Sunday, June 12, 2022

If you give a mouse a ...

As noted in last week's newsletter, I recently made my first fresh tomato sauce of the season. I was inspired by a recipe in Ali Slagle's new cookbook, I Dream of Dinner, titled "Good Sauce of So-So Tomatoes" with a succinct head note: "Roasting with olive oil, salt, and sugar brings out the tomato in even the duds."

And duds I had. I had purchased a heap of nice-looking cherry tomatoes because one of my children, who has become annoyingly picky, loves tomatoes, cherry in particular.

But these tomatoes tasted, frankly, terrible, and so I did as Ali said: I roasted them with olive oil, smashed-but-not-peeled garlic cloves, salt, sugar, and crushed red pepper flakes. Forty-five minutes later, when the house smelled like heaven, I discarded the garlic peels, then puréed the stewy tomatoes and caramelized garlic cloves with fresh basil and a little water to thin.

The sauce tasted fresh and bright and just like summer, which was exactly what I was craving.

I used the sauce for zucchini involtini and then zucchini parmesan. And when I finished that sauce, I made roasted broccoli steaks with tomato "butter", one of the tastiest sauces I know, also made with cherry tomatoes. And when I finished the butter, I made pasta with simple cherry tomato sauce, which the whole family devoured. And tonight, I am making baked feta pasta, because, well, if you give a mouse a roasted cherry tomato...

In all seriousness, I rarely buy tomatoes out of season because, as noted, they just don't taste good. And besides, I love sauce made with canned tomatoes.

But sometimes, especially this time of year, when tomato season is so close you can almost taste it, it's hard to resist. And when it's hard to resist and those tomatoes miss the mark, know that a quick roast or broil or stovetop simmer will work wonders, and tomato season in all its glory won't feel so far away. I hope you'll agree.

Pasta with Cherry Tomato Sauce

Four Favorite Cherry Tomato Sauces

Roasted Broccoli Steaks with Tomato "Butter" (This tomato butter is so, so tasty... I have a hard time not eating it by the spoonful.)

Baked Feta with Cherry Tomatoes & Basil: I was late to discover this viral hit, but so glad I did. It's delicious on its own with any type of bread, but also great tossed with pasta or roasted spaghetti squash.

Quick Red Enchilada Sauce — love this sauce so much. It's what I use for these black bean and cheese enchiladas and this vegetarian tortilla casserole.

One-Pan Baked Ziti: This recipe starts with blistering cherry tomatoes stovetop; then you add the dried pasta and water directly into the pan and simmer everything together until the pasta is cooked and the liquid has evaporated. After a quick pass under the broiler, your one-pan, no-fuss baked ziti is done: crisp noodles, melty cheese, bubbly sauce... heaven.

In Case You Missed It...

Just like last year, every Tuesday during farm share season, I send out an email geared toward managing the weekly delivery of vegetables with tips for storing vegetables as well as with seasonal recipes given the week's delivery.

This year, I'll be sending the email out via Substack. I like the Substack format because it allows all of the newsletters to live in one place — by the end of the season, the archives will act as a mini website dedicated solely to the subject of farm shares and CSAs. I think ultimately this will make for a more friendly user experience.

Hope you all will join along!

The Farm Share Newsletter

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