Sunday Gravy and Meatballs

Sunday Gravy, I hardly knew ye. How in the world could a fairly well rounded (albeit non- New Yorker, New Jersian, Rhode Islander) have been so clueless about Sunday Gravy? Just another term for some basic marinara with that “My Grandmother makes the best …” theme? Not on your life! What a grand idea to slowly warm the meats in the tomato sauce then remove them before serving. The layers of flavors in the gravy just have to be experienced first hand to believe. If you’ve never made Sunday Gravy, definitely give this a shot. Don’t let the list of ingredients spook you a bit … they are all available at your local grocery store, after putting it on the stove you still have hours to read other food blogs (grin!), and this recipe will feed your family for several days. Nice.

Ingredients for the sauce:

2 TBS olive oil

1 1/2 pounds pork country ribs

1 1/2 pounds Italian or fennel pork sausages

8 garlic cloves

1/4 cup tomato paste

3 28 to 35 ounce cans Italian peeled tomatoes

1 cup water

1 cup red wine

salt and freshly ground pepper

6 basil leaves, torn into small pieces

Ingredients for the meatballs:

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound ground pork

1/2 cup homemade bread crumbs

2 large eggs

2 tsp garlic, finely minced

1/2 cup Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano

2 TBS flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

1 tsp salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 TBS olive oil

Ingredients for service:

1 lb shells or rigatoni, cooked and still hot

Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano

Sauce directions:

1. Heat oil in large heave opt over medium heat. Pat the pork dry and put the pieces in the pot. Cook, turning occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until nicely browned on all sides. Transfer pork to a plate. Brown the sausages on all sides in the same way, and transfer to a plate.

2. Drain most of the fat from the pot and add the whole garlic cloves. Cook for about 2 minutes or until golden. Remove and chop finely. Add tomato paste to the pot and cook for 1 minute.

3. With a food mill or food processor, puree the tomatoes with their juice. Add to the pot along with the water, wine, chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Return the pork and sausages to the pot and bring to a simmer. Partially cover the pot and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 4 hours. If the sauce becomes too thick, add some more water.

4. To serve, remove the meats from the sauce and set aside to serve separately at this or another meal. Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

Meatballs directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients except the oil in a large bowl. Mix together thoroughly.

2. Rinse your hands with cool water and lightly shape the mixture into 2 inch balls.

3. Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet. Add the meatballs and brown them well on all sides. (They will finish cooking later.) Transfer the meatballs to a plate and refridgerate.

4. 30 minutes before dinner, add the meatballs to the Sunday Gravy.

5. To serve, top pasta with meatballs or serve them separately.

Notes:

* Yes, the canned tomatoes do need to be Italian. They are different. Just get the Italian ones.

* Splurge on the cheese. Get the really hard hunks of good stuff. You’ll be thankful.

* When digging out the meatballs, Italian sausage, and pork ribs from the pot, realize that a good amount of the pork ribs will simply have disintegrated into the gravy, and most other pieces will fall apart as you lift them from the pot. Mmmmmm.

* This recipe is a combination of those from the Sopranos Family Cookbook and Food Blogga’s recipe on NPR.

* Both recipes actually called for half the garlic, and just cooked it in the oil and discarded. After one try that way, we doubled it (a good call in my book for most anything!) then found that the mild cooked garlic was lovely when added back to the gravy. Without an Italian grandmother to honor, I just followed my heart.

* If you can plan ahead to make homemade bread crumbs, its so worth it!

Flying Salsa

Is your mouth ready for a big ol’ hit of flavor?  Have I got a salsa for you!  The idea for this came from my mother in law, and I’ve been loving it ever since.

Mind you, this is what I call a “Friends and Family” salsa, as in you really need to be with friends and family when you indulge, or carry some really minty breath fresheners in your back pocket.

At this point, you surely have three questions:  what’s with the “flying” part of the salsa, why is this a local recipe, and why do those chips look so darned good?

Flying salsa:  salsa that flies around in the food processor, preferrably while the talented chef samples the beer.  Oh yes, this is THAT kind of salsa.  Here are the proportions and a few gentle reminders, again, hating to call such a simple concoction a recipe …

Ingredients:

1 white onion, roughly chopped

2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

1 serrano chili, seeded and cut into thirds or so

1 scant handful cilantro, chopped  (this is one of the few times I actually recommend going light on the cilantro, and just because the other ingredients get so tiny that the cilantro is all the wrong size, and oh my … I do think too much about my salsa!)

Directions: 

1.  Put onion in the food processor, pulse so it flies around until pretty tiny.  Scoop into a bowl.

2.  Put tomato in the food processor, pulse so it flies around until pretty tiny.  Scoop into the onion bowl.

3.  Put chili in the food processor, pulse so it flies around until pretty tiny.  Scoop into the tomato and onion bowl.

4.  Add cilantro and stir.

Notes: 

* Chill for at least an hour.  On the first day, it tastes a bit oniony, with the sweetness of the tomato.

*  Day 2 it tastes more like traditional salsa, nicely blended.

*  Day 3 that serrano chili flavor is everywhere, so be ready for an extra kick of heat.

 

Local angle:  all but the cilantro were purchased from Smith Family Farm. Yes, really.  In November.  To all of my mid-west friends, sorry to have even mentioned it.

The chips were home made … something you’ve just got to do a few times a year to remember how good fresh, hot, greasy, salty corn chips can really be.  Um  hmmm!

Chips:

Ingredients:

corn oil

corn tortillas

Directions:

1.  Heat corn oil in a cast iron skillet, not until boiling, but until the oil is showing some circular movement.  Test by gently placing in a bit of a corn tortilla and seeing if you can cook it until crisp on the inside and outside without burning it.  Trial and error my friends.

2.  Stack up some corn tortillas, cut into sixths, and fry in small batches, removing to paper towel covered plates.  Be sure to flip each little chip half way through cooking to make them nice and even.  If you are going to go for the salt, apply while they are still hot.  Try not to munch on too many before sharing!

Note: 

*  If you have a dog that loves to wait at your feet for any small scrap you may spill while cooking, keep that dog out of the kitchen with the hot oil on the stove.  Just in case.

Glorious Grilled Cheesy Garlic Bread

Oh, the beauty of simplicity. This was a match made in heaven: fontina cheese in my fridge from the grilled pizza night, local garlic from Tachella Family Farms, an heirloom tomato from Lon’s Organic, and my own craving for carbs. Mmmmmmmm, that all adds up to cheesy garlic bread with tomato. I just grabbed a nice, fresh loaf of french bread on the way home and tossed together this perfect snack.

Note: all measurements are estimates here, as this was one of those “a bit of this and a handful of that” kinds of deals.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup fontina cheese, grated

2 cloves garlic

1 TBS flat leaf parsley

1 heirloom tomato, sliced (optional)

4 slices french bread

olive oil

Directions:

1. Heat grill to about 350 degrees.

2. Put cheese, garlic, and parsley in a mini food processor and pulse about 5 times, until the garlic pieces are incorporated.

3. Lightly brush olive oil on one side of the french bread and place olive oil side up on the grill for one to two minutes. You want the bread to start crisping on the bottom without the crusts getting dark.

4. Flip the bread over and top each slice with a quarter of the cheese mixture. Leave on the grill for about 2 to 3 minutes, until the cheese is melting.

5. Remove the cheesy garlic bread from the grill. Top each with a tomato slice or two, if desired.

Grilled Pizza

Success! With the help from a few friends, I was able to successfully grill a beginner style pizza! For years now, I’ve seen Bobby Flay grill pizza on TV and read articles on grilling pizza. So simple they all say. Unfortunately for me, I have dough – a – phobia in the kitchen. My fears of anything requiring the mixing of dough certainly creates enough bad karma in the house to turn any dough I make into an instant train wreck. My friends D & J whipped up a white pizza on for the grill and pronounced it divine, but they are just successful like that. And, just to be completely up front here, I did make pizza dough from scratch once and toss it on the grill for that elusive rustic pizza. Once. Need I say more?

The help from my friends came from two people I feel that I know well, although we’ve never met. Michael Baur, the SF Chronicle food critic, has been on a bit of a pizza bender lately, blogging about a different restaurant / store front with pizza every Friday for awhile. In a wrap up article in the paper, he quotes Ed Levine, author of Pizza: A Slice of Heaven, “How bad can melted cheese on warm bread be?” Mmmmmmm. melted cheese on warm bread, I can do that!

The other friend I’ve never met is Sandra Lee on the Food Network. While I’ve never actually used one of her recipes, I do enjoy learning from her techniques. So, on one episode she’s doing a BBQ at the beach, I think. Anyways, she shows this nifty perforated disposable cooking sheet. Bingo! This item looks like an aluminum jelly roll pan with circular holes in the bottom. She shows how to lay out the store bought pizza dough onto the pan and how it fits perfectly. Oh, yes … I can do that!

The pizza that I made is inspired by these two ideas: melted cheese on warm bread, and grilling store bought dough on the perforated pan. I will certainly make this again, but will add some garlic for a little extra punch.

Note: my appologies for the lame photos. I know they don’t make your mouth water, but I went with the “lame photos are better than no photos” idea. I’m rethinking that idea. To see a REAL tomato photo, check out MattBites.

Another note: Why are there tomatoes on only half of this pizza? The adults in the family appreciate the high art of heirloom tomato pizza while the clearly stubborn teens do not.

Ingredients:

store bought pizza dough (it comes in a can, just like crescent rolls and biscuits)

fontina cheese, grated

thinly sliced tomatoes

basil leaves

olive oil

Directions:

1. Heat grill to about 400 degrees

2. Coat perforated pan with cooking oil spray.

3. Spread out pizza dough on the pan, put on the cooler side of the grill, cook 2 minutes or until the bottom just starts to get a crust.

4. Remove pizza from grill, flip over dough and return to the pan.

5. Lightly drizzle olive oil on the pizza, coat fairly lightly with fontina cheese, add tomatoes and basil. Use a light hand here, as this is not meant to be one of those hefty Chicago style pizzas.

6. Return to grill for about 5 minutes, or until cheese is nice and melted.

7. Slide pizza onto a cutting board, slice, and enjoy.

Potato Skins with Tomato and Corn Salsa

Perfect summer dinner meal here! We’re trying to do the eating local thing at our house as much as possible for oh, so many reasons. At this time of year, even with the asparagus and strawberry fields preparing for next year, the bounty of delicious food in our area is simply divine. I wonder how this optimism will hold up during carrot and onion season. *grin*

This recipe is from The Vegetarian Cookbook (the practical guide to preparing and cooking delicious vegetarian meals) edited by Nicola Graimes. I’ve used this cookbook several times and like it for the beautiful pictures and clear directions. So often you have to choose between the quality of those two, but this book has been dependable in both. I selected this recipe for 2 very clear reasons: Potatoes (oh yeah, I am a potato ho!), and “salsa.” Tomato salsa, veggie salsa, pepper salsa, fruit salsa …. everything is better with salsa!!!

While I don’t usually turn on the oven at this time of year, the outside temperature was down to the 80’s this evening, so I did go for the broiler for just a few minutes. Also, the original recipe calls for baked potatoes, and while the skins on baked potatoes are clearly more yumm-a-licious than those from the microwave, there was just no chance that the oven was going to be on in this house for that long!

Ingredients:

4 red potatoes

corn kernels from one grilled cob

1 large or 2 medium tomatoes, diced

2 shallots, finely sliced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1 red jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped

3 TBS cilantro

olive oil

1 TBS lime juice

cheddar cheese, grated

salt and pepper

lime wedges for garnish

Directions:

1. Bake or microwave potatoes, slice in half, scoop out most of the flesh. (Sure, you can snack on this while making the dish!)

2. Combine corn, tomatoes, shallots, red bell pepper, chili, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix together well.

3. Preheat the broiler.

4. Brush the insides of the potato skins with olive oil and put under the broiler for 3 minutes.

5. Spoon salsa into the potato skins and sprinkle with just a bit of cheese over the top. Return the filled potato skins to the broiler and cook until the cheese has melted, about 2 minutes.

6. Squeeze a little lime juice on top of each potato skin, and serve with an extra wedge of lime.

Side note: for those of you who like to play “What’s different in these 2 pictures?” in the Sunday comics, you may note a missing item in the background of this picture. What is missing?

Grilled Corn and Black Bean Salad

Do you have a “go to” recipe or two that you can just pull out of your hat at any time? This little ditty is one of my “go to” recipes. I do cringe a bit at even calling it a recipe as it is really more of a gentle guide. For me, these items are always at the ready in the fridge and pantry, making it all the easier to whip together quickly. I hesitate to label this as a salad, and it is probably more often served as a chunky dip with corn tortilla chips, and has even been used as a side dish. My friend J has been asking me to post this one ever since our families devoured a bowl of it on her back deck recently. So, here you go!

First, the guidelines to match the preparation in the photo, then I’ll give you the inside scoop on the easy variations and how to avoid going overboard.

One key here is the grilled corn. While there are several methods for grilling corn – smoky grill or gas, husks on or off, high heat or low – for this dish, I always go for the grilled on a gas grill, husks off, high heat, about 3 minutes between turns of the corn. It does make some of the corn a bit charred, but it is really good that way. And I know that you can butter your corn, fold the husks back up, tie it with a bit of twine and toss it on the grill, but butter is not what you are looking for here. At this time of year I tend to grill up an extra cob or 2 when I’m cooking dinner, as I find it any extras a perfect snack the next day. Also, with the temperatures here over 100 the past few days, our stove and oven are totally off limits for cooking!

Ingredients:

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 cobs grilled corn, kernels cut from the cob

1 large or 2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 avocado, cubed

juice of 1 lime

olive oil (optional)

salt

pepper

Directions:

1. Toss the beans and corn into a bowl. Top with tomatoes and add salt and pepper to taste. This dish is best with a little salt on the tomatoes, but I’m not a fan of salted black beans, hence the order of added ingredients. Mix.

2. Add avocado, lime juice, and just a bit of olive oil (if desired). Mix gently.

3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Variations:

Always use 1 can of black beans to 2 cobs of grilled corn.

From that point, select any 2 (just 2, really, I’ve tried more and the basic flavors get lost and you will end up more with an odd succotash kind of thing)

• 1 large tomato
• 1 avocado
• handful of chopped cilantro
• 3 or so sliced green onions, including greens

My favorite? black beans, grilled corn, avocado, and cilantro, munched down with tortilla chips. Yum!

Thai Beef and Grape Tomato Salad

Tomatoes abound at this time of year, and I’ve become addicted to the low-acid types lately. Just wash, slice, and slurp them up. Yum! The current edition of Cooking Light has a whole section dedicated to heirloom tomatoes, and I may just be cooking right through them all. For starters, I gravitated to this recipe because 1) dinner salads are perfect during this week of scorching heat, and 2) it uses fish sauce which I love. OK, if you’re new to fish sauce, this may not make sense, but really, you’ve gotta give it a try. During the summer, it is great in a marinade and then in the winter adding a bit to a savory soup adds a perfect layer of flavor. You just use the smallest of amounts, but it adds essential flavors. Even loving the stuff, I only go through about one bottle per year, but it makes me feel so experimental. (Yes, millions of people in the world keep this as a pantry staple, but let me hold on to my little day dream here.)

In adapting the recipe, I substituted another type of cherry or grape tomato for the requested green grape tomatoes. Why? Stopping by Lon’s on the way home, I just took what they had. With those tomatoes having been picked just that day, I figured that more than makes up for the ingredient substitution. Also, I added some baby bok choy as that is just been my habit this summer. It has both the deep green leaves and the sweet / crunchy textures that I love in salads. And while the original recipe calls for romaine lettuce, I honestly took this opportunity to use up the last bits of about 3 heads of different types of lettuce in the fridge.

Marinade:

6 TBS brown sugar

2 TBS ginger, finely minced

2 TBS low-sodium soy sauce

2 TBS Thai fish sauce

4 garlic cloves, minced

Dressing:

1 TBS brown sugar

2 TBS fresh line juice

2 TBS low-sodium soy sauce

2 TBS peanut oil

2 tsp chile paste with garlic

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 tsp Thai fish sauce

Salad:

1 1/2 pound flank steak

3 cups romaine lettuce, chopped

1 baby bok choy, chopped

2 3/4 cups halved grape tomatoes

3/4 cup radishes, thinly sliced

1/2 cup cucumber, thinly sliced

1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced

2 TBS basil, chopped

2 TBS cilantro, chopped

Directions:

1. In the morning, put all of the marinade ingredients in a large zip lock bag, squish them around, then add the flank steak. Pop it in the fridge for the day.

2. In the evening, grill the steak on for about 4 minutes on each side, remove from the grill and let rest for 10 minutes, then slice thinly across the grain.

3. Combine dressing ingredients and set aside.

4. Toss the veggies and herbs in a bowl, add the dressing, and mix gently.

5. Top with those delicious flank steak slices and serve.

Dinner and Dancing on the Delta (Heirloom Tomato Gratin)

Staycations are all the rage these days, but around here, every summer is a staycation. When the local motto is “Live Where You Play …” you know the summers are full of fun right in our own backyards. Literally.

We all headed out on the California Delta on a warm evening for a night of invigorating conversation, funny moments, varied libations, a pot luck meal, and dancing under the stars. The trip took ten couples out on two pontoon boats onto the delta for a glorious evening. Although our fine captain almost sunk us after the viewing the shining moon on the other boat, we made it to our secret location and tied the boats up to the tullies on the island. Break out the appetizers and bevvies, and let the good times roll. Everyone on this excursion has lived in town for years and years, and we all truly appreciate the good life that is here to enjoy. The evening included a pot luck dinner and then dancing on the famous Boat of Bling.

Knowing that I was signed up to bring a veggie side, and that this dish needed to hold up to just hanging out with no refrigeration during our journey to the tullies, I planned a simple black beans and corn kind of thing. But then, I saw the perfect recipe at Noble Pig’s blog. “Solids and Stripes” is a perfectly simple heirloom gratin that would certainly hold up to these conditions. So, I headed out to Smith Family Farms to get the beautiful tomatoes, then to the local grocer for the remaining items. I arrived back home with a mere 60 minutes to wash the tomatoes, prepare the dish, shower, and be at our friend’s boat dock. And … success!

This recipe is pulled straight from the Noble Pig blog, with the author’s blessing. I was out the door so quickly that I didn’t get any photos of mine, but I assure you that it looked *cough cough* exactly like the pics on her blog, and that if I had actually taken photos myself they would have been *cough cough* equally beautiful. In the end, the boat trip was fantastic, the dinner refreshing, and the dancing on the delta a blast. Many friends from the trip keep asking for the recipe, so here you go:

Heirloom Tomato Gratin

1 clove garlic, cut in half
3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large Vidalia or other sweet onion
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
3 Tablespoons fresh orange juice
2 teaspoons honey
3 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped
4 lbs mixed heirloom tomatoes, thickly sliced
1-1/2 teaspoons each salt and pepper, divided
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Pecorino-Romano cheese

Prepare an oven-safe, shallow, 2 quart baking dish by rubbing the inside with garlic. Paint the dish with 1-1/2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.

Heat 1-1/2 Tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook for about five minutes or until onions are translucent, not brown. Remove from heat, stir in orange zest, fresh orange juice, honey and 1-1/2 teaspoons thyme.

Add half of the onion mixture to the bottom of the baking dish and half the tomatoes. Season with half the salt and pepper and add the rest of the onion mixture, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Overlap the tomato slices to fit.

In a separate bowl, mix together bread crumbs, 2 Tablespoons oil, 1-1/2 teaspoons thyme and cheese. Mix until all crumbs are moistened.

Bake at 425 degrees for 24 minutes or until crumbs are golden and juices are bubbling.

Chilled Golden Tomato Bisque

Its summer time and the living is good. We’re continuing the simple life of easily prepared foods from the local farm stands. Smith Family Farm has an abundance of heirloom tomatoes and the question is just how to prepare them today. I ran across this gem at the epicurious.com site, tried the recipe as designed, and found true love. Ok, actually it was more like a crush on the first night when I did chill the soup a bit. It became true love after several more hours of refrigeration, with the cool flavors melding together in harmony. This clearly follows the mantra of “start with the best ingredients and don’t mess them up.” Enjoy!

Beat the Heat blog event

Chilled Golden Tomato Bisque

(from www.epicurious.com)

Ingredients

1 pound yellow tomatoes
1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon mild honey
1 teaspoon Sherry vinegar
Pinch of cayenne

Garnish: chopped red tomato and basil

Directions:

Coarsely chop tomatoes and purée in a blender with broth until smooth. Force through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding solids.

Whisk in cream, honey, vinegar, cayenne, and salt to taste.

Quick-chill by setting bowl in an ice bath until cold, about 10 minutes.

Fresh Tomatoes

Oh, what to do with Lon’s delicious tomatoes! The first rule with fresh fruits and veggies is to start with the best and don’t mess ‘em up. So, chopped tomatoes, garlic, a handful of parsley and a dash of olive oil made a perfect pasta topping for dinner tonight. Yum.

Several years back, there was a local food column called “Cooking from the Hip” by a young, relative unknown chef, Cat Cora. She’d give general guidance on how to prepare a dish without going the traditional recipe route. I loved it, and have continued that tradition. These days she is cooking from the hip in high pressure 60 minute challenges on Food Network’s Iron Chef. Go Cat!