Fallen Souffle

I had you at vodka didn’t I My mom gave me a bag full of tomatoes that my Grandma canned this summer. Apparently Grandma has been busy because I have about 8 quart size jars in my house waiting to be used up. My sister has two jars, my Mom has a few left and we are visiting her this weekend so I am sure there is more. I welcome such things with open arms because nothing beats fresh tomatoes and I just don’t have the time or patience to do it myself. So what was suppose to be a “Zen” day on Sunday turned into a full blown cook-a-thon. I had aspiration to make lasagna but Evan is trying to eat better so that didn’t seem like a good idea. So I brought it down a notch and decided to make the sauce and see what I came up with.

I took the basic tomato sauce recipe from the Italian cookbook bible, Silver Spoon. Italian cooking is really simple and I think people try to fancy it up too much. This recipe is so simple but the result is heaven. Quality of ingredients is key because there are so few!

Basic Tomato Sauce
2 quarts of canned tomatoes
5 crushed garlic cloves
1 T. sugar
1-2 pinches of salt
couple tablespoons good olive oil
a handful of fresh basil

In a large heave pot, add tomatoes, garlic, salt and sugar and simmer, covered over medium low heat for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Uncover and allow to cool for 15-30 more minutes until it reduces down. Remove from heat, add olive oil and basil and stir. When slightly cooled, blend in blender or with am immersion blender until desired consistency.

I used this sauce in a chicken puttanesca for later this week (recipe to come later) and used the rest for this lovely vodka sauce.

Vodka Sauce
1/2 pound chopped pancetta
1 quart Basic Tomato Sauce
1 cup vodka, no cheapy stuff here!
1/2 cup heavy cream, at room temperature (I used light half and half)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Heat a bit of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook until crisp. Add the tomato sauce and vodka in a and cook over low heat until the mixture reduces by 1/4, stirring often, about 20 minutes. Stir the cream into the tomato and vodka sauce. Simmer over low heat until the sauce is heated through. Stir in the Parmesan cheese until melted and well blended.
Serve with your favorite pasta.

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I was in Virginia again this weekend for the wedding of a childhood friend of mine and Mom and I always talk about what we plan to make for the week ahead. Mom is a very busy woman, managing a ton of dialysis clinics in Hampton Roads, and combine that with her after work workout routine equates to not a lot of time for dinner prep. She also like to make salads and such for lunch or a quick dinner and we always end up coming up with new ideas for pasta salad. Pasta salad is great because you can make a huge bowl of it and divide it up for lunches throughout the week. This is one of my favorite pasta salad recipes and I use the dressing a lot for other dishes. However, we wanted to incorporate the plethora of basil that my Mom has grown in her garden, so we made up a batch of sun-dried tomato pesto and I decided to use that as my inspiration for this week’s pasta salad. I also used this salad as a sort of “cleaning out the fridge/pantry” dish, which actually ended up working out really well. A co-worker of mine gave me a bunch of the sweetest grape tomatoes ever and I have been waiting to use them in something like this. I also added some leftover steamed broccoli, a bag of wacky mac pasta (which is why the pasta is an assortment), cubed mozzarella, and a can of cannellini beans for some protein. The beans were a last minutes addition as I didn’t feel like grilling up chicken, but they ended up being wonderful in this. You could also add some chickpeas if you had those around.

Below is a recipe for the pesto we made, I based it off the traditional pesto recipe I would make at the bakery but added sun-dried tomatoes for something different. I think it turned out very well and I will use the leftovers for some bruschetta.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
2 cup fresh basil
3/4 cup pine nuts
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon each of salt and pepper
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 1/2-2 cups extra virgin olive oil (depending on the consistency you are looking for)
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

Add basil, pine nuts, garlic, s&p and sun-dried tomatoes to a food processor and pulse until chopped. Add olive oil and pulse until smooth. Add Parmesan and pulse until just combined. Put into jar and refrigerate. When ready to use, set out on counter the come to room temperature.

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I have updated my 101 list, I stopped posting about each milestone because do you really care that I hit my first softball in 10 years…yeah I didn’t think so. I have completed 25 items on the list and I still have just under 2 years so go, not to shabby.

I will point out that I did get my very first promotion. I am now an Account Manager as opposed to an Account Rep, so I get to change my email signature on my work email Today I also celebrate my one year anniversary at LinkConnector, which I am almost sad to say has been the longest I have been at a job since my 2 1/2 year stint as a leasing consultant in college. Nonetheless I have enjoyed my first year here as well as the people that I have met…now I think its time to celebrate with some ice cream

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I had all intentions of making August the Month of Daily Blog Posts, but seeing as it is already August 2nd, I have already failed on that goal. Nonetheless, I will try to keep up the posting this month seeing as I have no trips planned this month so no excuse to not post.

I have been trying to use up all of the stuff we have in the freezer and pantry so that I can start freezing complete meals. I had an abundance of flour tortillas and a couple cans of fat free refried beans so I decided to make some burritos for lunches. Trader Joe’s has some bean and rice burritos that I love! I pour some enchilada sauce over then, nuke them and the whole office gets jealous. So I thought I would make some with Spanish rice, beans, and some chipotle cheddar I had hanging around. I made 12 burritos from one can of beans, and about 3 cups of Spanish rice. Wrap these up in some plastic wrap, put them in a freezer bag and freeze until you are ready to eat. I usually take 2 to work and nuke them for about 2-3 minutes until warm. For something extra special pour some enchilada sauce over it…yum! You could really change this around to suit your taste, I will probably make some chicken and green chile burritos next time.

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