You’ll be pleased to know that despite it being February, which sucks, I have yet to eat grease, drink whiskey or buy things.
Instead, I decided to amuse myself with a couple new recipes.
The first, which made its triumphant debut Tuesday night, is a chili con carne in which the carne is ground lamb. And y’know what? Despite its origins in Noo Yawk City and a distinctly minimal approach to tomato products it was purty damn’ good. First time I ever used cilantro stems in anything. Live and learn.
The second, assembled last night, was also from The New York Times, courtesy of Martha Rose Shulman. It involved chicken and chiles, plus a big-ass can of tomatoes to make up for the dearth of same on Tuesday. Alas, it proved a bit sweet for my taste. Next time, fewer red peppers, more chile.
One thing I like about Martha’s recipes is that they normally involve ingredients the average well-stocked pantry already has on hand. I was a little light on chicken and bell peppers for this one, but that was easily remedied.
While I was out scoring bird and bells I swung by the Fine Arts Center and collected a few pounds of Pueblo chile from Doug Wiley of Larga Vista Ranch. I hadn’t known that he was still coming up on Wednesdays despite the farmers’ market being on hiatus for the winter, and there was quite a crowd of Bibleburg foodies on hand to greet him. So now you’ll know where to find me on a Wednesday afternoon.
Last but not least, while we’re speaking of food and the cooking thereof, longtime Friend of the DogS(h)ite Larry T. provides the following. I may test-fly this one over the weekend while Herself is off visiting kin in San Antone.
CycleItalia’s Quick Red Sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
Half a small onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, crushed and minced
1 pinch red pepper flakes
A splash of red wine
1 cup tomato sauce (the better your basic ingredient here is, the better the sauce will be, but the cheapo canned stuff works fine).
Salt and additional pepper to taste
In saucepan over medium heat sauté the onion, garlic and red pepper until just soft, not brown.
Pour enough wine to just cover and let evaporate for a minute or two.
Add in the tomato sauce and stir well, then reduce heat until it’s just bubbling on the edges. Simmer for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour if you have time.
Variation: Pasta all’Arabbiata (Angry Pasta)
To make a spicy version of red sauce, just add more red pepper flakes to the sauce—about ¼ to ½ teaspoon, depending on your taste, and garnish with chopped parsley rather than basil.
Italians do not sprinkle grated cheese on arabbiata — drizzle on a bit of the best extra virgin olive oil you have instead.
Mad Blog Media 
The longer you simmer it, the thicker it gets, obviously. That avoids the necessity to…gasp…thicken with tomato paste, something that would have my Sicilian grandmother spinning in her grave. But since the sauce is kinda the base, make sure its good.
We start with canned or fresh tomatoes whenever possible. To some degree, better tomatoes make a better sauce. We sometimes get tomatoes from the farmer’s market that are not quite pining for the fjords and I roast them on the grille prior to making them into sauce. Or, chopped or whole canned tomatoes. Mangi.
K, I’ve been using Muir Glen Organic tomatoes almost exclusively for sauces, generally the fire-roasted variety (though occasionally the plums). They seem serviceable.
There are a couple of Italian offerings at the Whole Paycheck that I’ve been meaning to check out. Any favorite brands as regards canned tomatoes?
Patrick, I’ve enjoyed the Pomi italian tomatoes (although I’m looking around to make sure Larry won’t jump me from some dark corner with a sharpened wedge of Parm-Reg) with good success.
But on a similar theme from Khal and Larry… don’t you at least have a Latin-heavy grocery somewhere in your environ? They’ll have tomatoes year-round and it’s probably a safe bet the stock rotates frequently enough. Perhaps I’m naive here- in the land where all home gardens have at least tomato and cucumber plants and sometimes that’s all they have- but I find it hard to believe the tomatoes to be had there are completely unpalatable. Besides…if you’re buying fire-roasted cans, why not buy the unpalatable ones and roast some palatability into them either on the grill or under the broiler.
I’ve been cheating with the broiler lately and winning. I made a tomato sauce in this fashion this past Sunday and it worked marvelously. The main key was constant tasting and a bit of imagination to tame a burnt bitterness that was going on at first. Honey did the trick.
Barry, we have a bunch of small carnicerias but only one largish Mexican grocery, and I’ve heard they’re struggling (I’ve only been in a few times — it’s even more of a pain in the ass to get to than the other groceries I patronize).
A Pueblo grower, Mauro Farms, raises hydroponic tomatoes, and they’re available year round — we use them in salads, but I’ve never taken the trouble to roast them the way I do chile. I think my palate is more sensitive regarding bad chile than substandard tomatoes.
Still, what the hell? I seem to have some extra free time on my hands lately, so maybe it’s time to learn a new skill, keep the dementia at bay.
Ciao – this quick sauce recipe is for CANNED tomatoes. Fresh tomatoes are an entirely different subject. When good quality fresh tomatoes are available they get used in a much more fresh state, though sometimes they’ll get roasted. We’ve featured recipes in La Gazzetta dello CycleItalia with roasted tomatoes including the details on how to roast ’em yourself – the best part being your house will be filled with an amazing aroma which you can’t get out of a can!
If OG wants, we can dig up a few more to share. Most of ’em are in the “so easy even bike mechanics like Larry can make ’em” category. Unlike say, French cooking, Italian stuff is pretty easy – as someone once said, the secret is using good-quality ingredients and not messing them up too much! Pomi is probably the most available worldwide brand of quality Italian product available, though they’re just one of a zillion of competitors over here. If you can’t wait for more good, easy-to-make recipes, get a copy of NIck Stellino’s original Cucina Amore book – just like ol’ Steve Tesich, Nick’s first work was by far his best, he poured heart and soul into that one and didn’t seem to have much left when it came time to cash in on it’s success.
Larry, if you find yourself with a spare mo’ you can either send me recipes directly or I can link to them if they’re already posted on your site.
Food items seem popular with our bunch for some reason (see Libby’s comment below). Is everybody fattening up like me this winter? I have yet to dip below 180 pounds and will scare children come swimsuit season.
Last time I saw 180 was 7th grade!
Back in Honolulu there was a place called the Oahu Market in Chinatown. They would segregate tomatoes as they got soft and relegate those to the thirty nine cents a pound table. We used to grab them by the five pound bag, roast them, and can our own sauce. Just one of the things one does trying to live in Honolulu on a faculty member paycheck and eat enough to bike commute 100 miles a week..
Khal, here in Siracusa we can buy the best tomatoes you can imagine for 1-2 euros a kilogram. Yep, that’s about $1.30 a pound at the current exchange rate – for the BEST ones, prices go down from there. The wife just got the OK to have her study-abroad program here in 2013 so we’ll be back next winter!
Enjoyed reading about the food offerings, menus and the nifty sauce recipe and variation.
Bravo, Patrick and Larry, more collaborations, please. Also, enjoyed the comments.