Whenever I roast vegetables in such a large quantity, I never plan on eating them that night. I am sure that sounds silly, but I get hungry and I need food sooner than the 45 plus minutes it will take to cook the vegetables and then use them to make something.
So, I turn to one of my favorite dishes, pasta with tomato, basil, and mozzarella.
I have dreams of making big batches of tomato sauce and freezing mini containers of them to be defrosted as needed. However, I never seem to find the time to devote an afternoon or evening to do such a thing. One day it will happen and I will mesmerize you with my creative technique of freezing them in an ice cube tray and popping the cubes into ziplock bags to be defrosted as needed, but today is not that day.
Instead, I will be using a Giada recipe. If I could find the link to her original instructions I would but I am not feeling like doing that research at this time. In the amount of time it takes you to boil water, and the amount of time it takes me to find her recipe, you will be able to fully complete this sauce. It's that easy and quick.
First, cut cherry tomatoes in half. Do you want a number of how many? I don't know. Just cut as many as you have. I used 15. That's a lie, I have no idea how many tomatoes I had. I just cut them up and was done with it. I am not good at counting. (But please only cut the tomatoes in half, not quarters or thirds or eighths. Lengthwise, crosswidth, what have you. It's a tomato, it's round, it doesn't matter).
Then, turn a sauté pan with oil. In this case, I am going to recommend olive oil. I use extra virgin, you can use whatever kind you like. Just be aware, olive oil does burn, so pay attention to what you are doing. If you want garlic, this is where you'd add it in. A clove or two finely chopped should do it. (I skipped it because at an early age I was trained garlic is bad despite my Italian heritage). Then, add in the halved tomatoes and cook them until they are cooked. You will know they are cooked because you will be impatient and you will prod and poke them with a wooden spoon. This is okay, because that's exactly what you want to do. As they get mushy, smoosh the tomatoes down with a wooden spoon to make the sauce.
Take a break from tending to the tomatoes (it's okay) and prepare the basil. You want to chiffonade them, which is a fancy shmancy term for stacking the basil leaves up, rolling them into a neat package, and then chopping them to make long strips. Cut as much basil in this way as you'd like. Leave it in a pile on your cutting board because it is pretty.
By this point, your water is boiling. Add some salt in there because you forgot to salt it earlier. Drop a handful of capellini (angel hair) into the water. I use whole wheat. I find a serving size is the amount you can pick up in one hand, without being greedy. I am not sure what I mean by that, but experiment. If you make too much it isn't a huge deal because you cut up all of your tomatoes so you have plenty of sauce.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain the water. To the mushed, cooked tomatoes add the basil (the basil is a last minute addition) and the pasta. Toss the pasta with the tomatoes and basil and breathe in the sweet smell of your dinner. Pour the whole lot into a bowl. For a finishing touch, rip up a ball of buffalo mozzarella and swirl it in there as well. You won't regret it unless you add the cheese to the pan. That won't work. I've done it- it makes hot string cheese that wraps around your fork like a boa constrictor. Fighting with stringy cheese ruins a meal. Take my word for it.
Eat it like this to keep it sweet, or add grated parmesan to add some saltiness. I usually eat half sweet, then add parmesan in for the second portion. Mangia!
*The beauty of this sauce is that there are all kinds of variations. You could add some creamy goat cheese directly to the cooked tomatoes to give it a different kind of tang, and substitute the basil for spinach. You could take out the basil, and add in lots of parmesan and black olives. Basically, the world is your oyster, even oysters would probably taste good in there. Play around with tomatoes as well. I've used both grape and strawberry tomatoes, and they also work. I use this sauce whenever I am in a pinch, and it comes out perfectly every time.*
So, I turn to one of my favorite dishes, pasta with tomato, basil, and mozzarella.
I have dreams of making big batches of tomato sauce and freezing mini containers of them to be defrosted as needed. However, I never seem to find the time to devote an afternoon or evening to do such a thing. One day it will happen and I will mesmerize you with my creative technique of freezing them in an ice cube tray and popping the cubes into ziplock bags to be defrosted as needed, but today is not that day.Instead, I will be using a Giada recipe. If I could find the link to her original instructions I would but I am not feeling like doing that research at this time. In the amount of time it takes you to boil water, and the amount of time it takes me to find her recipe, you will be able to fully complete this sauce. It's that easy and quick.
First, cut cherry tomatoes in half. Do you want a number of how many? I don't know. Just cut as many as you have. I used 15. That's a lie, I have no idea how many tomatoes I had. I just cut them up and was done with it. I am not good at counting. (But please only cut the tomatoes in half, not quarters or thirds or eighths. Lengthwise, crosswidth, what have you. It's a tomato, it's round, it doesn't matter).
Then, turn a sauté pan with oil. In this case, I am going to recommend olive oil. I use extra virgin, you can use whatever kind you like. Just be aware, olive oil does burn, so pay attention to what you are doing. If you want garlic, this is where you'd add it in. A clove or two finely chopped should do it. (I skipped it because at an early age I was trained garlic is bad despite my Italian heritage). Then, add in the halved tomatoes and cook them until they are cooked. You will know they are cooked because you will be impatient and you will prod and poke them with a wooden spoon. This is okay, because that's exactly what you want to do. As they get mushy, smoosh the tomatoes down with a wooden spoon to make the sauce.
Take a break from tending to the tomatoes (it's okay) and prepare the basil. You want to chiffonade them, which is a fancy shmancy term for stacking the basil leaves up, rolling them into a neat package, and then chopping them to make long strips. Cut as much basil in this way as you'd like. Leave it in a pile on your cutting board because it is pretty.
By this point, your water is boiling. Add some salt in there because you forgot to salt it earlier. Drop a handful of capellini (angel hair) into the water. I use whole wheat. I find a serving size is the amount you can pick up in one hand, without being greedy. I am not sure what I mean by that, but experiment. If you make too much it isn't a huge deal because you cut up all of your tomatoes so you have plenty of sauce.Once the pasta is cooked, drain the water. To the mushed, cooked tomatoes add the basil (the basil is a last minute addition) and the pasta. Toss the pasta with the tomatoes and basil and breathe in the sweet smell of your dinner. Pour the whole lot into a bowl. For a finishing touch, rip up a ball of buffalo mozzarella and swirl it in there as well. You won't regret it unless you add the cheese to the pan. That won't work. I've done it- it makes hot string cheese that wraps around your fork like a boa constrictor. Fighting with stringy cheese ruins a meal. Take my word for it.
Eat it like this to keep it sweet, or add grated parmesan to add some saltiness. I usually eat half sweet, then add parmesan in for the second portion. Mangia!
*The beauty of this sauce is that there are all kinds of variations. You could add some creamy goat cheese directly to the cooked tomatoes to give it a different kind of tang, and substitute the basil for spinach. You could take out the basil, and add in lots of parmesan and black olives. Basically, the world is your oyster, even oysters would probably taste good in there. Play around with tomatoes as well. I've used both grape and strawberry tomatoes, and they also work. I use this sauce whenever I am in a pinch, and it comes out perfectly every time.*
No comments:
Post a Comment