Pasta with 5-minute cherry tomato sauce recipe

Mr. Picky and I had the most glorious week on Long Island visiting my parents.  My sisters and their kids came to be with us too, so it was quite a full house.   It kind of felt like summer camp with lots of old fashioned fun outdoors from morning til dusk except for the brief break to watch a few games of Euro Cup soccer.  Even though the kids were always playing ball, swimming or taking turns on the hammock, I felt as though we were always eating.  Italians tend to linger at the table for quite a bit, so breakfast morphed into lunch, and lunch lasted for hours, although I surmise that was due to the daily wine.  I finally realize why my parents drink so much espresso.

Whenever I come into town, I am in charge of organizing and cooking all meals, which I don’t mind one bit.  The deal for the week is that whoever cooks, doesn’t have to clean up, so I think I have the better job.  It isn’t difficult to cook for my family.  They are so appreciative, easy going and I’m the only one with a child named “Picky.”  My sisters’ kids are the most fantastic eaters and they are all younger than mine!  I still kept it simple, making frittatas, tacos and salads for lunch and grilled chicken, roasted salmon and more vegetables for dinner.  My father’s garden is loaded with a variety of berries, herbs and greens right now, which was such a pleasure for me.

Besides cooking for the family, one of my other favorite things to do when I go visit is to check out the local natural foods stores.  Yep, that’s a fun outing for me.  I love to see what the Long Island stores carry that mine don’t.  This time around I was pleased to see many new sprouted grain products on the shelves.  I was able to buy Shiloh Farms sprouted spelt flour for pancakes and a sprouted wheat pasta for one night’s dinner.  There’s only so much quinoa and millet my father will eat.  Soaking and sprouting grains, nuts and seeds helps to neutralize phytic acid, which binds with certain minerals and prevents them from being absorbed by the body.  Soaking and sprouting helps to make the grains more digestible and the nutrients more absorbable.  It’s a much more healthful food that way.  I promise to do a post on this soon!

Even though I was happy to cook this week, I didn’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen when I could have been on the hammock with a book or chatting with my sisters.  So I thought spaghetti with 5-minute cherry tomato sauce would be perfect and it happens to be my favorite pasta dish too, and not just because it’s a quickie.  Sweet cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil — how can you go wrong?  I even like it better than pasta all checca, which is essentially the same thing, but raw.  I love the silkiness of the barely cooked tomatoes and how it coats the pasta.  You get a little more depth of flavor when you cook the garlic and tomatoes even just a little.  The key is to halve the cherry tomatoes or you can use peeled and seeded beefsteaks, so that you get a nice juicy sauce.  I never simmer the tomatoes too much, though.  You don’t want it all to evaporate on you.

 If your garden or market has some new summer tomatoes that you’re anxious to use, do try this recipe.  All the kids slurped it up and asked for seconds.  It’s such a classic, as well as fresh and easy.  In fact, after you make it once, you’ll see how this sauce can be the basis for many other dishes including chicken and fish as well as beans with vegetables for a summer vegetable ragu.  The tomato season is just getting started and so are my recipes with my favorite summer vegetable (fruit, if you must), so look out for more of those.  If there are any gardeners out there, please share what’s coming up in your backyard!

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Pasta with 5-minute Cherry Tomato Sauce
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Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
  • 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
  • pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 2 pounds cherry tomatoes (about 2 ½ -3 pints), stemmed and halved
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • ½ cup basil leaves
  • Kosher salt for pasta water
  • 1 pound whole grain pasta, such as whole wheat or spelt
  • Grated parmesan or pecorino-romano cheese (optional)
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium low heat. Add the sliced garlic and red pepper flakes and swirl over medium until fragrant. When the garlic just starts to turn golden around the edges, increase the heat to medium and add tomatoes and 2 big pinches of salt plus pepper to taste. Cook tomatoes, stirring, until they start to lose their shape, about 5 minutes. Check seasoning and remove from heat. Tear or slice basil leaves and stir into tomato mixture.
  2. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add a tablespoon of kosher salt. Cook pasta until al dente. The time will vary depending on the type of pasta you use. Remove a ladleful of pasta water and reserve.
  3. Drain pasta and transfer to the skillet with tomato mixture and toss gently to combine. Add a little reserved pasta water if mixture seems too dry. Serve with cheese, if desired.

 

 

Mexican Chopped Salad Recipe

 

Very often I have an idea for a recipe and it takes me a few times to get it right.  In fact, usually it takes me more than a few times!  But once in a blue moon, I try something on the fly and I love it on the spot, like culinary love at first bite.  That’s what happened with this salad.  Last year I was putting together a Mexican-inspired menu for my April classes and I was trying to think of a fresh and easy salad to teach.  I wanted something clean and healthful with all the ingredients I love to use when I make Mexican food, but without it tasting like a taco salad.  I happen to adore chopped salads, so off I went with crisp romaine lettuce, red cabbage, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, pinto beans, avocado and my favorite part, toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds.)  I made a very light dressing with apple cider vinegar, orange juice and enough cumin to give it that south-of-the-border flavor.

On that day of recipe testing at home last year, I nearly ate the entire salad.  Whereas this salad may not win any awards for sophistication, what in the world is not to love?  Not only does this salad look gorgeous, it is addictive and crunchy and juicy and creamy.  You know how I love a crunchy-creamy combo.   Since then, I have made this salad virtually every time we were invited to a pot luck or backyard barbeque.  The beauty of this salad, besides being a giant bowl of antioxidants, vitamins and fiber, is that it can prepped almost entirely in advance.  Chopped veggies go into a serving bowl with dressing in a jar and avocados to be cut just before serving.  If you’re vegan, vegetarian or if you’re like me and you’re going to a party where you fear there might be non-organic meat, I think this can easily be a main course salad on it’s own.  The pinto beans and pumpkin seeds offer more than enough protein.  Although my husband is a bit of a carnivore and loves this salad with grilled chicken chopped in.  Shrimp works great, too.

Fast forward a year later when I taught this salad again a few days ago.   My assistant and I each grabbed a bit in a cup to go and crunched our way home, wishing we had had bigger cups.  I know you’ll love this salad just as much as I do.

mexican chopped salad | pamela salzman

 

mexican chopped salad | pamela salzman

If you’re looking for more Cinco de Mayo inspiration, check out these favorites:

4.0 from 1 reviews
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Mexican Chopped Salad
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Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • Dressing (probably makes more than you need):
  • 3 Tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 3 Tablespoons raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
  • ¾ teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons fine grain sea salt + additional to taste
  • a few grinds of black pepper
  • 1 Tablespoon raw honey
  • ½ cup unrefined, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 head butter or romaine lettuce, chopped, about 8 cups
  • 2 cups chopped red cabbage
  • 1½ cups or 1 15-ounce can cooked pinto beans, drained and rinsed
  • 2 cups diced cucumbers (I like Persian), unpeeled, large seeds scooped out
  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 3 small avocados or 2 large, pitted, peeled and cubed
  • ½ cup pepitas – toasted in a dry skillet and drizzled with ½ teaspoon olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt
Instructions
  1. Make the dressing: whisk first five ingredients in a small bowl. Add olive oil and whisk completely until emulsified. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Combine lettuce and cabbage in a large bowl. Add pinto beans, cucumber and cherry tomatoes. Toss with enough dressing to coat lightly. Drizzle a little dressing on avocados and gently mix into the salad. Sprinkle pepitas on top. If you have additional dressing, save in the refrigerator for another time.
Notes
There's enough dressing that you can probably add a bit more cabbage or other veggies.

If you cut back on the oil by about 2-3 Tablespoons, the dressing makes a great marinade for grilled chicken or shrimp. Both would be nice on top of the salad, although there is adequate protein from the beans and pepitas.

 

Homemade Marinara (Tomato) Sauce Recipe

Growing up in an Italian home meant never eating tomato sauce out of a jar.  Ever.  It wasn’t until a 6th grade girl scout camping trip when I tasted my first spaghetti and “Ragu” and it was an experience I would never forget.   Unfortunately, I proceeded to get completely sick after I ate the foreign sauce and my mother had to come pick me up.  Since then I’ve always had a thing against jarred.

The good news is that a delicious tomato sauce is quite easy to make, requiring very few ingredients and high fructose corn syrup isn’t one of them.  In fact, the simpler the better.  My mom would make tomato sauce in the winter a little thicker and richer than summer tomato sauce.  She always started out sauteeing thinly sliced onions in olive oil and adding either canned tomatoes from the supermarket or tomatoes we had canned from our garden over the summer.  Depending on the acidity of the tomatoes, sometimes she would add a pinch of sugar.  Mom would also use tomato paste which gave a fantastic richness to the sauce, as well as dried oregano and basil since 30 years ago fresh herbs like this were definitely not available in New York in the dead of winter.  This was her Sunday ritual and we often used the sauce multiple times during the week for pasta and various “alla parmigiana” recipes.
Fast forward to the 21st century where I have my own family which is crazy about Italian food of all kinds.  Although he’s never admitted it, I think my husband might have married me to ensure eating red sauce-laden dishes on a regular basis.  So I have been making my own pretty good sauce for many years, but I never really pushed myself to make a great sauce until Rao’s gave me a run for my money, literally.  Once my husband tasted this new tomato sauce, he was completely hooked.  I would not have cared that much except for the fact that Rao’s is insanely expensive (anywhere from $8-$11 for a 32 ounce jar) and I had just educated myself about the risks associated with consuming canned tomatoes, which all commercially prepared tomato sauces use.  Well, drat.  So I challenged myself to come up with a sauce that would make my husband happy flavor-wise and me happy both nutritionally and financially.
For many years I have been using Pomi chopped tomatoes in tetra-pak boxes which the company assured me are BPA-free and don’t leach aluminum.  In addition, they use non-GMO tomatoes, although they are not certified organic.  These are my first choice for tomatoes for sauce since I like a little texture in my marinara.  If you really insist on organic tomatoes, your option is Bionaturae Organic strained tomatoes in a glass jar or Lucini whole peeled tomatoes (pricey.)  Again, for me it’s a preference of texture that I choose Pomi.  I also believe that a delicious sauce doesn’t skimp on the olive oil and neither does Rao’s at 48 grams of fat in a jar.  I don’t use quite that much, but I’ve tried to make sauce with very little olive oil and it just isn’t the same.  Lastly, I take my BFF, the immersion blender, and puree about half of the sauce in the pot before adding fresh basil and in my opinion, this is what makes the sauce great.  The softened onions and oil get blended with the tomatoes and add a subtle sweetness that takes the place of my NOT BFF, sugar.But before you consider making this delightful sauce it is always recommended to opt for a clean corp house cleaning services.
Since pasta is a processed food which your body converts to sugar rather quickly, and one which is easily overeaten, I don’t make pasta all that often.  That said, we do find many uses for tomato sauce including meatballs (recipe coming on Friday), pizza quesadillas on sprouted or spelt tortillas, as a dipping sauce for some vegetables, and for my husband’s favorite dish, “insert any food here” alla Parmigiana.  Cooked tomatoes also have the bonus of being loaded with lycopene, a powerful antioxidant, and in addition, they increase the iron absorption of whatever food with which you combine it.  Even more reason to say “mangia!”

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Homemade Marinara (Tomato) Sauce
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Serves: makes about 5 cups
 
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup unrefined, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 4 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced or 2 28-ounce containers of chopped tomatoes, such as Pomi
  • 1 7-ounce jar of tomato paste (optional, for a richer, thicker sauce)
  • Sea salt to taste
  • A small handful of fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced*
Instructions
  1. In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the onions and sauté gently until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute.
  2. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste with 2 generous pinches of sea salt and bring to a simmer. Cover the sauce, lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
  3. Puree about half the sauce with an immersion blender or pass through a food mill. (You can also blend half the sauce in a blender or food processor. Put the sauce back into the saucepan.)
  4. Add the basil and simmer for another 5 minutes or longer, if you have the time. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Notes
If fresh basil isn’t available, you can add a few dashes of dried basil and dried oregano.

 

clean corp house cleaning

Tortilla soup

Tortilla Soup | Pamela Salzman

Tortilla Soup | Pamela Salzman

How do I know it’s soup season in my neck of the woods?  Well, we had our annual freaky October heat wave last week and then the temperature plummeted about 20 degrees.  Now every morning we wake up to fog and a chill in the air that doesn’t go away.  Are you under the misconception as I was that living by the beach is all sunshine all the time?  Ha!  I keep telling my husband I want my money back.  It’s chilly here!  But no matter, I’m pulling out the sweaters and the stock pot and I am making SOUP!

Tortilla Soup | Pamela Salzman

From now until late April, my kitchen turns into a stock-making factory every Saturday.  I make gallons of it every week for my classes and us.  I’ll be honest though, the hubby is sooooo over it.  You should see his eyes roll every time I ask him to help me strain the stock.  Inevitably a chicken foot flops out and completely freaks him out.  But he puts up with it because his favorite food group is soup and he knows homemade chicken stock is magic stuff.  If you are getting more and more comfortable in the kitchen, it’s time to step it up and start making stock from scratch.  You will not believe the difference in taste.  Plus it’s a gajillion times better for you than boxed.  Check out my post here on home made chicken stock.  For all you veggies out there, here’s the link to learn how to make vegetable stock from scratch.

Tortilla Soup | Pamela Salzman

Enough about that.  Let’s talk about the soup I actually made, Tortilla Soup.  Y-um!  This is a very different version of the tortilla soup you might be used it.  It’s not thin and brothy, but thick and hearty and it takes about 15 minutes to make, provided you already have stock made.  If I had to make up another name for this, I would call it “Mexican Tomato Soup”  or “Pappa al Pomodoro goes to Mexico.”  Cumin, which is one of my most favorite spices, adds the distinctive earthy flavor that you would recognize from chili or taco seasoning.  But what is so unusual about this soup is that the corn tortillas are pureed with the tomatoes and broth, as opposed to adding fried tortilla chips on top.  The softened corn tortillas add great flavor and thicken the soup at the same time.  (It’s a great use of stale tortillas.)  I wish I had thought of this bit of genius, but I didn’t.  I tweaked a recipe I found in The Real Food Daily Cookbook, based on the vegan LA restaurant by the same name.

Tortilla Soup | Pamela Salzman

I love adding cubed avocado and chopped fresh cilantro on top, but I let everyone do their thing.  There’s always enough leftover for the next day’s thermoses to which I also like to add  a little cooked chicken.   (I’m big on protein at lunchtime so the kids don’t fall asleep in class.)  Fresh tomatoes are on their way out, so if you can use them go for it.  The other night I used Bionaturae organic crushed tomatoes and tomato paste in a glass jar (not a fan of canned tomatoes.)  I made this soup last year on Halloween, which is around the corner.  I always make sure everyone has eaten a proper meal before going out to trick or treat.  Full bellies can’t fit quite as much candy as empty ones.

Here are some of my other favorite soups to warm you up this season:

Sweet Potato and Coconut

Lentil and Brown Rice

Mushroom-Barley with Kale

Cauliflower with Roasted Garlic

Late Summer Minestrone

Vegetable Chili

 

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Tortilla Soup
Author: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 Tablespoons unrefined, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 fresh jalapeno chile, ribs and seeds removed and finely chopped*
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 Tablespoons shoyu (naturally brewed soy sauce) or tamari
  • 6 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
  • 2 pounds fresh tomatoes, coarsely chopped or 1 27-ounce box of crushed tomatoes or equivalent in a jar or can
  • ⅓ cup tomato paste
  • 8 6-inch corn tortillas, coarsely chopped
  • Chopped fresh cilantro and cubed avocado garnish, if desired
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a heavy stockpot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes or until tender and translucent. Add the jalapeno, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper and shoyu, and sauté 1 minute longer.
  2. Stir in the stock, tomatoes with juice, and tomato paste. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered for 10 minutes, or until the tomatoes are tender.
  3. Add the tortillas and simmer 10 minutes longer, or until the tortillas are super soft and falling apart.
  4. Using a handheld immersion blender, blend the soup in the pot until smooth. Or carefully puree in batches in a blender.
  5. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with cilantro and avocado.
Notes
*For a little more kick, add the ribs and seeds from the jalapeno to the soup.

 

Late summer minestrone

late summer minestrone|pamela salzman

Oh, I am not very good at goodbyes.  And saying farewell to summer is just inevitable now, isn’t it?  My minestrone soup is one of those recipes that bridges summer and fall.  Zucchini and tomatoes are still plentiful in the farmer’s markets, but the weather is showing signs of cooling down.  We’ve had a few chilly and foggy beach days in the last week and that was my signal to make this favorite soup of ours.  The word minestrone means “big soup” in Italian.  To me it means, “use what you’ve got, ” especially lots of veggies.  No matter what, it’s always hearty enough to be called a meal, but light enough for the season.  My mom used to make it with elbow macaroni or the smallest of pastas, but I adore farro and find that it adds a heartiness that the pasta doesn’t.  Plus, it has more to offer in the way of fiber and protein.  Combined with white beans, this is a well-balanced meal that almost always makes its way into thermoses in tomorrow’s lunch box.  Have I mentioned lately that making school lunches is not my favorite morning pastime?  I know, I’m such a whiiiiiner.  But Daughter #1 is trying to be an overachiever this year and start school at 7:00 am.  Do you know what this means?  I need to be making lunch around 6:00 am OR I could just reheat minestrone five minutes before we need to leave the house.  Sounds like a plan!

As the seasons change, so does this soup.  I have used jarred tomatoes instead of fresh, and frozen shelled peas and cabbage for the zucchini.  Don’t be put off by the piece of rind from a wedge of Parmesan cheese.  It’s a little secret ingredient found in so many Italian kitchens.  One you see how delicious it makes this soup, you’ll never throw it out again!   My mom would make this soup or pasta e fagioli whenever we would come to the end of a piece of Parmesan.  In my house, my kids and husband love this soup so much that we buy buy the cheese just for the rind!  Mr. Picky even likes this soup.   His favorite thing to do is add a leftover meatball, chopped up into his bowl and he’ll have seconds, thank you very much.

late summer minestrone|pamela salzman

This week I will be harvesting almost all the basil and parsley in the garden and making a mountain of pesto to freeze in small quantities for the upcoming months.  At least I can make summer last a little longer in my own way.

late summer minestrone|pamela salzman

 

 
 
 
 
 
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5.0 from 4 reviews
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Late Summer Minestrone
Author: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 Tablespoons unrefined, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil + more for drizzling
  • 1 onion, coarsely chopped
  • 1 stalk of celery, coarsely chopped
  • 1 carrot, coarsely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 1 pound of fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped or 1 14.5 ounce can, diced with juice
  • 2 Tablespoons chopped, fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • Sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock, preferably homemade
  • ¾ cup farro
  • Piece of rind from a wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (if you have it)
  • 4 small zucchini, medium dice, about 4 cups
  • 1 ½ cups cooked white beans (e.g. cannellini, Great Northern), rinsed if canned
  • Handful of greens, coarsely chopped
  • Chopped basil leaves or pesto for garnish (optional)
  • Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino-Romano cheese
Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot, and add the onions, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook until the vegetables have softened, about 10 minutes. Do not allow the vegetables to brown.
  2. Add the tomatoes with the juice, parsley and ½ teaspoon sea salt. Cook for 5 minutes more, until the tomatoes are fragrant.
  3. Add the stock and 2 teaspoons of sea salt and bring to a boil. Add the farro and the parmesan rind and bring to a boil again. Lower the heat so that the soup simmers. Cook about 15 minutes.
  4. Add the zucchini and cook another 10 to 15 minutes, until the farro is tender but still has a little “toothiness.”
  5. Add the cooked beans and heat through. Add more stock, if desired.
  6. Add the chopped greens and stir until wilted. Adjust seasonings and serve with chopped basil leaves and freshly grated parmesan cheese and/or drizzled olive oil on top or a spoonful of pesto.

 

 

Zucchini “pasta” recipe

We’re in pasta mode this week, but transitioning to zucchini mode, so I couldn’t help but post a recipe which covers both.  In the low-carb craze of the 90’s (although I’m not sure it’s over), I was intrigued by the idea of using things like zucchini and spaghetti squash in place of pasta.  “With the addition of tomato sauce, you will feel the same satisfaction of eating the real thing, but without the carbs!”   Those same people try to make veggie burgers taste like beef.  Don’t make me laugh.

That fact is, the first time I tried this method of cutting zucchini in the shape of papardelle noodles and adding some cooked down tomatoes, basil and garlic, I loved it.  Did I feel like I was eating regular pasta?  Not really.  Did I care?  Not at all.  I think this zucchini is absolutely terrific in it’s own right.  My husband, who is a pasta-lover, said, “I like this because I don’t feel gross after eating it.”  Aww, shucks.

When I taught this in my classes two years ago, I went against my better judgment and cooked the tomatoes and zucchini in the same pan.  I, like most people, enjoy cooking more than I enjoy washing dishes, so I am always conscientious of how many pots and pans I use.  But cooking the zucchini too long can make it watery, as does adding acid and salt too early.  So the best way is to do this is in two separate pans side by side.  If you really detest the idea of washing a second pan or if you don’t have 2 large ones, cook the tomatoes first and transfer them to a serving bowl.  Then cook the zucchini in the same pan and add the tomatoes back.  On the same note, don’t allow this to sit too long before serving, because the zucchini will start to release its water.  Unless of course you’re trying to photograph it, and you need to wait for the steam to subside so it doesn’t fog up your lens.

I know many of you are desperate for things to do with the abundance of zucchini from your gardens.  First of all, let me give you a pat on the back for growing something.  Love that!  But can I give you a little advice?  Stop competing with your neighbor for who can grow the biggest squash on the block.  We’re all guilty of it, but there’s nothing good that comes out of it.  Size does matter here, but smaller is better!  When you allow the zucchini to grow to the size of a regulation baseball bat, you end up with spongy, seedy and not tasty zucchini.  Pick them when they’re small and tender and you’ll be able to keep up with production, too.

If you like to come home from work and have dinner on the table in 15 minutes, then you’re better off cutting your zucchini in the morning or the night before.  I showed two methods for this above, either using a mandoline or a vegetable peeler, but it does take a little longer than normally prepping zucchini.  If you wanted to make this into a full meal, toss all of it with some freshly cooked pappardelle noodles, white beans for protein and a dusting of parmesan cheese, and it will all be worth it.

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Zucchini "Pasta"
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Serves: 4-6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds small zucchini
  • 4 Tablespoons unrefined, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil, divided
  • 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 2 pounds tomatoes, cored and chopped (seeded and/or peeled if you like)
  • Sea salt and black pepper
  • Small handful of basil leaves, slivered
  • 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter (optional)
  • Grated or shaved Parmiggiano-Reggiano or pecorino-romano cheese (optional)
Instructions
  1. Trim the ends off the zucchini. Cut in half lengthwise. Slice lengthwise on a mandoline very thinly (thinner than ⅛-inch) to resemble pasta noodles. If you don’t have a mandoline, you can use a vegetable peeler.
  2. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until the sides begin to turn golden. Add the tomatoes and season with sea salt and pepper. Cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in the basil.
  3. In another large skillet, warm 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the zucchini and sauté until just tender, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle with sea salt and transfer to the tomato mixture with tongs, leaving the extra liquid in the pan. Toss to coat with the tomatoes. You can add an optional tablespoon of unsalted butter at this point to enrich the sauce, but not necessary.
  4. Serve with freshly grated cheese, if desired.
Notes
Instead of cooking fresh tomatoes, you can add 1 cup of warmed tomato sauce to the cooked zucchini and serve with grated cheese on the side.

 

 

Pasta alla checca recipe

pasta alla checca (raw tomato sauce)

When people tell me they don’t know how to cook, I know what they really mean.  They mean to say they don’t know how to cook well off the fly or they don’t have a deep repertoire of dishes that they can prepare with ease.  I say if you can read, you can cook.  Furthermore, most people can cook something they ate as a child, if nothing else.  If I learned zip about cooking and never stepped foot in a kitchen after I left home, I would at least be able to make Pasta alla Checca.

I actually got a little choked up in a class last month when I reminisced about how I ate this pasta dish weekly during the summers of my youth.  Pasta alla Checca is nothing more than pasta with a raw tomato and basil sauce.  Sounds simple, but the success of the dish relies on the quality of the tomatoes.  If you have divine tomatoes, the pasta will be fabulous.  If not, it will be forgettable.  Therefore, I implore you only to make this dish in the summer when tomatoes have a chance of being splendid.  If you make this dish in January with pale, dreary tomatoes and email me that you don’t know why this didn’t taste like very much, I might just direct you back to this post.

We always had beautiful, tasty tomatoes and basil growing in the backyard and this was an easy weeknight dish for my mom to pull together after a day at the beach or if was too hot to do too much in the kitchen.  My mom was not one for creating extra work for herself, but she always insisted on peeling the tomatoes for this dish.  I have made it both ways and she is totally right — peeling the tomatoes is worth every minute of the 5 minutes it will take you.  When the tomatoes are without their skins, they release more of their juices and flavors and everything just tastes so much richer and more…tomato-y!  My mom used to buy that atrocious plastic-wrapped Polly-O mozzarrella, cube it and marinate it in the tomato mixture while she was cooking the pasta.  When the hot pasta hit the cheese, it melted ever so slightly and yours truly would fight her sisters for it.  If you decide to go this route, keep in mind the garlic cloves are crushed in the sauce and tend to look very much like melted mozzarrella, so you might want to pull out the garlic before serving.

 

pasta alla checca (raw tomato sauce)

If you are not eating tomatoes right now, you’re missing out.  Even if you don’t eat pasta, make the tomato mixture and put it on top of any number of things — steamed green beans, grilled eggplant, grilled bread, poached or grilled fish or chicken.  The season is short and fleeting and nothing says summer like a real sunkissed vineripened tomato.  To this day, just the aroma of this tomato and basil mixture immediately makes me think summer.  The good news is, you still have plenty of summer left to enjoy it.

pasta alla checca (raw tomato sauce)

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Pasta Alla Checca
Author: 
Serves: 4-6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds ripe tomatoes, about 6 medium (or more if you like a high ratio of tomatoes to pasta)
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • ¼ cup torn or sliced fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ cup unrefined, cold pressed extra-virgin olive oil
  • Sea salt to taste (I think ¾ teaspoon is about right.)
  • 1 pound dried pasta (I like a pasta which catches the tomatoes, such as orrecchiette or conchiglie. My mom always made it with spaghetti.)
  • Kosher salt to season the pasta water
Instructions
  1. In a pot large enough to fit the tomatoes, fill ¾ with water and bring to a boil ("instant hot" from your sink won't work, already tried it.) Cutting through the skin, make an “x” on the bottom of each tomato with a knife. Turn the heat off and submerge the tomatoes in the water for 20-30 seconds, depending on the size of the tomatoes. Remove the tomatoes from the water with a slotted spoon and place on a cutting board. Peel (non-negotiable), core, seed (if you want) and chop the tomatoes.
  2. Place the tomatoes in a serving bowl. Add the garlic, basil, olive oil, and a few healthy pinches of sea salt to taste. Toss to combine.
  3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 Tablespoon kosher salt. Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions or until al dente. Remove 1 cup pasta cooking water and reserve (you won't need it if your tomatoes are juicy.) Drain the pasta. Immediately add to the serving bowl with the tomatoes and toss to combine, adding reserved pasta cooking liquid if necessary to moisten the pasta. Remove garlic before serving, if desired.

 

Corn and edamame succotash

This house sure is quiet.  The girls are still in Connecticut and Mr. Picky is off at the batting cage for a little bit with his dad.  I don’t think I’ve been alone in my house in a year.  Or more.  It’s sooooooooo nice.  Don’t get me wrong.  I adore my kids and my husband, but solitude is a precious luxury that I never get to indulge in.  And silence.  Just heaven.  I find it funny that all this peace and quiet makes me hungry, so I give myself permission to make an early dinner for me and only me.  It never happens that I only have my cravings to consider for dinner.  I think being conscientious of many people’s likes and dislikes is a big challenge when planning meals for a family.  But not tonight!

At yesterday’s farmer’s market I scooped up two of my summer favorites — corn and tomatoes.  I was especially excited about the tomatoes since my plants won’t be producing fruit any time soon.  Unfortunately, Manhattan Beach does not have tomato weather.  The parsley and basil are doing beautifully in the garden, though and if I am lucky enough to have frozen shelled edamame in the freezer and turkey bacon in the fridge, corn and edamame succotash will be my dinner tonight.

Hooray!  It’s all here!  I secretly hope that my husband and Mr. Picky call me and ask if they can grab a bite out instead of home.  I have visions of me and a giant bowl of corn and edamame succotash in front of the tv watching the new episode of “Million Dollar Decorators” without my husband doing Martyn Lawrence Bullard impressions so that I can’t hear what anyone is saying.  Am I getting old that this is my idea of bliss tonight?  Don’t care.  I’ve got succotash to make.

I taught this recipe in my classes last August and I got great feedback, although people admitted they were skeptical of eating something called “succotash.”  True, not a very sexy name, but succotash really just means a few sauteed vegetables usually mixed with corn and lima beans.  I had found a recipe from an old Gourmet Magazine (sniffle) and changed it up a bit to suit my family, and I just love it.  Since my kids are crazy for edamame, I always have bags of it in the freezer.  That was a natural sub for the lima beans.  It makes such a nice side dish for a weeknight family dinner or for entertaining in the summer, or a main dish since it is loaded with protein.  It’s so tasty, as well as colorful, nutritious, and quick to put together, especially if your kids shuck the corn for you.  Even by myself, I pulled this together very quickly.  You definitely don’t need to use turkey bacon in this if you are vegetarian or just don’t like it, but I would compensate with a pinch of salt.  As I sat there on the couch, by myself, eating this gorgeous succotash, I was able to concentrate on the food and really enjoy it.  I couldn’t help but think how much I loved the crunch of the corn and edamame and the sweetness from the tomatoes.  Couple more bites.  The apple cider vinegar adds great tang and the smoky, salty flavor from the turkey bacon is perfectly complementary.    Another few bites.  I can’t believe there’s no salt.  Yes, the edamame were cooked in salted water and the bacon has salt, but there’s no added salt and I don’t miss it.  A few more bites.  This is supposed to serve 6-8?  Is that a typo?  I’m halfway done with the bowl, but I keep eating anyway.

“Hi Mom!  We’re home!”  Well, it was nice while it lasted.  Mr. Picky asks for some succotash.  “Hey, that looks good.”  Really?  Tonight is the night you decide not to be picky?

5.0 from 2 reviews
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Corn and Edamame Succotash
Author: 
Serves: 6-8 as a side dish
 
Ingredients
  • 12 ounces frozen shelled edamame
  • Kosher salt
  • ¼ - ½ pound nitrate-free turkey bacon*(optional)
  • 1 ½ tablespoons unrefined, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 large garlic clove, minced
  • ¾ lb cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 4 ears corn, kernels cut off cob
  • 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • ¼ cup packed small fresh basil leaves or larger leaves chopped
  • ¼ cup packed flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
Instructions
  1. In a medium pot of boiling salted water, cook edamame 5 minutes, or until just tender. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.
  2. Chop bacon. Add oil to a large skillet and cook bacon over medium heat until starting to crisp, 3-5 minutes. Add onion and sauté until softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Don’t worry if the bottom of the pan is getting brown from the bacon. The acid from the vinegar and tomatoes will clean it up.
  3. Add tomatoes, corn and vinegar to the skillet. Cook, stirring until tomatoes begin to lose their shape. Stir in edamame. Remove skillet from heat and stir in herbs. Serve immediately.
Notes
*Or bacon can be cooked separately a 350 degree oven. Line a baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and arrange the bacon slices in one layer. Bake for 20 minutes, turning once, until slightly crispy. Chop cooked bacon and add with edamame.