Basic Marinara/Spaghetti Sauce

This was basic sauce with red and green peppers as additions.

 I've made several different versions of spaghetti sauce from two different editions of Fannie Farmer cookbooks, and I don't like any of them. She was apparently not familiar with Italian food, or else I'm spoiled by my Italian mother's sauce so nothing else compares. While I don't remember my mother ever using a recipe, and my Italian grandfather's recipe apparently takes 4 hours to make, I know exactly how it is 'supposed' to taste. I have been making spaghetti sauce since I started cooking (don't we all start with spaghetti?) and even my very first pan of it tasted better than the ones in this century-old cookbook. So I can safely say, I'm thoroughly disappointed in Fannie's options where sauce is concerned.

So, I'm posting a version of my own recipe. This is a pretty basic one, though you can add in some optional veggies to make it more chunky.

My basic recipe:
4 tbsp. olive oil
1 med/large onion
2-4 cloves garlic

About 6 cups chopped, crushed or diced tomatoes (fresh or canned)
1/2 tsp. salt (you can add more later, but you can't take it out once it's in there, so err on the side of less)
1 tbsp. basil
1 tbsp. oregano
1 tbsp. thyme
(or substitute about 3 tbsp. Italian Seasoning if you don't have all three of those herbs)
small pinch of fennel seeds

Just the basic sauce, this time with a lot of onions.

Optional add-ins for variety: sliced or chopped mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, carrots (I never use these but I see them fairly often in canned sauce), celery, red or green bell peppers, parmesan cheese (I always add this on top, but some people like it cooked in), 1-2 tbsp sugar if your tomatoes aren't very sweet, 1 can tomato paste if you really need a thicker sauce

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium/low heat
2. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently
3. Add garlic and fennel seed and cook 1 more minute
4. Meanwhile, chop tomatoes. Taste for sweetness, and add sugar if your tomatoes are sour or you just like sweeter sauce. If using canned, drain some of the juices and reserve in case you need it for step 6.
5. Add tomatoes and herbs and salt
6. Increase heat to medium and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are completely cooked and some of the liquid boils away. If using fresh tomatoes, this sauce will be much thinner than canned sauce, so if you want, you can cook it down further to thicken. If using canned tomatoes, watch the sauce and add back in some of the reserved liquid if it gets dry or begins to stick.

This sauce is simple and no-frills, but it's always delicious and never fails for any type of Italian food requiring a red sauce.

Pasta with Zucchini Pesto

Notice how I cook in trends? For a while it's ham, then it's rice, then it's pasta...Really, it's just because I look at a recipe and then see some right next to it that look good, so I mark them and while they're fresh in my mind, I come back to them.
 
Anyhoo, my husband asked for spaghetti one night, so I started looking through the pasta section of Fannie Farmer. This recipe was perfect because it uses a lot of zucchini, and I'm drowning in the stuff, and cream cheese, which I just made. Since I'm all proud of my cream cheese, of course I'm looking for ways to use it! Unfortunately, I didn't have fresh basil for this. Fannie Farmer doesn't call it pesto, she just calls it 'pasta with zucchini,' but from the strong basil flavor, even using dried basil, I would call it a pesto even though it is technically just basil sauce.
 

Cooking in pan.

For this, I used:
1/2-3/4 lb. whole wheat spaghetti
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 c. grated zucchini
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c. whole milk
1/2 c. fresh basil (or about 1/4 c. dried)
salt & pepper to taste

Put your pasta on to cook and make the sauce as follows:

• Put olive oil in sauce pan or skillet and heat, then add garlic and cook for about 1 minute on medium heat.
• Add zucchini and cook another 3-5 minutes.
• Add milk and cream cheese and cook until cream cheese melts and sauce bubbles.
• Stir in salt & pepper & basil.
• Drain pasta and toss or top with sauce.

 This was pretty tasty. If I made it again, I'd have to have fresh basil, though. And the sauce was a bit thin, so I think I'd like it better if it had more milk and was a creamier sauce. But otherwise, it was tasty and super quick and easy. A good vegetarian meal.

Tomato Sauce (For Spaghetti or Pasta)

I made a recipe for spaghetti sauce earlier this year, but this one is a vegetarian sauce. And really, a very strange sauce, if you ask me! I mean, what kind of spaghetti sauce doesn't have onions or garlic? It's just unnatural! But anyway, I wanted to make this one more like the recipe, instead of just adding the usual things that I do to make my own. This time, I really followed the recipe.

For this, I used:

2 tbsp. olive oil
About 5 fresh tomatoes (FF calls for tomato paste as well, but I'd feel awful buying tomatoes of any kind with the amount I have in the garden, and since it cooks for 45 minutes, it has plenty of time to thicken up!)
1 grated carrot
1/2 tsp. ground pepper
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tbsp. dried basil (or 2 fresh, if you have it)
3 tbsp. butter

• Heat the oil in a large sauce pan or skillet.
• Chop or put the tomatoes through a food processor. I used 3 c. per Fannie, but then it cooked down so much that I had to add another 2 c. and cook them separately, then mix it in to make enough for the pasta. So save yourself from my folly and start out with a lot more tomatoes than the original recipe states. This is supposed to make 4 c. sauce, but I used about 6 c. fresh tomatoes and it cooked down to less than 3 c. So, if using fresh tomatoes, use lots!
• Add tomatoes, carrot, salt & pepper, and basil. 
• Simmer 30 minutes. 
• If dry, add a bit of water. I used some whey from the cream cheese I made the other day.
• Simmer another 15 minutes.

This sauce was a bit strange and very different from the usual spaghetti sauce I've made before. But it wasn't bad. A bit plain without onions and garlic, so I'd use it on an exciting pasta like mushroom ravioli or zucchini-stuffed lasagna rolls. 

Minestrone

Since my family is Italian, I can be pretty picky about Italian food. I have made minestrone a few times, trying to perfect it so it's just like my mom's. I finally got it perfect last summer, but I thought I'd give Fannie's version a shot anyway. It wasn't as good as my mom's, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was pretty good, since some of her recipes have come up way short. After all, no one can cook like our moms. That's the whole reason I picked this cookbook when I decided to undertake this whole learning-to-cook adventure.

Onward to my adaptation of Fannie's minestrone.

1 c. dried white beans (I used Great Northern)
4 quarts water
tsp salt

Onions in the pot with herbs.

1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. butter
tbsp dried parsley flakes (or handful fresh)
2 onions
1 tsp. thyme (fresh if possible)
4 tomatoes
2 carrots
8 small kale leaves
2 c chopped cabbage
2 c sliced zucchini
2 tsp dried basil (or fresh if you have it!)
1/2 c. parmesan cheese, plus extra for garnish

Optional: potatoes, green beans, pasta, corn, green peppers, celery stalks and leaves, substitute beef broth for 2-4 c. of water

After addition of pureed beans.

• Soak the beans about 8 hrs (longer is fine) in 1 quart water. You can soak them overnight, or, if you know you're making this for dinner, put them in the water first thing in the morning, and they'll be soaked by the time you're ready to make dinner. 
• Drain water from beans once soaked, add 2 quarts of water and cook in a pot with a lid for about 1-1.5 hrs or until soft.
• When beans are done, add olive oil and butter to a large pot (do not overheat--oil should not smoke)
• Chop onions and add them to pot along with parsley and thyme
• Stir onions frequently for about 2 minutes
• Between stirring, pour beans and their liquid into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Add to the pot.
• Chop carrots and add to pot
• Chop kale and add to pot. If you don't have kale, you can use any kind of greens. Fannie calls for Swiss chard. You could use spinach, etc, just make sure you adjust cooking times. Spinach or Swiss chard should go in after all the vegetables, since they take very little time to cook. I used kale, adding it here because it takes a while to cook.
• Chop tomatoes and add to pot
• Cover and simmer 15 minutes
• Add zucchini, cabbage and 1 quart water (or beef broth). I just used water. I had blanched my cabbage earlier this summer, so I used that. It cooled the pan down a lot, since it was still frozen, so I waited until the soup began to simmer again before starting the timer.
• Cook for 20 more minutes
• Add basil and 1/2 c. parmesan, stir and adjust seasonings. I added some oregano at this point, along with the basil, and some more salt. 
• Garnish with  more parmesan.

This looks all complicated from the long set of directions, but it's really not. It's time consuming to chop all those veggies, but it's not stressful if you don't worry about adding everything at once. I tried to add each thing in order, then go on with chopping the next thing and adding it as I went. It turned out pretty well, though I realized when it was almost done that I didn't have any parmesan. It was much better as leftovers when I added parmesan. But when I made it, I just garnished with regular grated cheese. It wasn't as good without parmesan.

Simmering in the pot.

Still, it was really good despite the fact that unlike my mom's, it doesn't have potatoes, noodles, garbanzos, or green beans. Since I don't have any of those things, it worked out well. It's the flavor that really makes it minestrone, and this one has it, at least more so than any restaurant minestrone I've had. So I'd say it's a success. I'd make it again for sure, especially if I didn't have a recipe for minestrone already. And I think next time I make it like my mom's, I'm going to change up the beans and do them as Fannie does. I really liked the thickness they added to the broth.

Okra, Tomato and Corn Saute

This is a really tasty vegetable side dish. It would go great with just about any meat dish, but I'd probably pair it with pork or beef and cornbread, or something similar.

This was another recipe I cut in half, approximately, just because I didn't want to end up with a whole bunch of veggies in containers in the fridge. Fannie says the whole serves six, so this was just right for 3.

You will need (to
serve 3):
1 tbsp. butter
1 small onion
1 small green pepper
1/2 lb okra
1 medium tomato
1/2 c. corn kernels
pinch of fresh oregano (dried if you don't have fresh)
salt & pepper to taste

Melt butter in cast iron skillet. Add onions and peppers, finely chopped. Cook 3-4 minutes, stirring often.

Add okra, cut in 1/2 inch pieces, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often.

Add tomato, chopped, along with corn and oregano. Cover and cook 10 mins over low heat.

 Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy. This was so good. All the flavors blended really well, and you can alter the amounts of any of the veggies according to what you have.

Braised Herb Tomatoes

This was sort of a last-minute side dish one night. My garden is bursting with tomatoes right now, which is great, but also stretches my imagination in the kitchen, since I have to think of ways to use them. Earlier this summer, I worked my way through the cabbage recipes in Fannie Farmer, and now I'm working my way through the tomatoes.

This recipe calls for whole, peeled tomatoes. But I used thick slices, so they would absorb more of the herbs, and these turned out pretty well. They would go very well with a plain meat dish, like steak or pork chops.

For these I used:
3 tbsp. butter
1 small/med onion, sliced thin (or scallions if you have them)
1 tbsp. parsley (fresh if possible)
2 tsp. dried basil (double that if using fresh)
1 tsp. thyme (I didn't have this, so I used oregano)
4 large tomatoes, sliced about 3/4in thick
salt & pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet, then add the onions, gently separating the onion rings while they cook.

Add the herbs as the onions cook.

When the onions are soft and translucent, add the tomatoes, cover and cook on low for 5 minutes. Turn or arrange the slices in the pan so that each side gets some time on the bottom of the pan to braise. If you can't fit all the slices in the bottom of your skillet, do several batches.

When the tomatoes have cooked 5 minutes, remove from pan and spoon the juices, onions and herbs over them.

Guacamole

Okay, Fannie is usually the cooking bible when it comes to basic recipes. But sometimes, it's just not quite as good as expected.

This is one that, after making once, I will definitely revert to my old recipe. Here's Fannie's advice.

Mash avocado with silver fork.
Season with onion juice, lemon juice, salt and pepper
Mix in mayo and tomato pulp and beat until whipped-cream consistency
Optional add-in: chili powder

I'm used to my guac with a heavy dose of cilantro and garlic, which are notably absent here. After following her recipe, I tasted it and found it way too bland. So I blended in half an onion and 2 cloves of garlic, but it was still a bit bland for me. Plus, it was a really weird, not-green color.

Maybe it's because I've lived in NWA for too long, but I need my Mexican restaurant-style guac!

Honey Yogurt Salad Dressing

This recipe was for dressing, but I'm going to post the whole salad here. This dressing called for plain yogurt, honey, and lemon juice, but I had honey-lemon yogurt, so I used that. It turned out a bit sweet, and a bit sour, too, until it was on the vegetables. Then it was perfect, and the vinegar didn't taste quite so puckeringly sour.

Here's my adaptation of the Fannie Farmer recipe.

First, I put about 1/4 c. of honey-lemon yogurt in a jar.
I added about a tbsp. of apple cider vinegar.
Then I added salt and pepper and shook it all up.

And that was it. If you want to use plain yogurt, honey, and lemon juice, that will work, too. Also, you may want to use a different kind of vinegar if you have it--white or another kind. But this was good once it was all mixed up. I didn't have any lettuce, so I chopped up some tomatoes from the garden and some cucumbers my sister gave me from hers. I put the dressing on and voila! Easiest, quickest salad ever. And pretty tasty, too.

Ham and Tomato Frittata

More ham? Yes, please. I'm telling you, this thing never goes away. But I'm okay with that. Yay for leftovers. It gives me a direction to go when looking for my next recipe. This frittata didn't call for ham, but I threw it in anyway, since it goes with eggs.

Onions and garlic.

My adapted version of Fannie's Frittata
I threw a small chopped onion in the cast iron skillet with olive oil and a couple cloves of garlic, minced, and cooked until the onion was transparent/yellow.
Cut up a huge tomato from the garden and add.

I beat 4 eggs and mixed it with fresh oregano, salt and pepper, and parmesan cheese (about 1/4 c.)

Eggs and spices and cheese.

Poured it into frying pan on top of the onions and tomatoes. Covered as directed in recipe, and cooked on low heat until the edges begin to pull away from the pan. It was still juicy on top, so I put it under the broiler as suggested for 5-10 minutes until it was solid all the way across.

Everything in the pan and ready to cook.

For this recipe, I used a lot more onion than it called for--one small onion, chopped fine. I didn't have leftover cooked veggies, which Fannie recommends, so I chopped up a fresh tomato from the garden. Then I tossed in about a cup of chopped ham. I beat the eggs and added them, along with a bit of salt, pepper, and fresh oregano. I added a healthy dose of parmesan cheese, about 4 tbsp.

 It turned out pretty well. My husband really liked it. It was all pretty from the tomatoes, but I would have liked it better if I'd had some other veggies to throw in, like peppers or mushrooms. I may make another version of this soon. I can see it becoming one of those recipes that I make over and over, with slight alterations every time.

Country Style Ham Casserole with Tomatoes

I can't believe it! I made it through an entire month of recipes. I've cooked more than usual, experimented with some new recipes, revisited some old ones, and found some good stuff. My favorite so far is definitely baked peaches.

As you have no doubt noticed, I tend to make recipes according to what I have--whatever vegetables are ready in the garden (hello, cabbage), or a basic food I bought and possibly cooked and now need to find ways to use it up (rice, ham).

Potatoes and onions from my mom's garden.

Speaking of ham, I have one more recipe using the ham I made the other day. I'm telling you, never make a ham for a family of three. Not that anyone else would ever make that mistake!

Anyway, this is a recipe for a casserole, which I wouldn't have made if it hadn't cooled off this week, especially after the baked ham debacle. But since it was cool, I figured it wouldn't be so bad to light the oven.

When it came out of the oven....Not a very pretty dish, but oh so good.

See my hand? Didn't think so.

I cut the recipe some, since I had used some of the ham already. But here's what Fannie says:

Put in a casserole dish 1 slice ham, about 2 lbs/2 inches thick
Cover with 1 1/2 c. sliced potatoes
1 sliced onion
Thyme
2 c. milk

Cover and bake 1 1/2 hrs at 350.

I had some tomatoes, so I threw in a gigantic chopped tomato from our garden and omitted the milk. But otherwise, I stuck close to the recipe, altering the amounts so we wouldn't have too many leftovers, since I'm the only person in my family that eats leftovers. I did cook the potatoes and onions in a steamer for about 5 minutes first, so I didn't have to cook it quite so long. I used fresh thyme and cooked the whole thing for about an hour, uncovered, in a 350 oven.

It looked kind of weird when I took it out of the oven, and not very appealing, to be honest. And since I'd barely put anything in it, I thought it would be plain. But it was actually really good. The tomatoes helped keep the leftover ham moist, and all the flavors blended together perfectly. I ground some black pepper on top, but otherwise, the thyme did the work as far as seasonings, and the ham was salty enough to flavor the whole thing. I would definitely make this again. It was excellent.

Pea Soup

Pea soup is a staple in our house. My sister likes it so much she told me I wasn't allowed to make it at anyone else's house because she'd miss it. So I brought over the bone from the ham because pea soup is one of the only ways I know how to use a ham bone (even though I've never actually had a ham bone, I just know they are supposed to be in pea soup).

I've made pea soup enough times that it's on my list of 10 things I can make consistently well. But Fannie Farmer's recipe is quite different from the one I usually make, which I don't think is from a recipe, it's just a bunch of stuff that seems to go well in pea soup.

Here is Fannie's take on this classic.
You will need:
4 c. water
1 c. dried split peas
1 ham bone
1 chopped onion
salt and pepper


Optional add-ins: celery, parsley, thyme or rosemary, bay leaf

I usually make mine with carrots, celery, and potatoes. But this time, I wanted to use the Fannie Farmer recipe instead of my own, so I only used carrots, because that's what my mom had.

For herbs, I usually use rosemary, because I love the flavor it adds. But my mom didn't have any fresh rosemary, so I used thyme this time.

Fannie says to heat the water to a boil, add the peas, then remove from heat and sit for an hour. That's how I make beans when I need a quick soak, but peas usually take a fraction of the time that beans do, so I've never done this. But this time, I did as Fannie said.

My mom didn't want me cooking hot food for hours in the house, so I used a crock pot from this point on. When the soak was done, I turned on the crock pot and added the remaining ingredients.

Fannie says that once the peas are soft, remove ham bone, rub through a sieve or mash with blending fork, dilute with milk, and season with salt and pepper.

I found this soup way too thin. I usually use 2 c. peas, which I should have done here. It was really...soupy. I know, it's soup. But I like it so thick you could almost eat it with a fork. But the flavor here was good. However, I have my own non-recipe pea soup down to a T, and I like it much better, so I think I'll stick with that one, the tried-and-true recipe I've been making for years.

Overall, I'd say this is a 3 out of 5.

Parsley Rice, aka Green Rice

 

This was a simple side dish which went well with the creamed chicken recipe I posted yesterday. I paired them because the Boston Cooking School Cookbook said to make this in a ring mold and fill with creamed chicken. I don't have a ring mold, but I paired them together and they went pretty well. The only complaint I had was that this was a bit overpowered by the creamed chicken, and I couldn't enjoy the parsley flavor very much. But, rice is not the main attraction, so it usually doesn't stand out on its own.

parsley.

Onwards to the recipe:
Mix and put in a buttered casserole dish:
1 c. steamed rice
1 c. milk
1/4-1 c. chopped parsley
4 tbsp. melted butter or olive oil (I used olive oil)
1/2 c. grated cheese
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp. salt

Mixed up and ready to cook.

1/4 tsp. paprika
optional: chopped pimiento

Bake at 350 until firm, about 45 minutes. I had to cook mine about an hour, but it worked out so I put it in the oven and then did the creamed chicken, and everything was done at the same time.

This is a goodish recipe, but I don't know if I'd make it as a side dish again, or serve it under something else. It's a bit more complicated than just using plain rice, and since it didn't have a strong flavor that stood out, I don't know if I'd bother again. But, it was a success overall, since it turned out well.

For a simple, parsley-free baked rice, see this recipe.