Fresh Tomato Sauce Recipe

Here's a very simple and quick recipe for tomato sauce:

This sauce is best made with very ripe tomatoes. If you wish, you may peel the tomatoes before chopping. Simply cut an "x" in the bottom of each tomato and plunge the tomato into boiling water for 30 seconds and remove. The skins will come off easily.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove, minced

3 cups chopped ripe tomatoes (about 2 pounds)

One 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, or 1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano, or 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

2 cups hot water or vegetable stock

1/2 cup dry red wine

1 bay leaf

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, uncovered, until softened, about 5 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook 1 minute longer.
Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, and dried basil and oregano, if using, and cook uncovered for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the water or stock, wine, and bay leaf, and bring to a boil, stirring to blend.
Reduce heat to low, season with salt and pepper, and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes, or until the desired consistency is reached. If using fresh basil and oregano, stir in at this time. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Remove the bay leaf before serving.
If not using immediately, transfer to a container and allow to cool. Cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
Makes about 4 cups.

Source: InnerSelf

Turnip Recipe from Katie

Hi Everyone,
I would like to echo everything Tamara said. This is my second year as a CSA member. I love discovering vegetables that I would never buy in a grocery store and learning how to cook them. I don't think I'd ever bought turnip in my life, until last year I found myself looking at a whole bag of them from the CSA. I had no idea what to do with them. So, I turned to my trusty meatless Italian cookbook, and found a recipe that is really fabulous (what isn't good with garlic and olive oil?) Since it's turnip season, I want to share it with you.

Katie


Rape Bianche/ White Turnips
from Carnevale Italiano, The Romagnolis’ Meatless Cookbook (p.222)
1 ½ to 2 lbs small white turnips
2 quarts water
3 teaspoons salt
2 garlic cloves
3 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Freshly ground pepper
2 Tablespoons chopped turnip greens (optional)

Peel the turnips. Washing and saving the leafy tops (if any, and cut into wedges).
Cook the cut-up turnips in the boiling salted water 10 minutes or until just tender. Drain well.

Sauté the garlic in the olive oil in a large frying pan until golden and then discard the cloves. Add the drained turnips, the chopped parsley, and abundant pepper. If your turnips come with greens, chop the tops and add to the turnips with the parsley. Sauté over high hear 5 to 10 minutes or until the turnip wedges are lightly browned around the edges. Serve hot. For 6.

My adaptation: I tend to be a lazy and forgetful cook. When I did this off the top of my head the other day, I simply sliced the turnips very thin, and tossed them in the pan with the garlic in the olive oil. When they were starting to brown, I tossed in the chopped up turnip tops. I skipped the boiling water and the parsley, and thought it came out just great. I added this to my salad. It would also be great as a side dish or tossed with small shaped pasta.

Parsley Recipe

My favorite parsley recipe is the traditional italian dish, pasta aglio e olio. In my opinion it's a dish that really highlights the parsley and garlic. I've used the same recipe for many years but I've added one step to the cooking process so that it always ends up very good.

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup chopped parsley
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 lb cooked pasta (spaghetti and penne both work great)

Cook the pasta, drain. Drop a tablespoon or two of olive oil on the pasta and stir, this is very important and will prevent the garlic from burning and turning bitter. Heat the remaining olive oil over medium heat. Saute garlic until you see the smaller bits browning, then turn off the heat immediatly, add parsley and stir quickly to keep garlic from burning. Toss pasta with the mixture and stir. Season with salt and black pepper. I like to lightly sprinkle it with parmesan cheese. Makes 2 servings.