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.

Grilled Eggplant Salads and Dips

This Sunday will be the penultimate Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market of the season. You can look forward to the following offerings from Sweetwater Farm, Fair Valley Farm, and Tiger Lily Art Company:

tomatillos (try this slow cooker tomatillo beans and pork)

heirloom tomatoes, romas, and tomato deals: 10 lbs/$18, $20 lbs/$30 (preserve for winter)

watermelon, honeydew melons, cantaloupes, and other heirloom melons

Bartlett pears (delicious on pizza or in pancakes)

Akane apples and Asian pears from SLO Farm (make apple sauce)

A wide selection of winter squash, including delicata (delicious roasted for salads)

corn, green beans and yellow wax beans (make a savory corn pudding)

pepperoncini, poblanos, red hot cherries, anaheim chiles, and assorted pepper bargain bags

eggplants, fresh spring garlic, and onions (make one of these eggplant dishes)

cucumbers and zucchini (make pasta primavera for the fall)

carrots, cabbage, kohlrabi, and celery (make Pad Thai)

French sorrel and cutting celery (great as a pesto for soup)

new potatoes and beets (make a hash)

fresh herbs including dill, parsley, basil, and cilantro 

bietola, kale, chard, and a variety of lettuces (make lettuce wraps)

dried beans and grains from Camus Country Mill (make teff grain muffins)

jams, salsa, and pickles from Sweet Creek Foods

pastured chickens from Fair Valley Farm (cook up a pot of Pueblan chicken tinga)

floral arrangements from Tiger Lily Art Company

The chilly, damp fall weather is here in earnest, but we can still enjoy a couple more weeks of summer produce, like tomatoes, corn, and eggplant, and a few more opportunities to fire up the grill. If you do, be sure to throw on some eggplants, because once they collapse into charred masses, their soften insides are the perfect palette for any number of dips and salads. If it's too rainy to grill, you can char your eggplant under the broiler or directly over a gas flame, like a bell pepper, until it is blackened and soft (but avoid doing this in a hotel with very sensitive smoke detectors, as I did this summer). 

Smokey Middle Eastern baba ganoush is a delicious and familiar eggplant dip that is best shoveled with warm pita. I came across an interesting variant of this in Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking. It has the same smokey eggplant and pungent garlic, the same salty tanginess (from soy and vinegar, as opposed to salt and lemon juice) and even contains sesame (seeds, not paste), but is an entirely different dish that works as a refreshing salad appetizer. Pick up plenty of eggplants this Sunday to try both ways.

Baba Ganoush

2 large eggplants
2 cloves garlic
juice from 1 lemon
1/3 cup tahini
1 tsp pomegranate molasses
1 Tbsp olive oil, and more for drizzling
generous pinch of salt
Walnuts and mint leaves for garnish (optional)

1. Char the eggplants on a grill or under the broiler for about 30 minutes, or over gas flames for about 10 minutes, turning with tongs, until they are completely soft and collapsed. At the same time, roast a couple of cloves of garlic in a small cast iron pan on the grill, under the broiler, or on the stove, until soft (if you don't mind raw garlic, you can skip this step). Cool the eggplant until you can handle them and then peel off the charred skin with a pairing knife or your fingers. Place the softened pulp in a strainer for about 15 minutes to drain out some of the liquid. 

2. Peel the roasted garlic cloves and in a mixing bowl, mash them into a paste with a fork or pestle. Transfer the drained eggplant to the bowl and add the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, pomegranate molasses, and a pinch of salt. Mash with a potato masher or a pestle until well mixed and the desired consistency. Taste and add a bit more of any of the ingredients to adjust the flavors to your liking. Spread out on a plate and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with herbs or nuts if you like and serve with warm pita bread.

Chinese Smokey Eggplant with Garlic

adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice

2 large eggplants

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp light soy sauce

2 tsp Chinkiang vinegar

2 Tbsp chili oil with its sediment (or use a diced fresh hot pepper and 2 Tbsp sesame oil)

1 tsp sesame seeds

2 Tbsp finely sliced scallions (green part only) 
Cilantro leaves for garnish (optional)

1. Prepare the eggplant and garlic cloves as in the recipe above.

2. Mince the garlic and dice the eggplant pulp. Combine in a bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients. Garnish with cilantro leaves if you like and serve as a salad appetizer.

Teff Grain Banana Muffins

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:

Watermellon, honeydew melons, cantaloupes, and other heirloom melons

Bartlett pears (delicious on pizza or in pancakes)
Akane apples and Asian pears from SLO Farm (add to a barley salad)
heirloom tomatoes, romas, and tomato deals: 10 lbs/$18, $20 lbs/$30 (make baked polenta)
corn, green beans and yellow wax beans (make a savory corn pudding)
delicata squash (no need to peel this delicate winter squash, just roast as "squash candy")
pepperoncini, poblanos, red hot cherries, anaheim chiles, and assorted pepper bargain bags

eggplants, fresh spring garlic, and onions (make ratatouille)

cucumbers and zucchini (try shredded zucchini)

carrots, cabbage, kohlrabi, and celery (make Pad Thai)

French sorrel and cutting celery (great as a pesto for soup)

new potatoes and beets (make a hash)

fresh herbs including dill, parsley, basil, and cilantro 

bietola, kale, chard, and a variety of lettuces (make lettuce wraps)

dried beans and grains from Camus Country Mill (make these teff grain muffins)

jams, salsa, and pickles from Sweet Creek Foods

pastured chickens from Fair Valley Farm (cook up a pot of Pueblan chicken tinga)

floral arrangements from Tiger Lily Art Company

The Fairmount Farmers Market is a great place to learn about our local food production and to discover interesting local grains and beans. It was through the market that I discovered teff, a protein-packed, fine-kerneled grain that is delicious in porridges and pancakes. With two school age kids to rouse in the darkening mornings and send trudging off to crowded classrooms shouldering heavy backpacks, I wanted to make them some homemade snacks to sustain them through the school day. I experimented with adapting a smitten kitchen banana bread recipe, using Camas Country Mill's teff grain in place of millet, which produced tasty, tender, crackly muffins. Visiting Camas Country Mill was one of my daughter's all time favorite school trips, so I was interested to learn about Camas Country Mill's efforts to restore an old, one-room country school house and turn it into an educational center for their mill. Supporting this project, like baking tasty school snacks from local grains, is another way to teach our children about sustainable food production.

Teff Grain Banana Muffins

adapted from smitten kitchen's crackly banana bread, makes one dozen muffins

3 large ripe-to-over-ripe bananas

1 large egg

1/3 cup (80 ml) virgin coconut oil, warmed until it liquefies, or olive oil

1/3 cup (65 grams) light brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract

1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cups (180 grams) whole-wheat flour (I used Red Fife from Lonesome Whistle Farm)

1/4 cup (50 grams) uncooked teff (from Camas County Mill, or substitute millet, as in the original recipe)

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.  Dollop a 1/4 tsp coconut oil into each of 12 muffin tins. Warm briefly in the heating oven to melt, and spread around the muffin tins with a brush to coat.

2. In the bottom of a large bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon until virtually smooth but a few tiny lumps remain. Whisk in egg, then oil, brown sugar, syrup and vanilla extract. 

3. Mix together baking soda, salt, ground ginger, flour, and teff. Stir into the banana mixture until combined. 

4. Use an ice cream scoop to fill each muffin tin (makes 12 small or 10 medium muffins).  Bake until a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. 

Savory Corn and Chard Pudding

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:

"Noir de Carmes" heirloom melons

Asian pears and Sansa apples from SLO Farm (make Asian pear and cutting celery salad)

peaches and Bartlett pears from the Columbia Gorge

heirloom tomatoes, romas, and tomato deals: 10 lbs/$18, $20 lbs/$30 (preserve for winter)

corn and a new crop of green beans (make this corn and chard pudding)

pepperoncini, poblanos, red hot cherries, anaheim chiles, and assorted pepper bargain bags

eggplants, fresh spring garlic, and onions (make a roasted eggplant salad)

cucumbers and zucchini (make some tsukemono pickles) 

carrots, cabbage, and kohlrabi (make kohlrabi and carrot salad with harissa)

French sorrel and cutting celery

new potatoes and beets (grill in packets)

fresh herbs including dill, parsley, basil, and cilantro (garnish for lettuce wraps)

bietola, kale, chard, and a variety of lettuces (make this corn and chard pudding)

dried beans and grains from Camus Country Mill (make falafel)

jams, salsa, and pickles from Sweet Creek Foods

pastured chickens from Fair Valley Farm (make chicken and saffron rice)

floral arrangements from Tiger Lily Art Company

Suppose, hypothetically, that you are invited to a Thursday evening potluck and, with your vegetable crisper overflowing with your Sunday farmers market haul, you optimistically sign up to bring a Chard and Saffron Tart (p. 243 of Deborah Madison's The Green's Cookbook). Inevitably, you will realize that the first step of the recipe -- preparing the yeasted tart dough (p. 237) -- is not a realistic midweek activity. If you were to find yourself in this predicament, I would suggest that you flip to the Corn Pudding on p. 251 for inspiration and reassurance that you can make a perfectly nice tart without the crust (like a savory clafouti). Madison's corn pudding is especially delicate and light because rather than flour for thickening, she simply uses blended fresh corn kernels. I used this same strategy, but included sauteed sweet onions and chard. The end result was very tasty, it came together easily, baking during Thursday morning breakfast, and made a nice big pan for feeding a crowd.

Savory Corn and Chard Pudding

1 bunch Swiss chard
1 large onion
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 ears of corn
4 eggs
1/2 pint cream
4 ounces grated cheese (I used a combination of gruyere, sharp cheddar, and a little parmesan)
salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x13 gratin pan with a little olive oil.

2. Peel and dice the onion. Trim and discard the thickest stems from the chard and then slice the leaves into thin strips. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the butter and oil. Saute the onions until soft. Add the chard and a pinch of salt and saute until just wilted. Transfer to the gratin pan.

3. Grate the cheese (you could use a food processor for this). Peel the corn and cut off the kernels. Sprinkle 3/4 cup kernels over the chard and then sprinkle over all the grated cheese. 

4. Transfer the remaining corn kernels to a blender or food processor along with the eggs, cream, and a generous pinch of salt and grinding of pepper. Blend until smooth. Pour the corn slurry over the contents of the gratin pan and spread with a spatula so that the chard and cheese are completely covered.

5. Bake for 45-50 minutes, rotating halfway through, until the top is nicely golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.  

Celery Beef Lettuce Wraps

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:

heirloom tomatoes, romas, and tomato deals: 10 lbs/$18, $20 lbs/$30 (make pasta primavera)

Honeydew melons and cantaloupes 

Sansa apples from SLO Farm (make some roasted apple sauce)

peaches and Bartlett pears from the Columbia Gorge

corn and a new crop of green beans (make a green bean and almond salad)

pepperoncini, poblanos, red hot cherries, anaheim chiles, and assorted pepper bargain bags

eggplants, fresh spring garlic, and onions (add to pasta sauce)

cucumbers and zucchini (make some tsukemono pickles) 

carrots, cabbage, and kohlrabi (make some kimchi)

French sorrel and cutting celery (use in this stir fried beef)

new potatoes and beets (make a frittata)

fresh herbs including dill, parsley, basil, and cilantro (garnish these lettuce wraps)

bietola, kale, chard, and a variety of lettuces (make these lettuce wraps)

dried beans and grains from Camus Country Mill (make a grain and chickpea salad)

jams, salsa, and pickles from Sweet Creek Foods

pastured chickens from Fair Valley Farm (make five spice chicken)

floral arrangements from Tiger Lily Art Company

In anticipation of the start of the 4J School District school year next Tuesday (all paltry 166 days of it) I've been trying to remember some of the family's favorite quick weeknight meals. One new one to add to the rotation came from my continued experimentation with cutting celery. In Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, I read that cutting celery resembles Chinese celery, which is often paired with beef, as in her Sichuanese "send-the-rice-down" chopped celery and ground beef recipe. I tried this combination with some of our ground beef from our Fair Valley Farm CSA. To make it kid-friendly, I kept out the chili bean paste, and to make it even kid-friendlier, serves it as filling for lettuce wraps with fun toppings including crushed peanuts (for the kids) and diced red hot cherry bomb peppers (for the adults). Because it was a leisurely summer evening, I also cooked up some of Dunlap's Sichuanese dry-fried green beans and her smoky eggplant with garlic (more on this later), but the celery beef wraps, with plenty of toppings, would make a satisfying and quick meal on their own. I'm always glad that we can ease into the new school year at the height of the harvest season, when the abundance of fresh produce lightens the burdens of fixing quick dinners and filling up lunch boxes.  

Celery Beef Lettuce Wraps

celery beef (adapted from Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking)
1/2 lb ground beef
2 Tbsp grape seed oil
1 tsp ground Sichuan pepper corns
1 bunch cutting celery, or substitute 4 regular celery stalks and leaves, chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp Sichuan chili bean paste (I omitted for a kid-friendly version)
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp black Chinese vinegar

wrap fixings
iceberg or butter lettuce leaves
diced spicy pepper (such as a red hot cherry pepper)
ground Sichuan pepper corns
roasted peanuts, chopped
finely diced lime (with the skin)
cilantro leaves
white rice

To make the celery beef, prepare all of your ingredients and have them on hand. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. Add the ground beef and stir fry until it is cooked through. Add the chili bean paste and continue to cook until the oil has reddened. Add the ginger, stir fry for a few more moments, and then add the celery. Stir fry until the celery just turns a darker green color, then season with soy sauce and vinegar and remove from the heat.

To serve, pass around lettuce leaves. Everyone can scoop on their desired amount of cooked rice and celery beef, and sprinkle over their favorite combination of toppings.