Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

Before we start this week's blog I have a bit of an announcement. This will be the last "regularly scheduled post" you are going to see until January. I have decided to apply for grad school, and am currently knee deep in application hell. Pile on top of that an insane November full of family visits both in NY and PA, and a number of other events I'm involved with. (One of these things is the Queens Eats fundraiser for the Queens Harvest Co-op. If you live in Queens and would really like there to be a food co-op, you should attend! Tickets start at $30 and can be purchased here) In the past I have taken on the attitude of "I can do everything! It will be fine! I never liked sleep that much anyway!" This inevitably ends in a downward spiral where I work myself until I fall ill, end up half assing at least one of the things on my list and resenting the hell out of everything else. Then I have a sobbing fit which when you compound that with the cold I've contracted by that point in the spiral, makes me a very pretty girl indeed. Planning, cooking, and writing about an elaborate meal once a week is probably the task that needs to go right now, otherwise that will become the half assed project which means bad writing and probably a small kitchen fire.

This doesn't mean there will be no blogs, I'm just not going to hold myself to a schedule. Updates will be announced on Twitter and you can see them right away if you subscribe to my RSS feeds (see links on the right). I'm working on a project to make french sourdough bread, and I think we're still having our Christmas party so there should be interesting, if sporadic, posts. This blog has meant a lot to me over the last year and a half and I look forward to having more time to devote to it in 2011!

With November being the scheduling nightmare that it is, we've been hitting the take out menus pretty hard lately. Knowing what the rest of my month looks like, I've been desperate for some easy dinner ideas. I don't mean "15 Minute Meal" type ideas, I mean open, pour in bowl, hit Reheat kind of ideas. I don't want to shop, chop, or do any unnecessary dishes. This all reminded me of a story I heard when I was 16 about Broadway playwright Jonathan Larson. While writing Rent he wanted to be able to focus all his energy on his art, and not spend any time on other activities. Sunday nights he would cook a huge pot of pasta and live off of it all week. This stuck in my brain as part of the Bohemian artistic lifestyle I would someday live in NY. I also thought I would wear a lot more leather pants. Go figure. I do love a big pot of pasta though and as I have dealt with the reality of the next few weeks, I knew that was a good option, especially since most sauces freeze wonderfully. I turned to a sauce that has always been a favorite of food blogs. A sauce so simple I would recommend it to new moms, not for before they have the baby, but for making when all of those casseroles run out. It requires all of 4 ingredients, and a stove. That's pretty much it, and it makes a sauce so incredible I was using sandwich bread to sop every last bit out of my bowl.

One of these very simple ingredients is a can of tomatoes. I was ecstatic. Why would I get so jazzed about an ingredient that I didn't select from my local farmers market? Because for the last year I have had a 6 pound can of diced tomatoes sitting on my shelf. Will brought it home from his restaurant, they were changing brands or something, but he lugged it home for me. Six pounds of organic tomatoes, just waiting for someone's imagination to turn them into something wonderful. I didn't have that much imagination. It was so much tomato! There were two of us! For awhile I contemplated a really cheesy spaghetti dinner party, with checked tablecloths and those bottles of wine with the wicker bottoms. It never came together though, and there sat my can of tomatoes, taking up space being all accusatory.

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
Adapted from  Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Ingredients:
- 6 pounds canned tomatoes (whole or diced)
- 2 sticks of butter
- 2 medium onions, peeled and cut in half
- Salt to taste
- Freshly grated parmigiana for the table

Directions:
If using a gas stove, you can char the bottom of the onions by placing them directly on the burners, until they get just slightly blackened. This will give your sauce a richer taste. Put the tomatoes, butter and onion in a large 5-quart pot over medium heat. When the sauce begins to boil turn down heat. Simmer until fat floats free from the tomatoes, between an hour to an hour fifteen. Stir from time to time, mashing the tomato against the side of the pan with the back of a spoon periodically. Taste and add salt if needed. Many canned tomatoes come pre-salted so use your judgment here. Discard the onion. Toss as much sauce as desired with cooked pasta, put the rest in freezer bags for later!

While this recipe calls for canned whole tomatoes, the diced worked fine. They didn't quite fall apart the way I would have liked them to, but a quick pulse with the immersion blender gave the sause the thick puree I desired. If I wanted it more rustic, I would have skipped the blender.

It was a very good sauce. When I came home exhausted the next night and asked Will if he would mind us eating it two nights in a row. He practically skipped to the fridge. Last night when he finally got home from work at 10pm, he started eyeing the freezer bags. I don't know how long my reserves will last! Better get another 6 pound can of tomatoes...

Grilled Eggplant Parmesan

"Oh dear. That's not good."
That was my reaction the other morning when, for the first time in a month, I weighed myself.

I wasn't entirely surprised, and I imagine you aren't either, even before I had just stopped weighing in, the scale had been creeping dangerously upward for a few months. Taking the month of July off to just not care at all hadn't helped things. Still I regret nothing. The Blueberry Peach Gratin, the Kale cooked in Panchetta grease, the Food Truck Drive In, all were amazing ways to spend my summer. And then there's the food I didn't blog about, but lets just saying I'm getting markedly better at homemade ice cream. Ooo, and Restaurant Week was great, I highly recomend the egg yolk in truffle butter of "Uovo" at SD26. But not as diet food.

So yes, I have officially gained back half the weight I had taken off for the wedding, but I haven't been all that depressed about it. Why? Because August is an amazing month to cut your calories by eating fresh veggies and lots of them. The days in early summer when the farmer's market was a bit sparse are long gone, and now table after table teems with food pulled right out of the ground and ready to be my dinner. I filled my freezer with homemade veggie stock last weekend and I am all ready to see what low cal options I have as the harvest comes in. I'm already dreaming of remaking that Zucchini Soup vegetarian style.

A stroll through the farmer's market this past weekend had me picking up my very first Eggplant of the year, and with the beautiful tomatoes piled in bin after bin, I knew just what I was craving. I wanted Eggplant Parmesan. "WAIT!" I can hear you all crying, "Deep frying your veggies is not going to help trim your waistline!" While I have breaded and fried my veggies before (and believe me I love them that way) this recipe only calls for grilling the eggplant. No egg, no breading, no frying. Which means like 87% less guilt. There is a bit of cheese still involved, which if you are super dieting you could go with the low fat versions available in every supermarket. Since I had already foregone meat and deep frying, I figured I could afford real cheese. Besides, I had a huge chunk of aged parmesan just sitting in my fridge. I refuse to be wasteful.

Speaking of not wasting things, I had a bowl of lovely heirloom cherry tomatoes sitting in a bowl on my table that we picked up at Brooklyn Grange last week (still love these guys and their rooftop garden). It wasn't nearly enough to complete my sauce, but they were going to turn soon if I didn't use them, so I combined them with the plum tomatoes I had picked up. This paled the color of the sauce a bit, but the flavor was still great. Also it looked really pretty sitting in the blender.

Grilled Eggplant Parmesan
Adapted from Gourmet
Serves 4

Ingredients:

Tomato Sauce:
- 1 1/2 lbs. tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (the light stuff if your super worried about total calories)

Sandwiches:
- 4 (6 inch) hoagie rolls, split
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 (1 lb.) eggplants
- 1/2 lb. thinly sliced provolone or fresh mozzarella (again, there are light versions)
- 1 cup of basil leaves

Directions:
Puree tomatoes in a blender or food processor until smooth. Heat oil in a 3-4 quart heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Saute onion and garlic with red pepper flakes until golden, about 4 minutes. Add tomato puree, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 30-35 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cheese. (If you've made a tomato sauce before, you know there's room to play here. I threw in a pinch of brown sugar to cut the acidity and a shake of my favorite focaccia blend because I believe it can do no wrong. If you have some seasoning you think would make this even more kick ass, go nuts.)

Once sauce is prepared place a grill pan over medium-high heat. Brush grill pan with olive oil. Cut eggplants crosswise into 1/2 inch think slices. Brush both sides of slices with olive oil, and season with a pinch of salt.

Grill eggplant, loosening with a spatula and turning occasionally to avoid over browning, until very tender and clear grill marks appear, about 6 to 8 minutes. In between flips you can cover your grill pan with a cookie sheet.

Toast rolls. While rolls are still hot, lay on cheese. (I did this while they sat in my toaster oven, and then waited for the cheese to melt to remove them.) Top with eggplant, and spoon on about 3 tablespoons of sauce per sandwich. Place basil leaves on top. If you like, you can add a small sprinkle of parmesan to finish.

These sandwiches are great. They burst with all the bounty of the farmer's market, and they are so low on the guilt scale that I had two of them (seconds are probably not dietician recommended). Before we moved to NY I don't think Will had ever eaten eggplant, but there he was, inhaling this vegetarian delight.

So the goal is to lose 3-4 pounds by the end of August, since I'm going to the shore on Labor Day. How am I doing?  I'm breaking my own rules here and going public with some sensitive information. Be kind. On July 31 I weighed in at 136.2 (the wedding weight was around 129). Therefore the goal for the month is between 132.2 and 133.2, and this morning I am down to 135.4! I have rejoined my gym as well and I am on my way! Feel free to play along at home, I'll give you an update of my status and hopefully a healthy new recipe every Wednesday this month. Having your own weight loss struggles as the summer plies us with pie and ice cream? Tell me what you plan to do (or not do) in the comments! And cheer me on!

Roast Tomatoes

As you are reading this, the wedding is officially over. So I know what you're thinking, "Oh thank god, she officially can't bitch about how much work it is to plan a wedding and how tired she is anymore!" Turns out, you're wrong. This blog was prescheduled from before the wedding. I choose to forgive you for your outburst, however, and grant you with my new discovery. A super easy, low calorie, comfort food known as Roasted Tomatoes.

Slow roasted tomatoes are the brainchild of the South, but they buck the Southern trend of taking food, frying it, dumping butter on it and frying it again...and then pouring BBQ sauce on it. Take that Paula Dean. This more sophisticated dish was a gift from god on nights that I just didn't want to move or think anymore, but still wanted something fresh that didn't come from a box reading "Kraft." While I've been using this as dinner, spreading the results on toasted bread and settling in with a book (or DVDs of Sex and the City, don't judge me) it could also be used as an impressive side dish or pasta dish. The tomatoes caramelize and create a rich, almost sweet flavor that just melts me, and I love how accomplished a dish it is for how extremely little effort it takes. The brown sugar is my own addition, I believe brown sugar should go in every tomato sauce and dish. It tempers the acidity and add a deep richness to the flavor. I'm a fan. The cheese is optional, but it just seemed like an obvious addition to me.

Roasted Tomatoes

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine (may it rest in peace)

Ingredients

• Olive oil for greasing pan, plus additional for drizziling
• 6 Plum Tomatoes halved lengthwise
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon brown sugar
• Parmesan Cheese for sprinkling

Directions:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Oil a shallow baking pan. This is very important, as these suckers are going to spatter.

Arrange tomatoes, cut sides up, in 1 layer in pan and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and brown sugar.

Roast tomatoes until skins are wrinkled and beginning to brown on bottom, about 1 hour. I usually drizzle with olive oil after about 45 minutes and then put it back in, but you could also do this at the end, or leave it out all together if you would like to cut calories. Transfer to a serving dish and keep warm, covered with tented foil (do not let foil touch tomatoes), until ready to serve. Serve warm or at room temperature.

And there you have it, simple, delicious, and super non stressful. Even the ingredients are easy to procure, no running out of your way for that perfect cut of meat or anything. This dish has saved my life in the last few weeks, or at least saved my diet from going down the path of eating potato chips for dinner. Now that my life is going back to normal I'm still really glad to have this on file, because if I'm making a big fancy main course, sometimes it's hard to give a damn about the sides. Plus, simple meals mean more time to watch fictional Manhattanites discuss shoes and being slutty. A few left over tomatoes can even be wrapped up for lunch the next day, which saves both effort and money. I'm so good at this domestic thing. Will's lucky to have married me.