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You may have read on Tuesday my article about Tomato-Basil Tea Sandwiches using San Marzano tomatoes. Later that very day, Anita brought me a bag full of those glorious tomatoes straight from her garden. This time, I had to use them for what they are famous for and that is a wonderful Italian marinara sauce! I looked at many recipes all over the internet and YouTube. This is the one that I finally settled on, it is a combination of a few that looked simple and delicious. I especially like the way Gianni North Beach used the fresh basil, because I am growing it in my garden. So, my recipe is really a variation of his.
You must start by peeling your tomatoes. The best way to do this is to cut an "x" through the skin at the bottom of the tomato and then putting them in boiling water for about 15 or so seconds. Then you drain and cool them a bit. The skin will peel right off.
Use a deep skillet because at the end of the recipe the pasta and sauce will be all mixed together.
Begin by getting your tomatoes ready by chopping them into quarters and discarding the seeds. San Marzano tomatoes have very few seeds and a lot of flesh, so this part is easy. The seeds don't really bother me in this dish, so I just got rid of the big chunks of them. Also, cut away the hard stem ends. Now, heat up your skillet with about 3 T. of olive oil in it and put in your chopped garlic to begin flavoring the oil. The taste of the olive oil really comes through in this dish and it is so good! Now, add the tomatoes to the pan and start stirring them around. You will be surprised at how fast they start to break down. Put in your salt and pepper and mix it in well.
Next, I let the sauce simmer on a medium low heat while I prepared the fettuccine.
When you prepare the fettuccine, be sure to salt the water and cook it until it is al dente, not too soft. When it is ready, drain it. Remove the wilted basil and add the fettuccine to the pan of sauce.
You can add the Parmesan cheese right now or let people put on their own in individual servings. I let each person add their own since Maddy is vegan.
I have a guilty confession to make. I was sure that I had some Parmisano-Reggiano ready to use for this dish when I started cooking it. But, alas it was all gone, so I had to use the green box! Argh! Don't hate me Anita! I can't wait to make it again and try it with the good stuff! But, despite the cheese fiasco, this dish was out of this world good! I was not prepared for how good it tastes. I had to stop myself from eating the entire pan of it.
Of course, you can make this recipe with other types of tomatoes, but if you can get San Marzanos, you will love them. Enjoy!
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If you saw my Instagram post this past weekend, you would have seen that I am so excited about it being the time of year when tomatoes start to get ripe on the garden vines. Now I am even more excited because my DIL's mom, Anita, gave me some special tomatoes that she is growing. They are called San Marzano.
As you can see, San Marzano are an elongated tomato and they are very fleshy with fewer seeds or watery juices. They also have lower acidity, so if you have trouble as I sometimes do with a sore tongue after eating tomatoes, these will be better for you. (Even with a sore mouth, I love tomatoes so much, I eat them anyway!) Anita uses San Marzano to can tomato sauce and finds them to be the best for that application because the large amount of flesh lends them to making a thick, rich sauce. Anita is Italian, she knows her sauce, so I trust her when she says that these tomatoes are the best for tomato sauce! But, if you need more proof, you can purchase San Marzano Tomato sauce if you don't want to make it yourself. It really is touted as the best by many chefs. Or, you can buy some San Marzano seeds to grow your own plants next year!
Today I am using my tomatoes in a different way. I wanted to showcase these beautiful, red, fresh tomatoes because this is the time of year to enjoy them that way! These Tomato-Basil Tea Sandwiches are perfect for a bridal shower or baby shower or a mid-morning brunch! The basil spread can be made in advance and the bacon....Yes! I said bacon, can be crisped and crumbled in advance, but the assembly should be done just before the event. That is when you will thinly slice the tomatoes and prepare your bread. Here is what the San Marzano tomatoes look like sliced.
See how fleshy those tomatoes are? If you don't have San Marzano, you can use cherry tomatoes.
Any type of bread may be used as the base. I used a Tomato Basil loaf from Panera, staying with the Tomato-Basil Sandwich theme. The nice thing is that the bread is firm and holds up to the toppings, even with the crust cut off. Since Panera makes a large sized loaf, I cut the slices in half and then removed the crust to make them all fairly uniform. I also considered a sour dough loaf which I think would also be a delicious alternative.
Oh! I was so excited about the tomatoes, I forgot to mention that the basil is from my garden! I cut off the blossoms to send the energy back to the leaves. They make a pretty garnish, or you can dry them to use later as a dry basil spice.
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One weekly date that I try to keep as often as possible is going over to my son's house every Tuesday and eating lunch with his two children. One is almost 3 and the other is 6 months old. I started when there was only the oldest and we called it "Lunch with Spencer." Now that I babysit my daughter's baby, Emily, I take her along and it is a nice time for these cousins to connect.
I usually stop at a different take-out restaurant and pick up food for everyone. Since my son works from home, I get lunch for him, my DIL, myself, and the kids. (Well, Emily mostly shares with me and Amelia is too young for that kind of food yet, but you get the idea.) I have started to learn what everyone likes. For example, if I stop at Subway, I know my DIL likes the meatball sub. Recently, I was looking at Jan D'Atri's website. She published a version of a Meatball Sub Casserole that I thought looked delicious and I figured that my DIL would really enjoy it. I tried it out and it was very tasty. DIL did really like it! My only problem was that I like to do my garlic bread slightly differently and I decided to make my own meatballs. I wanted the bread to come out a little crispier the second time I made it. So, I took her awesome recipe and adapted it to my taste and this time, it really hit the spot with ME! I am going to make this version and take it to "Lunch with Spencer" and see how everyone likes it.
Click on the pictures to get a quick overview of what I did:
One warning! There is a lot of stretchy, melty cheese in this casserole that can be kind of deliciously messy! I sure didn't mind that though!
P.S. It is even better if you use good cheese!
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*If you are unfamiliar with spaghetti squash, you will probably be even less familiar with orangetti squash. I got my hands on some a couple of years ago and my family really enjoyed it. I posted this orangetti squash with chicken recipe then and it has become one of our most searched for posts! Since I was able to get a spaghetti squash the other day, it reminded me of this recipe which the spaghetti squash would totally work with. So here is a re-post of how to cook orangetti squash!
A few posts ago, I told you about Market on the Move and how I was able to get a ton of squash, as well as other vegetables for $10. In this post, I gave you a recipe for a Carrot/Squash Loaf using the yellow squash I got a ton of. Another type of squash that I was able to get, I was less familiar with. It is called Orangetti Squash.
At our house, we have some people who are less keen on beef and would prefer chicken. We have Maddy who is trying to eat a little more vegan. Then, we have my husband and I who just like to eat! In order to accommodate every one, I decided to make a deconstructed Chicken Cacciatore, using the orangetti squash as a replacement for the pasta! Madalynn left out the chicken and simply ate the orangetti with the sauce. Either way, the result was delicious. Here is how I cooked orangetti squash:
I placed the halves of the orangetti squash on a foil lined pan. I drizzled a little olive oil on the squash and sprinkled it with salt and pepper. Then, I put it in a 350 degree F. oven and baked it until tender. (About 45 min. I think, just stab it with a fork to test it.) While it was baking, I started my chicken.
Now you are ready to serve! This is a great one dish meal!
Orangetti Squash vs. Spaghetti Squash
I think I enjoyed the taste of orangetti squash a little more than spaghetti squash. It has a sweet mild flavor that blended so well with the sauce. As I mentioned before, the orangetti squash is also slightly smaller than spaghetti sauce. I ate more for lunch the next day. (When I put it away, I went ahead and mixed it all together!)
If you find Orangetti Squash in the grocery store, don't be afraid to give it a try!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
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Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
April 2024
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