My Best Fresh Summer Spaghetti Sauce

I really need to admit to you that we ate most of this up when it was hot out of the kitchen, without taking a picture of course, so this is a picture of my plate of leftovers the next day, with no garnish. On a paper plate. 'Cause I'm classy like that.

The key to this very simple recipe is good quality tomatoes, and a blender or processor of some kind. The blending is going to take the place of cooking the sauce down, you know, to get a nice smooth texture. It will be the perfect sauce to really stick to the spaghetti. Basically you are not really cooking the sauce, as much as you are just heating the tomatoes through and preserving their fresh sweetness. 

If you don't have blender of any kind, you can of course chop everything really tiny, but in that case I would cook this a little longer and I would also use a different pasta: like little shells or orecchiette, something with nooks and crannies to catch all the chunks of sauce.

5 cups (approximate) of fresh cherry tomatoes, squished in the pan or halved
1/2 a small onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt (or more- to taste)
1 dash black pepper
a handful of  pine nuts (if you don't have pine nuts, you can try other nuts or seeds, I'll bet it's still good)
1 tablespoon fresh or dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano or marjoram
1 tablespoon butter
1 small slice of stale bread, crumbled up, or just toast fresh crumbs in a pan (optional, this is more for added texture if needed, but it's a good idea if the tomatoes are extra watery. If you refuse to use pine nuts, you will definitely need these.)
4 tablespoons finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese (this is not time for Permesan)

If, through no fault of your own, you do not have sweet cherry tomatoes, and you have instead chopped up some tasteless winter hothouse tomatoes, add a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar or lemon juice and 2 teaspoons of sugar to the mix.

In a pot, heat up two of the tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat, then fry the chopped onion and garlic for about a minute, stirring. Add the tomatoes, spices, the rest of the olive oil, the pine nuts, and heat through for about five minutes. Blend well with an immersion blender or food processor, then put back on the heat, but turned down to low to keep warm while you make the pasta. Cook 16oz of spaghetti or capellini according to the package directions (in SALTED water), and when drained (but still wet) toss immediately with the sauce, breadcrumbs, cheese and butter. 

Don't be alarmed at all this oil and butter. Think about it, there's no meat in it, and it's five tablespoons total for a whole pound of pasta- you should be able to serve four or five people with that.

This goes with white wine of course, and I liked the Neyers Chardonnay I had with it.

Five of the Easiest and Best Ways to Cook with Summer Squashes

I normally post a recipe a week, not because I have a significant fan base or anything, but because if I don't make myself write down recipes, I forget them. Keeping in mind that I am not quite the only one reading my recipes, I try not to be too redundant, despite the fact that I tend to use the same ingredients over and over based on what's growing in my garden. 

Like any respectable California home gardener, I am now overwhelmed by a bumper crop of summer squash. 
 

A day's harvest of patty pan squash, eggplant and Roma tomatoes

A zucchini that got out of hand

I am eating squash of some kind every day, but it does seem a little annoying to post squash recipes for two months straight. So here you go, I will just throw out my five favorite and easy (but not original) ways to use up squash, with links to recipes that I've tried and liked. I emphasize the word easy because there are plenty of layered and stuffed squash recipes that are great, but they are more fussy.

Then I promise I will not post anything about squash for the rest of the summer, unless I get hit with some wild and crazy, super-original inspiration.

1.  Sliced, floured, fried and salted. Sometimes, the simple stuff is the best. Nice high heat on your olive oil ( a little smoke is no big deal) and fried squash slices with good-ol' homemade ranch on the side. It's just yum.

2. Grated up and put in a fritter. I have several of these recipes posted, I sometimes call them patties or pancakes too, but Nigella Lawson has some tasty ones here- Courgette Fritters

3. Grilled and served in a salad. Grilling adds a ridiculous amount of flavor to a vegetable that isn't super intense in flavor to begin with. Get a little char on there, and don't salt until after they're grilled. Check out My Grilled Summer Salad.

4. Mixed in with pasta sauce. This is so obvious, but it's just really tasty. The trick is not to do it too soon though. You don't want mushy zucchini and you don't want to water down the sauce. I would lightly saute the squash separately in olive oil first, then mix it up with your sauce, or pasta, at the last  minute. I like Tyler Florence's recipe for spaghetti and meatballs, you could use a smaller pasta instead of spaghetti and replace half the pasta with the squash.

5. Mix it up half and half with mashed potatoes. This works well and it's even better if you leave the skin on the potatoes and go for the chunky kind of mashed potatoes. You will want to grate or finely chop the squash and, just like with fritters, squeeze a bunch of the moisture out of the squash first. Replace about a third to a half of the potato bulk with squash and follow the mashed potato recipe of your choice.

Happy Gardening and Eating!

Summer Squash "Moussaka"

Ingredients:
4-5 medium sized yellow summer squash
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup olive oil  (or more)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper pepper
2 cups of your favorite meat sauce recipe (or just add cooked ground beef, a whisper of cinnamon and extra oregano to a jar of tomato sauce if you're feeling lazy)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup shredded or crumbled sharp cheese (any kind)

Topping:
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 cup of whole milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pinch white pepper
1 egg 
1 dash Tabasco

Slice the yellow squash lengthwise into three or four flattish pieces each, depending on how fat they are. I would say you want them about a 1/4 inch thick. 

Coat the slices with the flour and fry them in about 1/4 cup of medium-high hot olive oil, in a non-stick pan. When they are brown on both sides (about a minute per side if the oil is hot enough) remove them from the pan to a paper towel to drain. I had to cook them in two batches, using my biggest frying pan. 

When they come out of the pan, salt and pepper them well. You might need to add more oil for the second round, but if you don't want to waste this much expensive olive oil on frying, mix it half and half with some other oil like corn oil. 

Yeah, mine is GMO corn oil, but corn oil is delicious. When they come out with organic corn oil at the grocery store (I'm looking at you, Whole Foods), I'll be the first to buy it. 

Layer the bottom of a 9x9 inch casserole dish, the square kind works well, with some of the squash slices, trying to cover evenly. Spread about a third of the meat sauce on top and sprinkle with a third of the cheese and basil. Do this two more times, but leave yourself like a 1/2 inch of room at the top (squish things down if you have to) because you're going to a put some white sauce on top.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, fry up the tablespoon of butter and flour, stirring it with a whisk. (I use rounded tablespoons here actually). Add a pinch of salt and white pepper as well as a very tiny pinch of nutmeg (optional) and a dash of Tabasco. Pour the milk in slowly, whisking the whole time. Whisk frequently as it cooks, you know, like making gravy, and then when it looks thickened (it doesn't take long) take it off the heat and very quickly whisk in a beaten egg. Pour over the top of your squash dish and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the top gets some brown spots on it. 

The picture up there is actually taken of a leftover piece, I love eating this cold.

Serves 4

Steak, and Replacing Pasta with Vegetables

Last night I HAD to have steak. It just HAD to happen. No purveyors of fine steak were open late on a Sunday, so I made do with a Safeway steak- a nice double-thick rib eye. To further complicate my need for steak, I don't have anything that passes for a grill right now. 

I persevered.

I gently rubbed the 1+ lb, bone-in rib eye cowboy steak with olive oil. I poured Himalayan salt on it with reckless abandon. I sprinkled it generously with pepper. I let it hang out on the counter, looking good. I cooked it on both sides for one minute each in very hot oil. I then put it under the broiler in the oven for 15-ish minutes, then let it rest for another 10 minutes, taking it to medium-rare heaven in the middle, and medium on the edges. All steaks are shaped differently, so if you're not good at judging the cooking times, there's no shame in using a meat thermometer.

Now in the old days (and by that I mean over a year ago) I would serve this with some sort of starchy goodness, like pasta. Instead, I used all of the good things I would put on pasta, and put them on summer squash instead:

4 yellow summer squash
1/2 a sweet onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup white wine (or water or stock)
2 level tablespoons tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 cup chopped fresh arugula leaves
1 oz of your favorite cheese, shredded or crumbled (I use feta)

Saute the onions, summer squash and spices in ONE of the tablespoons of olive oil for about 3-4 minutes on high. Then add the tomato paste, garlic, and white wine and lower to medium and cook until wine is gone and tomato paste looks thick again, another 3-4 minutes at least, depending on your stove. 

Lower the heat all the way down to the lowest setting, add the cheese, the other tablespoon of oil and the arugula leaves, stir it all in and let it hang out on the stove 'til your steak is done. Serve with sliced steak...and a nice big glass of Sangiovese.

Like most of my recipes, this meal will serve 2 people, or 1 person twice...