Mommy Cooks

Simple Tomato Sauce

Every time we go out into the garden now, we come back with tomatoes.  The two cherry varieties are about three times the size of the other two, and producing enormous quantities.  The San Marzano is slow but steady, and I have gotten a grand total of two ripe tomatoes so far from the Big Rainbow -- beautiful and fascinating things, yellow mottled with orange, huge and weighty -- but both had been bored by insects enough that I was not willing to taste them. (Eeeuw).  The Black Cherry and the Sweet Chelsea are racing, I think, to see which can produce more. 

Yesterday David and the girls went out in the evening and gathered a colander-full, five pounds, mostly of the Sweet Chelseas, and this morning I made sauce.  This recipe is adapted from one in "Martha Stewart Living", and really is simple, as well as tomatoey.

You can use any kind of tomato in this sauce with good results.  I found that it was a bit thicker when made with only Romas, as the cherries have less meat in them, but then David likes runnier sauces, so that's not a problem.  Using a variety of tomatoes in each batch will give you more consistency of flavor between batches, but I think it's interesting to have a hint of, say, Black Cherry now and then.

Use a really good olive oil, as with only four ingredients a dreary oil will make a dreary sauce.  I also use the fancy Mediterranean sea salt in this.

If you use a blender to purée the sauce, be sure to remove the center insert from the lid, then cover the lid with a kitchen towel, before turning on the blender.  I don't even want to think about how many times I've wiped soup off of the undersides of the kitchen cupboards before somebody told me to do this!  The hot air and liquid inside the blender expands at a fantastic rate, and will push off the lid the moment the power goes on.  Removing the center insert will allow the hot air to escape more-or-less harmlessly, and holding a kitchen towel on top of the open part will keep splashes inside.  You can certainly leave the sauce chunky, but it has such a wonderful creamy consistency when puréed that I always make it that way now.

This recipe gives quantities per pound of tomatoes, and is quite easy to increase.  I've done it with one pound -- which makes enough sauce for about a half-pound of pasta, for our dinner that night, and takes about half an hour -- and with yesterday's five pounds.  The only thing you need to change is the size of the pan, and possibly the simmering time.

Simple Tomato Sauce

2 tablespoons good-quality extra-virgin olive oil
1 heaping teaspoon chopped garlic
1 pound ripe tomatoes, cored if necessary, and coarsely chopped
scant 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste

Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat.  Add the garlic, and stir for 20 seconds -- do not let it brown.  Stir in the tomatoes and salt, raise the heat, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer vigorously, stirring often, until the sauce has reduced and thickened slightly, 15 to 25 minutes.

Carefully purée the sauce, in batches, in a blender or food processor, and season with more salt if desired.  Serve immediately, or let cool.

Store the sauce in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups per pound of tomatoes.  Active work time, about 30 minutes.

Fettucine with Butter and Rosemary

Rosemary is one of my very favorite plants, both in the garden and in the kitchen.  Its near-legendary toughness make it an excellent choice for spots in the garden where most other plants might fade -- I have this particular bush, the everyday Rosmarinus officinalis, in the poky little strip between the house and the driveway, which not only has to contend with poor soil but with the brutal late-afternoon sun, and yet it still thrives.  Rosemary tolerates hot sun or cooler coastal breezes and salty ocean air, as well as temperatures down to 15° F/-9° C, all on very little irrigation.  It does well in pots, too, for those who have little garden space.  Depending on the variety, the flowers may be white, lavender-pink, deep blue, or officinalis's delicate sky blue.

Most mornings when Julia walks by the bush, she stops and strokes the silvery-green branches, happily inhaling the scent on her hands for a long time afterwards.

This recipe is adapted from an Italian family favorite from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking -- Nigella Lawson gives a similar one in How to Eat.  This is a good recipe for even small children to help with in the kitchen, as there are a lot of simple steps such as adding the rosemary sprigs to the pot.  We like garlic so much around here that instead of using crushed cloves that are removed from the butter sauce before it goes on the pasta, I usually use chopped garlic and leave it in.  I also add a good handful per person of halved cherry tomatoes, making it a light and quick meal in itself, redolent of butter, garlic, and heady rosemary.

Fettucine with Butter and Rosemary

2 teaspoons chopped garlic (or 3 or 4 whole cloves)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, at least a finger-length each
1 teaspoon beef or chicken bouillon (1 cube)
1/3 cup freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for garnish
1/2 lb. fettucine or linguine
1 cup cherry tomatoes

Prepare the pasta according to package directions, and make the sauce while it cooks.

If you are using whole garlic cloves, lightly crush each one with the flat part of a knife blade, pushing down with the heel of your hand just enough to split the clove and loosen the peel; remove the peel and discard.  Halve the cherry tomatoes, and set aside.

Cut the butter into chunks and place it with the garlic and rosemary in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Cook, stirring frequently, for 4 to 5 minutes.  Add the bouillon, and stir until it is completely dissolved.

When the pasta is cooked and drained, remove the rosemary stems (and the crushed cloves, if using) from the butter sauce.  Pour the sauce over the pasta, and toss well.  Add the grated Parmesan and the cherry tomatoes, and toss again.  Serve immediately, with additional cheese at the table.

Makes about 4 servings.  Preparation time, about 25 minutes.

Two-Sauce Lasagna

Last night we made one of David's and my favorites, the Two-Sauce Lasagna adapted only slightly from Classico's original.  That Sun-Dried Tomato Alfredo sauce is one of our guilty pleasures, that's for sure.  The girls are still in two minds about lasagna.  Laura said "Boy, that smells good!" then wondered thoughtfully, "Do I like this, Mom?"  The last time I made it, she protested at the spinach, but this time she gobbled it all up and asked for more -- it was Julia now who didn't like the spinach.  (I don't like the long stems of cooked spinaches, either, and so I make sure to either chop it up well or get one that is already finely chopped.)  I remember not liking lasagna for a long time, for some reason, so I don't push things too much, just make it every so often and see what happens.

I find that the no-bake lasagna noodles aren't as good in this as the cooked ones; Creamettes are impressively sturdy.  (A whole box is usually more than you need, but allows for breakage, so either nibble on the leftovers, portion them out into the lasagna, or refrigerate them for a later meal.)  I like to use a domestic fresh mozzarella, which although is a bother to shred, tastes delicious.  Lasagna takes a long time to put together, but you can do a lot of the prep at once -- have the noodles and sausage going at the same time, for instance.

Two-Sauce Lasagna

1 lb. lasagna noodles
15 oz. ricotta cheese
2 cups (8 oz.) fresh mozzarella, shredded
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (divided use)
2 eggs
1 26-oz. jar Classico Sweet Basil Marinara sauce, or other tomato-based pasta sauce
1  10-oz. package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
1 17-oz. jar Classico Sun-Dried Tomato Alfredo sauce, or other cream- based pasta sauce

Crumble the sausage into a medium-sized skillet, and cook until browned.  Drain if necessary, and set aside.  Chop the spinach finely, and set aside.  Cook the lasagna noodles and drain them.

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, mozzarella, 2 tablespoons of Parmesan, and the eggs.

In a large baking dish (about 13 x 9 inches), spread 1 cup of the marinara sauce.  Layer about 4 lasagna noodles over the sauce, then top with half each of the ricotta mixture, spinach, marinara sauce, and sausage.  (If the noodles begin to stick together, run them under some warm water.)  Repeat these layers.  Top with about 4 more lasagna noodles.  Spread the Alfredo sauce evenly over the top, and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan.

Cover and bake for 40 minutes.  Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer, or until the sauce is bubbly around the edges.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 10-12 servings.  Preparation time, about 30 minutes; total time, about 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Pasta Salad for a Crowd

 

This easy pasta salad is good for hot days, as all you have to cook is the pasta, and it keeps so well that if you make the whole recipe, you can get two or three meals out of it.  It makes a good potluck salad, and is portable enough for Daddy's work lunches, too.  This particular recipe is designed to take advantage of package sizes -- a pound of pasta, 8 oz. of salame and 5 of shredded Parmesan -- to simplify things, but the quantities can certainly be adjusted for your own tastes or what you have on hand.

Any smallish pasta works -- gemelli, chifferi, and penne are all good.  I like the look of green bell peppers with the reddish salame, but use a variety of colors if you like.

Salame Pasta Salad

1 lb. gemelli or other small pasta
3 or 4 green bell peppers
8 oz. sliced good-quality salame
1 large bunch of fresh basil (2-3 oz.)
3-4 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
4 tablespoons good-quality olive oil
1 1/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese (5 oz.)

Cook the pasta according to package directions.  Drain, and rinse in cold water.

While the pasta is cooking, seed and dice the bell peppers.  Slice the salame into strips, and mince the basil.

In a prep bowl, mix together the garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil.

Put the pasta into a large bowl, and add the bell pepper, salame, and basil.  Mix thoroughly, add the dressing and the Parmesan cheese, and mix again.

Serves 8 to 10.  Preparation time, about 20 minutes.  Leftovers will keep pretty well for up to three days in the refrigerator; bring to room temperature before serving.

Chicken Spaghetti

We impulsively made Anne's Chicken Spaghetti for dinner last night, which turned out nice and red for Project Spectrum this month, too.

We used what we had on hand -- linguine, Italian grated cheese blend -- instead of the original spaghetti and cheddar, but it's still pretty good!

Ragù Bolognese

David grew up on saucy pasta, as he likes to call it, so the true Italian ragù Bolognese seems to leave him a bit disappointed.  I compromise by making it more-or-less Marcella Hazan's way but adding a can of tomato paste.  There are probably as many ragù recipes as there are Italian mamas, and I've seen a number that contradict the firmly-opinionated Marcella, so I'm not terribly concerned with strict authenticity! but this sauce should never be runny. 

I always find it a bit of a bother to measure the amount of vegetables instead of using a certain number of carrots, for instance, so I usually do it this way.

Try adding some finely chopped pancetta or prosciutto with the meat.  I have in a pinch substituted sherry for white wine, and it also works well.

Italians do not serve ragù on spaghetti, but on a thicker pasta such as tagiliatelle or fettucine.  It is also good on rigatoni and fusilli, or other sturdy pasta, but to be honest, it really depends on what's in the cupboard or fridge.  Leftovers make good Sloppy Joes, too.

Ragù Bolognese

1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium onion
2 small carrots or 1 large carrot
2 small celery stalks or 1 large stalk
3/4 lb. ground beef chuck
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup milk (not nonfat)
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes, preferably Italian, with juices
6 oz. tomato paste

Process the onion, carrot, and celery in a food processor until finely ground, or chop as finely as you can.

Put the oil and butter in a large, heavy pan over medium heat.  Add the vegetables and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.

Add the ground beef and a pinch of salt and pepper, if desired.  Crumble the meat with a wooden spatula, stir well, and cook until the beef is no longer pink.

Add the milk and simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has evaporated completely.  Add the nutmeg.  Stir in the wine, and let it simmer until it has evaporated.  Add the tomatoes, and stir well.  Turn down the heat to the lowest possible simmer and cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring occasionally.  (You may take the sauce off the heat at any point after this, as long as you resume cooking it the same day.)  If the ragù begins to dry out, add 1/2 or so of water as necessary.  The ragù should be dry at the end, with the fat separating from the sauce.  Add salt to taste.

Serve on cooked, drained pasta, with freshly-grated Parmesan on the side.

Refrigerate in a tightly sealed container for up to 3 days, or freeze as needed.  Reheat by simmering for 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

Makes about 6 servings (about 1/3 cup per person) with 1 1/2 pounds of pasta.  Preparation time, about 1 hour; total time, at least 4 hours.

Risotto with Celery

Ever since they discovered celery and peanut butter this summer, my girls have loved celery.  Personally, I am much less enthusiastic about the stuff, but I recognize its value in a balanced diet, etc. etc. etc., and so I look for ways to disguise it so that I can eat it willingly.  This risotto is therefore perfect, I can say with all honesty.  Tasty, satisfying, and good for you, all in one dish!

This recipe is lifted almost intact from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking.  I found that I need a lot more broth, either because my brand of Arborio is different enough, or because my Southern California kitchen is a lot less humid than her Venetian one -- or both, of course.

A true risotto is not for the busy parent in the kitchen -- it requires a good half-hour or so of constant stirring.  (I have a recipe for a less labor-intensive risotto, which I will write about another time.)  Have everything ready, turn on the answering machine, ignore the doorbell, let the kids have a turn stirring if they want.  Use a wooden, flat-sided spatula for the stirring.  I look at the stirring either as exercise or as a kind of game; I found myself this evening seeing how many different designs I could make with the spoon -- circles, of course, spirals, both forwards and reverse, figure-eights, crosshatchings, squiggles, Spirographs, even the odd paisley.  It was quite meditative, really.

In Marcella Says, Hazan writes about the last step of adding the third pat of butter and the grated Parmesan, "This is the magic step, known as mantecare, that will give any risotto that has been made with butter a lusciously creamy consistency."  And serve the risotto spread evenly over the whole plate, she adds, instead of mounded up in the center, the reason being to allow the risotto to cool slightly so that its flavors can settle and bloom into that wonderful Italian commingling of flavors, insaporire.

Risotto with Celery

5-7 cups beef stock
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups celery, diced very fine
1 tablespoon chopped leafy celery tops
salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups Arborio rice
1/3 cup freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Bring the broth to a very low simmer on a back burner.  (You can chop the vegetables while this is warming.)

Put 2 tablespoons of the butter, the oil, and the onion in a large, sturdy frying pan with fairly high sides, over medium-high heat.  Cook the onion, stirring, until it becomes translucent, then add half of the diced celery, all of the leaves, and a pinch of salt.  Cook for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring frequently to coat the celery well.

Add the rice, stirring quickly and thoroughly until the grains are coated.  With a ladle, add 1/2 cup of the simmering broth, and stir at a moderate pace, keeping the rice moving away from the center and sides of the pan (where it will either stick and burn, or not get cooked evenly).  When the liquid in the pan has mostly evaporated, add another ladleful of broth, and continue stirring. 

When the rice has cooked for about 10 minutes, add the rest of the diced celery, and continue to stir and add broth as needed, a little at a time.

Cook the rice until it is tender but firm to the bite, with just a little bit of liquid remaining.  Remove from the heat, add a dash of pepper to taste, the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter, and all of the grated cheese, and stir thoroughly unti lthe cheese melts and clings to the rice.  Add salt to taste, if you like.  Garnish with the parsley, and serve promptly.

Makes 6 servings.  Active work time, about 45 minutes.  Worth it.

Mommy Cooks

The idea for this blog came about indirectly, as I watched a steady stream of Saturday afternoon cooking shows on PBS and thought how nice it must be to cook for a whole half-hour in a spacious, tidy kitchen with no interruptions.  I love the shows, the creativity and new ideas that come from them, but -- my cooking show would be in a smallish, inefficient kitchen with children wandering through every few minutes asking for snacks or needing a hug or wondering what's for dinner, doors slamming and phones ringing off-camera, and the occasional scream as the girls fought over whose Barbie would get to wear the pink princess dress that day.  That would be a real cooking show, I thought.  Welcome, then, to "Mommy Cooks"!

I still remember vividly the first meal I made from scratch after our first baby was born, grating cheese and stirring a roux one-handed with the colicky Laura in a sling over my shoulder.  I don't know what we'd been eating before, probably cereal and take-out pizza in those sleep-deprived first weeks.  I marveled at the sheer normality of cooking, and at the changes that had taken place in our lives since I had last stood in front of the stove.  This dish of macaroni and cheese tasted heavenly for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it's just really good.  The Gruyère and Parmesan give the cheese sauce an extra dimension of flavor, and I love the crushed croutons on the top. 

This recipe is adapted from one printed in the Los Angeles Times, and originally comes from the Mustard Seed Café on Hillhurst Avenue in Los Angeles.

Mustard Seed Café Macaroni and Cheese

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
3/4 cup flour
4 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
a dash each of cayenne pepper and dry mustard
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 pound (3 cups) grated Cheddar cheese
1/4 pound (1 cup) grated Gruyère or Swiss cheese
2 ounces (1/2 cup) grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound macaroni, cooked and drained
1 1/2 cups seasoned croutons

Preheat oven to 350° F / 175° C.

Cook and drain the pasta according to package directions.  Set aside.  Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

For the white sauce, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat.  Stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking and stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the milk and broth.  Simmer until the roux has thickened and the liquid has evaporated, 6 to 8 minutes.  Season to taste with nutmeg, cayenne, mustard, and salt and pepper.  (Remember that the cheese will add a bit of saltiness on its own.)  Remove from heat.

Combine the cheeses, and stir 3/4 of it into the hot white sauce.  Pour the cheese sauce over the cooked pasta, and pour all into the prepared dish.  Sprinkle evenly with the remaining cheese.  Put the croutons into a resealable plastic bag, and let the kids crush them with a rolling pin or other fairly heavy object.  Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the top of the macaroni and cheese.

Bake until the cheese melts and browns lightly, 35 to 45 minutes.

Makes 8 to 10 servings.  Active work time, about 30 minutes; total preparation time, 1 hour.