This is probably going to be my one and only tribute to Sandra Lee and her niche in the foodie world. For anyone ignorant as to who she is: Sandra Lee hosts "Semi-homemade with Sandra Lee" on the Food Network, a show devoted to simplifying cooking by jazzing up already prepared foods (think store-bought pound cake with homemade strawberry compote and Cool Whip). While I personally don't agree with Sandra's approach to cooking, I have found that it perfectly suits one of my favorite lazy lunches:
Easy Mac.
(Please note that this is Annie's Easy Mac, not the blue box kind... I still have some taste).
I LOVE dressing up easy mac or boxed macaroni and cheese with sautéed Brussels sprouts or asparagus or peas and prosciutto, or even oven roasted beets and caramelized onions. There is something so much more satisfying to me about eating packaged pasta when it is practically being suffocated under a mound of vegetables. I'd like to think that, in the realm of college lunches, this still borders on gourmet.
I decided to apply my macaroni logic to last night's dinner (though I excluded the dehydrated cheese sauce from the equation). Instead I bought a pound of rotini pasta, a pound of uncooked chicken pesto sausage, and a bunch of summer squash and some onions. I chopped the squash and onions and roasted them with some dried basil, thyme, salt and pepper. I sautéed the sausage and cooked the pasta when the vegetables were close to finished, then tossed them together in the same pot I used to cook the pasta. I added some cream and grated Pecornio Romano (were you aware that Pecornio Romano is the new Parmegianno Reggiano?), mixed it all together and called it a day.
That's all.
Oh, you probably want a more precise recipe. That will have to wait as I refuse to miss salsa dancing for the blog.
And I PROMISE to put up the panzanella recipe soon! But be forewarned: classes start on Thursday. This could affect future posts. We'll see how everything goes.
One of the requests N. has made for meals is that they be vegetarian on occasion. I grew up in a house where, though we ate many vegetables, a carnivorous main was almost always present, so it’s a bit of a change to be thinking outside of the “meat at dinner” box. Thankfully, I think being a college student has helped me in the vegetarian sphere, as meat is often more expensive (and requires more careful cooking) than other foods, and is thus more often excluded from daily cooking. I do, however, want all of my meals to be relatively interesting, and I want to vary the flavors that I use throughout the week. It seemed like a good a time as any to whip out falafel.
Falafel, for me, is a bit of a sentimental food. I remember my first falafel at Hebrew school when I was in third grade. We were celebrating something... who knows what Jewish holiday it actually was, but someone’s mother had decided to make falafel for the occasion. I sat outside in the courtyard with my friend Zoe, amidst a throng of other children as we ate the hot, dark brown patties.
I remember falafel being confusing. My first bite was tentative, and I only tasted the deep-fried exterior exuding just a hint of spice. But underneath the crusty shell was a yellow interior flecked with hundreds of tiny bits of green. I had no idea what I was eating. “What is this?” I asked Zoe, who had eaten falafel before. “It’s falafel,” she said. “No, I know that,” I said impatiently. “I mean, what is it?” “It’s Jewish food,” she said, “Duh!”
I decided one falafel was enough until my confusion was alleviated.
Though I now understand how to make falafel, it still fascinates me that something relatively simple to make (chickpeas, onion, water, spices, oil) tastes so complex and is substantial enough to almost seem meaty. Wrapped in pita with lettuce, Israeli salad and hummus or Raita (yogurt sauce), falafel makes an incredibly satisfying and completely vegetarian meal (or vegan, with the omission of the yogurt).
This dinner consisted of:
Pita
Falafel
Lettuce
Israeli salad
Hummus
Raita
Carrot salad
Orange Honeydew melon
In making a falafel sandwich, I usually wrap the pita in foil and heat it in a 300˚F oven for 5-10 minutes, just until it is warm. I then cut each pita in half along its diameter to make pockets for filling. A lettuce leaf or two lines the inside of the pita (this not only ensures lettuce in nearly every bite, but keeps the sauces and juices from the vegetables from leaking through the bread). I usually place 3-4 falafel in my pita, depending on their size (and how hungry I am). The sandwich is finished with a heaping spoonful of Israeli salad and a generous drizzle of hummus and Raita. I made the carrot salad on the fly as a side, but the flavors would probably also work in the sandwich if you were feeling ambitious (though I don’t think the sandwich needs anything else).
Recipes to be posted soon! And AGAIN I forgot my camera; I took a couple of pictures on my phone but don’t know how to begin to move them to my computer. So this may be another instance of using your imagination.
This was sort of a "sauce-on-the-fly," as I really wasn't sure what to make for Wednesday's dinner and I wasn't feeling incredibly inspired to make something complex. I was pleased enough with the result, however, that I reinacted its creation last night (I had snuck a bite of the Wednesday pasta to make sure it tasted okay; I subsequently wished that I was eating it, too).
This may sound funny, but tomato sauce, for all it's simplicity, is something I've had some trouble getting right. Or at least, I've had trouble making something that tasted like some of the really fantastic tomato sauces I've had over the course of my life (granted I'm young, but I have a very good ratio of years lived to bowls of pasta eaten). This is the closest I've come to meeting my criteria for a good sauce.
ALSO: I do not always measure things when I cook, which some may find horribly frustrating. I've given general amounts, but remember that you can (and should) adjust things according to your personal tastes as well as the quality of your ingredients. For example, if you are worried that your sauce may be too acidic in taste, throw some grated carrot in with the shallots and garlic; it will cook down with the aromatics and sweeten the sauce without you (heaven forbid) adding any sugar. Or if fresh tomatoes seem mealy or flavorless, substitute canned tomatoes. This recipe is not worth making with fresh tomatoes outside of tomato season, as the final product will be ultimately lacking in flavor. You can also mix it up by using heirloom tomatoes of different colors and puréeing only a portion of the sauce, preserving some of the distinctiveness of each fruit. You can also add a pinch of saffron along with the wine in step 2 to take the flavor in another direction altogether.
In other words, think outside the box.
Simple Tomato Sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2-1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2-3/4 pounds of shallots (about 4-6 medium shallots), minced
- Pinch of salt
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 1/2 pounds Roma tomatoes (I used a mixture of Roma and dry-farmed tomatoes, which have a more concentrated tomato flavor), seeded and diced
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream, optional (I like adding a little cream to this sauce as it both enriches it and slightly lightens the flavor; you can also always add more!)
- About 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, optional
1. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large saucepan or deep-sided skillet over medium-low heat. Listen for the milk solids in the butter to begin cooking (they will make a slight sizzling noise and create bubbles), and add the shallots. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the shallots (this will cause them to release some of their liquid and become soft as opposed to crisp) and cook for one minute. Add the sliced garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots and garlic are soft and translucent, about ten minutes.
2. Add the wine to the pan and adjust heat to maintain a low simmer. Stir occasionally until the liquid is reduced and barely coats the bottom of the pan. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine.
3. Add the seeded and diced tomatoes to the pan. Stir briefly and cover pan. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes or until tomatoes have softened and broken down into a chunky, thick sauce.
4. Remove from heat; carefully pour sauce into a blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached (the sauce is a bit thick for an immersion blender; I used one and I sauced myself a bit). Transfer sauce back into pan and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add cream and stir until fully incorporated. After saucing pasta, tear or chiffonade basil leaves and sprinkle over the completed dish.
This recipe makes enough to sauce one pound of pasta. I put a pot of water on to boil right after I added the tomatoes to the pan; I add the pasta to the water after I've moved the sauce to the blender. This gives me enough time to blend the sauce, season it, and add the cream without micro-managing my pasta. Once the pasta is done, I use tongs or one of those toothy spoons (forgive the non-technical label, I am going to go hunt on Sur la Table for the correct term in a moment) to transfer the pasta directly into the sauce. I never rinse my pasta if it's going to be sauced; rinsing strips the pasta of all the fantastic little starch particles that help it hold the sauce. Moving the pasta directly into the sauce after cooking also ensures that those fantastic little starch particles won't make the pasta strands hold onto each other. After saucing, I tear up the basil leaves or cut them in a chiffonade and add them to the pasta (this way they stay bright green and add freshness to the sauce). I ate this with a small mountain of freshly grated Pecorino-Romano (Pecorino is the new Parmesan) and a glass of milk (what can I say, I like milk; you can go nuts and have wine, I don't care).
Enjoy! And try this before all of the good fresh tomatoes are gone!
At my mother's request, I am converting this into a FOOD BLOG. I have a new job cooking three nights a week for a family with two working parents, and I'll be doing my best to document the things that I make for them; perhaps it will provide ideas for aimless food-blog wanderers who can't figure out what to make for dinner, as well as help me keep a record of what I've made already (and whether or not the family liked it).
But mainly this is for my mom (and my dad, since if he'll be eating whatever my mom makes from my posts). Anyone else who happens to swing by is more than welcome, and feel free to share recipes you think are kid-friendly (no strained peas, please, these are late elementary/middle schoolers).
New post to come soon...
