. Stir it around so the pasta is fully coated. Now you can reserve a couple of cups on the side while you do this. Stir in the pasta and then put in a shitload of grated cheese. And if you use Kraft's I will personally come to your house and slap you.
Get a good pecarino or parmesan and add it to the pasta and sauce in the pan. That's why I like to use a wok sometimes. Hey I am a non-traditional cook.  Smush it all around and when you take it out and put it in a bowl. You can add a scoop of the sauce to the top.

Serve with a bottle of wine and some crusty Italian bread.

Mangia!