Pesto Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower and Sausage Meatballs

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you'll find pastured meats and eggs from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm, cut flowers from Tiger Lily Art Company, and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm, including potatoes, snap peas, and heirloom tomatoes.

I love Camas Swale's torpedo onions, which are delicious roasted with other vegetables like cauliflower. I wanted to incorporate these into a pasta dinner, but lately we've been at a family pasta impasse between my pesto-loving daughter and my son and advocate for tomato sauce and meatballs. 

I decided to place peacemaker by roasting a sheet pan of meatballs along with the vegetables, using Fair Valley Farm pork sausage, and serving these on pesto pasta. Everyone was happy with dinner.

Pesto Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower and Sausage Meatballs

roasted vegetables
1 head cauliflower
2 small onions
olive oil
salt

meat balls
1 lb ground pork sausage meat
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
fresh ground pepper

3/4 cup pesto sauce (such as this recipe)
1 lb pasta
cherry tomatoes for garnish
parmesan cheese for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and put in one sheet pan. 

2. Cut the cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Cut the onions into sixths. In a large bowl, toss the vegetables with a pinch of salt and olive oil to coat.

3. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground pork sausage meat, bread crumbs, egg, and plenty of fresh ground pepper. Coat a second sheet pan with a thin coat of olive oil. Form small one inch meat balls and arrange on the sheet pan (you should have about 40 meatballs). 

4. Toss the vegetables onto the preheated sheet pan and put the sheet pan of meatballs into the oven. Bake both for about 35 minutes, turning over about halfway through, until vegetables are well caramelized and brown on the edges and the meatballs are cooked through. 

5. Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the pasta. Drain and toss the pasta with the pesto. Serve topped with vegetables and meatballs (or serve them on the side). Garnish with cherry tomatoes and grated parmesan cheese. Enjoy.

Chicken with Cardamom Rice and Blistered Purple Beans

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you'll find plenty of summer produce from Camas Swale Farm as well as pastured meats and eggs from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm.

Fog Hollow offers chicken parts, which is convenient if you don't have the time to break down a whole bird. I was happy to pick up a pack of legs to try out a chicken and rice dish that I've long been eyeing from the cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. I had always stalled at the second ingredient of barberries, however, which seemed unattainable until I happened to run across them at Sunrise Market. The dish was well worth the wait, especially with Fog Hollow's fresh chicken legs. The rice is enhanced with plenty of caramelized onions, similar to a family favorite, mujaddara, and the barberries add tart bursts of flavor.

To accompany the chicken and rice, I'd picked up some beautiful purple beans. Because I wanted to preserve some of their deep color, with fades with cooking, I decided to blister them quickly in a hot griddle pan. And because I think beans go well with mustard, and mustard reminded me of other brassica family members, and I had a bunch of turnips with fresh leaves, I made a bright green garnish of blanched and chopped turnip greens in a mustard vinaigrette. It was another Farmers Market summer feast. 

Chicken with Caramelized Onion and Cardamom Rice

from Jerusalem A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

3  tablespoons sugar (40 grams)

2 ½  tablespoons barberries, or use currants (25 grams)
4  tablespoons olive oil
2  medium onions, thinly sliced (2 cups, or 250 grams)
2 ¼  pounds skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (1 kilogram), or 1 whole chicken, quartered
 Salt and freshly ground black pepper
10  cardamom pods
 Rounded 1/4 teaspoon whole cloves
2  long cinnamon sticks, broken in two
1 ⅔  cups basmati rice (300 grams)
2 ¼  cups boiling water (550 milliliters)
1 ½  tablespoons flat-leaf parsley leaves (5 grams), chopped
½  cup dill leaves (5 grams), chopped
¼  cup cilantro leaves (5 grams), chopped

⅓  cup Greek yogurt (100 grams), mixed with 2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)

1. Put the sugar and scant 3 tablespoons water in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat, add the barberries, and set aside to soak. If using currants, you do not need to soak them in this way.

2. Meanwhile, heat half the olive oil in a large sauté pan for which you have a lid over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion has turned a deep golden brown. Transfer the onion to a small bowl and wipe the pan clean.

3. Place the chicken in a large mixing bowl and season with 1½ teaspoons each salt and black pepper. Add the remaining olive oil, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and use your hands to mix everything together well. Heat the frying pan again and place the chicken and spices in it. Sear chicken for 5 minutes on each side and remove from the pan (this is important as it part-cooks the chicken). The spices can stay in the pan, but don’t worry if they stick to the chicken. Remove most of the remaining oil as well, leaving just a thin film at the bottom. Add the rice, caramelized onion, 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of black pepper. Drain the barberries and add them as well. Stir well and return the seared chicken to the pan, pushing it into the rice.

4. Pour the boiling water over the rice and chicken, cover the pan, and cook over very low heat for 30 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, remove the lid, quickly place a clean tea towel over the pan, and seal again with the lid. Leave the dish undisturbed for another 10 minutes. Finally, add the herbs and use a fork to stir them in and fluff up the rice. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve hot or warm with yogurt mixture if you like.

Blistered Purple Beans with Mustardy Turnip Greens

blistered purple beans

4 handfuls of purple beans

1 Tbsp olive oil

salt

Wash and trim the beans. Toss the beans in a bowl with olive oil and a generous pinch of salt. Heat a grill pan or skillet over high heat. When the pan is very hot, put on the beans. Allow them to blister, flipping occasionally, for about 4 minutes until they start to lose some of their purple color but are still quite crunch. Remove to a serving plate.

turnip greens with mustard vinaigrette

1 bunch turnip greens

1 tsp mustard

1/2 tsp honey

2 Tbsp sherry vinegar

Set a medium pot of well salted water to boil. Wash the turnip greens and trim off the bare stems. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mustard, honey, and sherry vinegar. When the water is boiling, throw in the turnip greens and blanch for 45 seconds. Drain and run under cold water to stop them from cooking. Squeeze out the water and chop the leaves into 1/2 inch slices. Toss in the vinaigrette. Taste and add more salt, honey, or vinegar as needed.  Serve along side the blistered beans.

Soba Noodles with Seared Scallions and Shishito Peppers

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you will find fresh eggs and pastured chicken, beef, pork, and lamb from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm, as well as fresh cut flower bouquets from Tiger Lily Art Company. 

Camas Swale Farm will have lots of fresh produce: melons and watermelons, strawberries, garlic, salad greens, pardon peppers, carrots, and tomatoes, including heirloom, cherry, and paste (time to start stockpiling sauce for the winter).  

There are certain items one should pick up at the market regardless of your shopping list or menu plans. Our policy is to purchase padron peppers whenever available because they are always a special treat. Similar logic applies to Camas Swale's perfect melons, which don't require a recipe, beyond "eat." Less intuitive might be a bunch of scallions, although pretty purple ones like these are hard to resist.

Lately I've been making a habit of buying a big bunch of scallions and immediately cooking them down in oil into a couple of tablespoons of crisp, sweet, intense flavor. We first tasted these in Shanghai and then recaptured them with the help of Fuchsia Dunlop. It doesn't matter if you have a plan for these at the time, you will simply thank yourself later for having made them. This week we gobbled them up right away as a topping for some soba noodles along with some seared padron peppers, which are essentially the same as shishito peppers so I'm calling them by their Asian name for this dish. 

Soba Noodles with Seared Scallions and Shishito Peppers

serves four

seared scallions
1 large or 2 small bunched of scallions
1/4 cup neutral oil such as canola
Trim the roots off the scallions. Wack the whites with the side of a large chef's knife to split. Cut into 1 inch lengths. Heat the oil in a skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add the scallions and cook, stirring frequently. Keep cooking the scallions until they are quite browned, but avoid burning them. This will take patience and some nerve, but you will be rewarded with intense flavor. Transfer the scallions and oil to a small bowl.

seared peppers
1 pint padron or shishito peppers
2 Tbsp neutral oil such as canola
sea salt
In the same skillet or wok you used for the scallions, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the peppers and allow to sear until well browned and blistered on one side. Use tongs to flip and brown the second side. Remove to a bowl and sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt.

noodles
300 g (3 circular packets) of soba noodles
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sesame oil

Cook the noodles in salted boiling water until barely cooked through (about 5 minutes). In the meantime, mix the soy sauce and sesame oil in a serving bowl. When the noodles are done, immediately rinse them under cold water and then toss them in the serving bowl. Serve the noodles and top with the seared scallions and scallion oil and the seared peppers. Enjoy.

Roasted Lemon Soy Chicken Legs

The Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market is excited to announce that Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm have teamed up to bring you fresh eggs and pastured chicken, beef, pork, and lamb every week. Also at the market you'll find fresh cut flower bouquets from Tiger Lily Art Company and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm including gorgeous heirloom tomatoes (make a pitcher of gazpacho for the hot days ahead), berries, honey and (new this week) melons.

In addition to whole chickens, Fog Hollow Farm offers parted breasts and legs. I purchased a package of legs last week, which I thawed for a few hours in a bowl of warm water and then tossed in a lemon and soy sauce marinade.

Dinner Sunday night was a delicious and easy Farmers Market feast of roasted chicken, kale chips (since the oven was on), fresh heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers and roasted onions with lemony pan juices over rice. 

Roasted Lemon Soy Chicken Legs

2 chicken legs (drumsticks and thighs, about 1.5 lb)
1 large lemon
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp coarse kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
1 large onion

1. Peel the lemon with a vegetable peeler and cut the peel into thin strips. Juice the lemon. In a glass bowl big enough to hold the chicken, combine the lemon juice and zest, soy sauce, olive oil, honey, garlic cloves, salt and pepper. Cut the chicken legs to separate the drumsticks from the thighs, add them to the bowl and coat them well with the marinade. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator at least 1 hour or overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 425. Cut the onion into about 16 wedges and arrange on the bottom of a baking pan or pie dish. Arrange the chicken pieces, skin side up, on top of the onions, and drizzle over the marinade. Roast until the chicken is cooked through, basting occasionally with pan juices, about 35 minutes. The onions should char a little at the edges. 

3. Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest 10 minutes. Serve the chicken with the onions and pan juices.

Roasted Pepper and Onion Toasts

Sweet peppers and onions don't get much prettier than these varieties from Camas Swale Farm at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market.

These long, red specimens seemed made for each other. My son has recently discovered that roasted red peppers are basically parent sanctioned candy, so they've been making a regular appearance at our dinner table.

A handy tool for deseeding and deveining these narrow peppers is one that might just be lurking in your cutlery drawer, threatening sleepy cereal eaters: the grapefruit spoon.

I roasted them together in the toaster oven (too hot to turn on the real oven these days) with a lot of olive oil and a few sprigs of marjoram.

We ate the resulting caramelized goodness simply piled on slices of toasted baguette. On a hot day, these toasts plus some cold gazpacho makes a perfect dinner.

Roasted Pepper and Onion Toasts

4-8 sweet peppers
1-2 onions
olive oil
salt
several springs of marjoram or thyme
sliced bread

Seed and slice the peppers into 1 inch strips. Peel and slice the onions into eighths. Preheat a toaster oven to 450 degrees. Toss the vegetables in several slugs of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast in a toasting oven pan with the sprigs of herbs, stirring occasionally, for about 25 minutes, until caramelized and slightly charred. Transfer the caramelized vegetables to a bowl. Rub the bread slices in the remaining oil in the pan, flip and drizzle on a little more olive oil if desired. Toast until lightly brown on the edges. Pile the caramelized peppers and onions onto the toast and serve.

Grilled Summer Vegetables for the Fourth of July

For the next two weekends, the corner of 19th and Agate will be bustling with would-be Olympians, but don't let that keep you away from the Sunday Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market. Rather than its usual location in the Sun Automotive Lot, look for it across the street in front of the bike shop next to Sweet Life Patisserie. This Sunday you will be able to find lots of glorious summer produce, including a plethora of berries, from Camas Swale Farm, pastured meats from Fair Valley Farm, and fresh cut flowers from Tiger Lily Art Company.

Plan to stock up on plenty of summer vegetables -- cherry tomatoes, summer squash, eggplant, onions -- to grill for the Fourth of July. And if you are grilling vegetables, be sure to make a lot more than you need for one meal, because they are a great start toward many additional meals. 

I like using grilled vegetables to top grain salads or pesto pasta, and they are great for transforming a plain margarita pizza into a summer vegetable feast. So grill on the fourth and keep celebrating throughout the week.

Grilled Vegetable Pizza

1 recipe of Jim Lahey's no-knead pizza dough
tomato sauce (preferably made with fresh romas)
grilled vegetables such as onions, summer squash, eggplant, and corn on the cob
fresh mozzarella balls, sliced
handful of basil leaves

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees and insert a pizza stone if you are using one. Chop the grilled vegetables into bite sized pieces and cut the corn kernels from the cob. Divide the dough into four balls, flour them lightly, and shape them according to Lahey's instructions (or use a rolling pin to roll them out on a silicone mat). Sprinkle polenta on a baking sheet or pizza peel and place the pizza dough on top. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over the dough, distribute over the grilled vegetables, and then sliced mozzarella.  Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes until the crust in browned and the cheese is bubbling. Top with fresh basil leaves and enjoy.

Market Poster and Cumin Lamb from Lucky Peach

The start of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market's seventh season is just three weeks away. Please spread the word by downloading the market poster here and distributing it widely. 

In return for this favor, I'd like to share an addictively delicious recipe for cumin lamb from the recent Lucky Peach 101 Easy Asian Recipes cookbook. The recipe calls for thinly sliced lamb, but we've been making it with ground lamb from market vender Fair Valley Farm and it's become a family favorite. Here I served it as a filling for lettuce wraps with these Sichuan green beans. For the lamb, you can dial back the amount of Sichuan peppercorns and chili flakes if serving spice-averse kids, but I recommend using all two tablespoons of cumin seeds, which may seem like a lot, but is perfect with the lamb and seared onion. Once you've tasted this, you'll want to keep a stash of Fair Valley Farm ground lamb in the freezer for when the craving strikes.

Cumin Lamb from Lucky Peach 101 Easy Asian Recipes 

makes 2 to 4 servings

2 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 Tbsp Sichuan peppercorns (we use 1 tsp for kids)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2-1 tsp chili flakes (we use 1/4 tsp for kids)
1 lb boneless lamb leg, thinly sliced, or ground
2 Tbsp neutral oil
2 cups thinly sliced white or yellow onions
1 cup sliced scallions, whites and greens
1 Tbsp sliced garlic
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp Shoaling wine or dry sherry
1 cup roughly chopped cilantro

1. Toast the cumin seeds and peppercorns in a dry skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pulse in a spice grinder or grind with a mortal and pestle, not too finely. Mix with the salt and chili flakes.

2. Toss the spice mixture with the meat to coat.

3. Heat a very large skillet or wok over high heat. Add the oil, and when it emits wisps of smoke, add the onions and cook, tossing, until translucent and slightly charred. Transfer the onions to a bowl.

4. Add the lamb and any residual spices to the pan. Cook, tossing, until the meat begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the scallions, garlic, soy sauce, and wine, and bring to a brisk simmer. After about 2 to 3 minutes, when the lamb is just cooked through and coated in sauce, return the onions to the pan and toss everything together. Remove from the heat and top with the cilantro. Serve hot.

Fresh Bread and French Onion Soup

It's been a busy fall, but with the term winding down, I finally turned my attention to my neglected bread starter and started coaxing it back to life with daily feedings. In a few days, it was bubbling  away happily and over the weekend it raised a fine loaf of rye and red fife flour. 

With the baking bread aromas filling the kitchen, and a steady drizzle outside, I decided to make some French onion soup for dinner. I caramelized a big pot of onions (saving some for a future mujaddara), and thawed a quart of chicken stock. The recipe I followed from the kitchn, based on Julia Child, called for an hour of cooking the broth with the onions, and another 20 minutes in the oven, but I admit to skimping on both, because we were all too hungry to wait. The resulting soup was deliciously decadent for a rainy day.

French Onion Soup

Adapted from Julia Child's Soupe à l'Oignon from Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Makes 4 one-cup servings

3 large yellow onions (~1 pound)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
4 cups beef, chicken, or vegetable broth
1/2 cup white wine or white vermouth
4 bread slices, toasted
1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese

1. Peel and cut each onion into half moons: Slice each half of the onion into thin, evenly-sized half moons and cut the half moon slices in half. You will have at least 3 cups of chopped onions. But don't worry too much about quantities with this recipe; if you have an extra onion to use up, throw it in!

2. In a large pot, melt the butter with the oil over medium-low heat. After the butter foams up and then settles down, add the onions and stir to coat with the butter. Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes on low heat. 

3. Remove the lid. The onions should have wilted down somewhat. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt, a generous amount of black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon sugar (this helps the onions caramelize). Turn the heat up to medium and cook, uncovered and stirring every few minutes, until the onions are deeply browned. This will take 40 minutes to 1 hour. Turn down the heat if the onions scorch or stick to the pan; the browning doesn't come through burning, but through slow, even caramelization.

4. Heat the broth: As the onions approach a deep walnut color, heat the broth in a separate pot. Add the wine and allow to cook down. Then add the hot broth to the caramelized onions and bring to a boil. Cook gently over low heat for about 1 hour (I only did this for 20 minutes). Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if needed. 

5. Heat the oven to 350°F. Divide the soup between small but deep oven-safe bowls. Top each with a slice (or two) of toasted bread and sprinkle grated cheese in a thick layer over the bread and up to the edge of the bowl. Place the bowls on a baking sheet or in a casserole dish. Bake for about 20 minutes until the cheese is thoroughly melted (I did this for 5 minutes).

6. Broil until the cheese is browned: Turn the oven from bake to broil and broil the soup for 1 to 3 minutes or until the cheese is browned and bubbling. Remove carefully from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving on heatproof dishes or trivets.  

Roasted Collards with Chorizo and Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

This week at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you can look forward to summer produce from Good Food Easy at Sweetwater Farm, pastured meats and eggs from Fair Valley Farm, and beautiful fresh cut flower bouquets from Tiger Lily Art Company.

The season's bounty is reaching its height of outrageous beauty, like these blush tomatoes and purple tomatillos. With produce this pretty, it seemed a shame to roast the tomatillos for my usual salsa, so I blended them up fresh with cilantro and a hot pepper.

Even as the produce is reaching its peak, the days are getting cooler, and it's not hard to justify turning on the oven. For less glamorous looking collard greens, I made a version of these pot-roasted collard greens with chorizo. Cooked for an hour in a low oven, the collards' flavors soften and deepen, the onions melt into a sweet jam, and the chorizo infuse the dish with a decadent richness.

Layered on top of tender Lonesome Whistle Farm beans, these rich collards made a delicious bed for a fried Fair Valley Farm egg, topped with the bright notes of the fresh tomatillo salsa and slices of blush tomatoes to make the plate outrageously pretty.

Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

1 pint tomatillos
1 small jalapeño or other spicy pepper
1 handful cilantro leaves
1 pinch salt

Hull and rinse the tomatillos. Halve them and toss them in a food processor. Halve and seed the jalapeño and add it to the food processor along with the cilantro and salt. Pulse to chop into a salsa of the desired coarseness. Reserve.

Roasted Collards with Chorizo

1 large bunch collard greens
1 medium onion
2 chorizo sausages (about 5 ounces)
2 Tbsp canola oil
salt to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Rinse the collard leaves, cut out the stems, and slice crosswise into 1/2 inch strips. Peel and dice the onion. Cut the sausages into quarters lengthwise and then crosswise into 1/2 inch chunks.

2. Heat a large heavy bottomed pot with a lid, such as a Dutch oven, over medium heat. Add the oil, the onions, and a pinch of salt, and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add the sausage pieces and continue cooking until the onions are very soft. Add the collard green strips and stir to coat in the oils. Place the lid on the pot and transfer to the oven. 

3. Cook for about an hour until the contents are deeply roasted and caramelized. Stir, taste, and add more salt if needed. Cover until ready to serve.

Roasted Rice Cakes with Scallion Oil

 

Last November my husband and I visited Shanghai, the fastest growing city in the world. In the midst of this mind bogglingly immensity, we nibbled a bowl of noodle that had an arresting, deep flavor that I thought must have come from with some exotic mushrooms, but was merely caramelized green onions.  

Back home, the taste of those noodles lingered with me. I consulted Fuchsia Dunlap's Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, and found her Shanghai Noodles with Dried Shrimp and Spring Onion Oil, which she describes as "a southern Chinese equivalent of the Italian spaghetti all'aglio, olio e peperoncino." As I read more, I realized that caramelized onions of all types are an integral condiment in many Asian cuisines, adding a deep umami layer of flavor. Thus started my obsession with crispy fried alliums. 

These spring onions and their fragrant oil make a wonderful topping for a bowl of noodles, but they can also transform Korean rice cakes, which I recently found fresh, rather than frozen, at the Sunrise Asian Market in Eugene. 

I'd read about fried, rather than braised rice cake in David Chang's recipe from Momofuku, and indeed this method of cooking them makes the cakes puff up into delectable treats with a toasty exterior and soft, chewy inside. These are delicious as a snack (perfect for an Oscars party) topped with sriracha sauce and the fried scallions.

These roasted rice cakes also make a wonderful base for a riff on kimichi fried rice, tossed with kimchi (my latest batch was made with red cabbage) and topped with a fried egg. And of course, sprinkled with the fried scallions.

Roasted Rice Cakes with Scallion Oil

1 bunch scallions
1/4 cup canola oil
1 lb fresh rice cakes

serving suggestions
sriracha sauce
kimchi
fried egg

1. Trim the scallions. With the flat side of a chef's knife, smash the white parts of the onions and then cut them into 2 inch sections. 

2. Heat the oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the scallions, lower the heat slightly, and cook, stirring off and on, until they turn a deep golden brown, but be careful not to burn them. When they are done, remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon and reserve in a bowl.

3. Return the wok with the oil to a medium high heat and add the rice cakes. Cook, stirring off and on, until they become browned and puff up in size. You can eat them like this, sprinkled with a pinch of salt, a drizzle of sriracha sauce, and the crispy scallions. Or, stir in a couple of spoonfuls of kimchi into the wok and cook until heated through. Serve with a fried egg on top, along with the fried scallions.

Fill your pantry now (and thank yourself later)

As chance would have it, I found myself entirely alone at home for the evening, for the first time in ten years, on the day after Halloween. Candy cauldrons overflowed with unguarded chocolates, but did I dine on twix and kitkats? No, because I was lucky enough to have a stash of caramelized onions in my freezer and a supply of Camas Country Mill lentils in the pantry, which I whipped up into a delicious Mujaddara for one. You too can fill you pantry with beans, grains, and storage vegetables at the Fill Your Pantry community bulk buying event on Sunday, November 17th, from 12-4 pm at Sprout Food Hub, 418 A Street, Springfield. 

Ten Pounds of Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce

Pretty much everything I know about Italian cooking, I learned from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, so to honor her passing, I wanted to record how one can scale up her famous tomato sauce recipe (which my sister tipped me off to years ago, well before all the food bloggers). Armed with Hazan's recipe, a few weeks ago I cooked down 10 pounds of Sweetwater Farm's delicious Scipio San Marzano roma tomatoes, producing 10 pints of sauce to freeze away for the winter. I could never bring myself to use quite as much butter as she calls for (scaled up, this would be 6 sticks!), so this is a leaner version, but it still produces the purest, sweetest sauce, a perfect base for all manner of embellishments and delicious thinned into a heart-warming soup. Pick up a flat at the last Fairmount Farmers Market of the season next Sunday. 

Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce for a 10 pound flat of tomatoes

10 lb roma tomatoes
4 or 5 small onions, peeled and halved
1 stick of butter (or more if you wish)
salt to taste

1. Set a large pot of water to boil. Core the romas and score them with a cross on the opposite end. Set up a large bowl of cold water with ice cubes. In batches, use a large slotted spoon or strainer to submerge the tomatoes in the boiling water. After about 1 minute, transfer the tomatoes to the cold water bath. The skin will blister and can be peeled off easily in the time it takes to blanch your next batch of tomatoes. If you get into a rhythm, you can easily get through 10 pounds of romas in about half an hour (with two people, it's even more efficient). Coarsely chop the tomatoes for the sauce.

2. In a 7 quart or larger pot, combine all of the ingredients and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer  until it is thickened to your liking and the fat floats free from the tomato. Stir from time to time, mashing up any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon. For this volume of tomatoes, I let the sauce simmer for about 2 hours. Taste and correct for salt. Remove the onions and reserve for another use (such as pizza toppings). If you like, use an immersion blender to create a smoother sauce. Allow to cool completely and transfer to freezer-safe pint jars. This recipe will make about 8 to 10 pints. Label and freeze for winter.

Mujaddara and Grilled Eggplant with Tomato Topping

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you can look forward to the following offerings from Sweetwater Farm, Fair Valley Farm, and Tiger Lily Art Company:

Blackberries and cantaloupes (make some fresh fruit crepes) 

Shiro plums from SLO Farm

eggplants (make the grilled eggplant with tomatoes below)

tomatoes, including romas, and 10 lb flats for $20 (starting preserving)

red sweet peppers, Italian frying peppers, Ho Chi Minh and Cherry Bomb hot peppers 

Costata Romanesco zucchini and cucumbers (make tsukemono)

green, yellow wax, and romano beans (make green and yellow salmon salad)

new potatoes, beets, celery, carrots, and kohlrabi (try kohlrabi and capers)

assorted herbs including Italian parsley and 1 lb bags of basil 

fresh spring garlic and onions (make the mujaddara below)

kale, chard, and a variety of lettuces, including Romaine (try kale pesto with beet pasta)

dried beans and grains from Camus Country Mill (pick up some lentils for mujaddara)

jams, salsa, and pickles from Sweet Creek Foods

pastured chickens from Fair Valley Farm (try slow cooker Pueblan Chicken Tinga)

floral arrangements from Tiger Lily Art Company

At the height of summer, jewel purple eggplants like the beauties above demand our attention. I took inspiration from a recipe by smitten kitchen and piled grilled eggplant slices with diced tomato, feta cheese, and mint, with a splash of pomegranate molasses. 

I also picked up a package of Camas Country Mill red chief lentils and a hefty spring onion to try my hand at the lentil and rice dish, mujaddara. I mostly followed a recipe from Rivka of food52, which starts with a big pot of browned onions that are mixed into separately cooked rice and lentils. But feeling a little lazy about pot washing, I followed Melissa Clark's method for making this a one pot dish by presoaking the lentils and then cooking them together with the rice. Choose your method, depending on your level of risk aversion, but definitely make the spiced yogurt sauce to accompany it.

Grilled Eggplant with Tomatoes and Mint

1 large eggplant, sliced

olive oil for brushing

1 large tomato, diced

2 ounces feta cheese, diced

10 mint leaves, minced

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses

1 tablespoon olive oil

Brush the eggplant slices with a little olive oil. Cook over a hot grill or on a grill pan, flipping once, until soft and partly charred. Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Mound onto the grilled eggplant slices.

Mujaddara and Spiced Yogurt

Adapted from Rivka of food52

for the Mujaddara
1 cups small lentils such as Camas Country Mill red chief or French puy
1 cup jasmine rice
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups onions (about 3 medium onions), halved and thinly sliced
3 1/2 cups water
about 1 teaspoon salt

For the yogurt
1/2 cup full fat or Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin (freshly ground, if possible)
1/2 teaspoon coriander (freshly ground)
1/2 teaspoon spicy paprika or aleppo pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
juice and zest of half a lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Sort through the lentils to remove any pebbles, rinse, and set to soak in a fresh water while you prepare the onions.

2. Set a wide, deep saute pan or Dutch oven over medium-low heat and add butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil. When butter has mostly melted, add onions and toss to incorporate with butter and oil. After 5 minutes, onions will have softened slightly and started to release their liquid. Raise heat to medium and cook 10 to 12 minutes more, until onions are very soft and browned. Add water by the tablespoon if pan gets too dry or if onions start to stick. When onions are well browned, add last tablespoon of olive oil and raise heat to high. Cook another 3 to 4 minutes, until bottom layer of onions has charred and crisped; try not to stir too much, or onions won't crisp up. Remove the onions to a bowl and lower the heat to medium-low.

3. Toss the rice into the pot and stir to coat with the remaining oil for about one minute. Drain the lentils and add to the pot. Add 3 1/2 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt, bring to a simmer, lower the heat, cover, and let cook for 15 minutes. Uncover and check the rice and lentils. Add more water and salt if needed and cook for another five minutes if needed. Otherwise, stir in the cooked onions and any accumulated juices, and let sit for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to meld. Note: you can also cook the lentils and rice separately and mix them together with the cooked onions.

4. Meanwhile, make the yogurt: mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Serve alongside the mujaddara.