Caprese Salad on a Stick

(Makes 1 skewer/serving)

Ingredients

• ¾ ounces fresh mozzarella cheese (approximately 3 round cheese balls)
• 3 basil leaves
• 3 cherry tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• ⅛ teaspoon sea salt (optional)
• Bamboo skewer

Directions

1. Assemble cheese, basil, and tomato, in order, onto skewer, until all ingredients are on stacked beautifully on the skewer.
2. Drizzle olive oil over assembled skewer, and add a pinch of sea salt if desired. Enjoy!

Rich Roasted Tomato Soup

Roasted tomatoes, garlic, and dried herbes de Provence give this soup a sweet and savory flavor. Photo courtesy Shutterstock.

Ingredients

• 8 Roma tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• Kosher salt and freshly 
ground black pepper
• ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon water, 
divided
• ½ onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons dried herbes 
de Provence
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable 
stock
• Sour cream or olive oil, for 
garnish (if desired)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275° F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In bowl, toss tomatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Place tomatoes, cut side down, on prepared baking sheet and drizzle 1 tablespoon water over tomatoes.
4. Bake in oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven. Carefully peel off skins and discard.
5. Flip tomatoes over so they’re cut side up, and place back in oven until tomatoes are shriveled but not dry, another 30 to 60 minutes.
6. Remove tomatoes from oven and allow to cool slightly.
7. Meanwhile, in large saucepan, saute onion in remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over low heat until very soft, 10 to 12 minutes.
8. Add garlic and herbes de Provence and cook until fragrant, another 1 to 2 minutes.
9. Add stock and remaining ½ cup water and bring to simmer. Simmer 15 minutes.
10. Cool slightly. In blender, puree tomatoes (including any cooking liquid on baking sheet) and stock mixture until very smooth. You may need to work in batches.
11. Strain through fine sieve if very smooth texture is desired.
12. Pour soup back into saucepan, season with salt and pepper, and heat gently.
13. To serve, ladle into cups or bowls and top with either swirl of olive oil or little sour cream, if desired.

Forever-Fit Garden-Fresh Roasted Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

• 3 pounds of fresh Roma tomatoes (or your favorite garden variety), washed and cored
• Nonstick cooking spray
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium to large sweet onion such as Vidalia, finely chopped
• 2 to 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup fresh oregano or 2 teaspoons dried
• ¼ to ½ cup fresh basil or 2 to 3 teaspoons dried
• ½ cup filtered water
• Course salt and pepper to taste
• ½ to 1 teaspoon granulated sugar if desired*

Directions

The flavor and texture of tomato sauce tends to be deeply personal, so this recipe leaves room for your own adaptions and variations based on your taste preferences. If you like more garlic—add more. Feel like thyme would be good? Go for it! Cooking is about experimentation and fun. Enjoy by sharing the experience with your loved ones, and cook with children whenever possible!

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. With a sharp knife, halve tomatoes lengthwise. Divide tomatoes between two foil-lined baking sheets coated with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange in single layer, cut side up. Brush or drizzle 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil over tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Roast 1 to 1½ hours (oven cooking times can vary).



3. Remove pans from oven. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes. Spoon tomatoes into food mill** set over large mixing bowl, and pass tomatoes through food mill using medium texture blade to puree. If smoother texture is desired, run through food mill a second time.



4. Heat ¼ cup oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, oregano, and basil. Saute for 5 to 8 minutes or until onion is translucent and tender. Add tomato puree and water or chicken broth. Bring to a boil, stirring to blend. Reduce heat to medium-low. Allow sauce to simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce has reached desired thickness (about 3 to 5 minutes). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

*If you find the taste to be too acidic or bitter (this can differ depending on type or freshness of tomato), adding a small amount of sugar can balance the acidity.
**If you don’t have a food mill, puree the tomatoes in a blender or food processor and strain through a sieve. If you don’t mind the unobtrusive seeds, you can skip the sieve entirely.

Chicken with Cherry Tomato and Avocado Salsa

(Makes 4 servings.)

Colin Erricson/www.robertrose.ca

Ingredients

• 1 small firm-ripe Hass avocado, diced
• 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered
• 1⁄4 cup chopped green onions
• 1⁄4 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced seeded jalapeño pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon fine sea salt, divided
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1⁄4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 2 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (each about 4 ounces)

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine avocado, tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, jalapeño, half the salt, and lime juice.
2. Sprinkle chicken with the remaining salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, turning once, for 5 to 6 minutes per side or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast registers 165 degrees. Serve with avocado salsa.

Tip: Any leftover salsa can be tucked into a whole-wheat pita (perhaps with some spinach leaves or shredded lettuce) for a quick sandwich.

Mom’s Sauce

(Makes 10 servings)

Ingredients



Before his father’s parents would bless their marriage, food writer John Mariani’s grandmother demanded that his mom learn how to make Sunday gravy.

• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 3 large onions, chopped
• 2 large carrots, chopped
• 1 celery stick, chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 4 teaspoons salt (optional)
• 1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground pepper
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 3 28-ounce cans Italian whole tomatoes, crushed or coarsely chopped
• 1 6-ounce can tomato paste

Directions
1. In large stockpot, heat olive oil. When hot, add onions, carrots, and celery. Sauté on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until lightly browned. Push vegetables to the side and add garlic. Season vegetables with some of the salt (optional) and pepper and cook for another 2 minutes.

2. Add bay leaves, oregano, water, sugar, tomatoes, and tomato paste to stockpot. Mix well and bring to boil. Season with rest of the salt (optional) and pepper. Reduce heat to low or medium-low and let cook for 45 minutes. Adjust seasonings. Sauce improves if made day before.

Nutrition Facts


Nutrition Facts
Per serving of Sauce
Calories: 241
Total Fat: 17 g (Sat. Fat: 2 g)
Sodium: 50 mg*
Carbohydrates: 22 g
Fiber: 5 g
Protein: 4 g
Diabetic Exchanges: 1.5 carbohydrate

*If you leave out optional salt and use no-salt-added canned tomatoes.



Tip: This sauce may be used in making lasagna or served with pasta of your choice. For Sunday gravy, add meats to sauce before serving. The end game is serving a sauce heaped with a variety of meats—take your pick. Meats that need tenderizing benefit from hours cooked in Sunday gravy, and they impart a wonderful meaty flavor. If adding meatballs, however, draw off some sauce and add meat-balls to it. Simmer them in the gravy, then add back to the main sauce.

Frankies Spuntino Tomato Sauce

Ingredients
• 1 cup olive oil
• 13 cloves garlic
• One 96-ounce can (1 kg.) or four 28-ounce cans Italian tomatoes
• Large pinch red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt

Directions

1. Combine olive oil and garlic in large deep saucepan and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring or swirling occasionally, until garlic is deeply colored—striations of deep brown running through golden cloves—and fragrant. If garlic starts to smell acrid or sharp or is taking on color quickly, pull pan off stove and reduce heat.

2. While garlic is getting golden, deal with tomatoes: Pour them into bowl and crush them with your hands. We like to pull out the firmer stem end from each of the tomatoes as we crush them and discard those along with the basil leaves that are packed into the can.

3. When garlic is just about done, add red pepper flakes to the oil and cook them for 30 seconds or a minute, to infuse their flavor and spice into the oil. Dump in the tomatoes, add the salt, and stir well. Turn the heat up to medium, get the sauce simmering at a gentle pace, not aggressively, and simmer for 4 hours. Stir it from time to time. Mother it a little bit.

4. Check the sauce for salt at the end. The sauce can be cooked with meat at this point, or stored, covered, in the fridge for at least 4 days or frozen for up to a few months.

Meatballs

Ingredients
• 4 slices bread (2 packed cups’ worth)
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• ¼ cup grated Pecorino Romano, plus about 1 cup for serving
• ¼ cup raisins
• ¼ cup pine nuts
• 1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
• 15 turns white pepper
• 4 large eggs
• ½ cup dried bread crumbs
• Frankies Spuntino Tomato Sauce (from above)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325°F. Put fresh bread in bowl, cover it with water, and let it soak for a minute or so. Pour off water and wring out bread, then crumble and tear it into tiny pieces.

2. Combine bread with remaining ingredients except tomato sauce in medium mixing bowl, adding them in the order listed. Add dried breadcrumbs last to adjust for wetness: mixture should be moist wet, not sloppy wet.

3. Shape meat mixture into handball-sized meatballs and space them evenly on baking sheet. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Meatballs will be firm but still juicy and gently yielding when they’re cooked through. (At this point, you can cool meatballs and hold them in refrigerator for as long as a couple of days or freeze them for future.)

4. Meanwhile, heat tomato sauce in sauté pan large enough to accommodate the meatballs comfortably.

5. Dump meatballs into pan of sauce and nudge heat up ever so slightly. Simmer meatballs for half an hour or so (this isn’t one of those cases where longer is better) so they can soak up some sauce. Keep them there until it’s time to eat.

Pork Braciola Marinara

Ingredients:
• Six ½-inch-thick boneless pork shoulder steaks (8 ounces each)
• Fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
• 1 clove, garlic, minced
• ⅔ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 cup grated aged provolone
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
• Frankies Spuntino Tomato Sauce

Directions

1. Butterfly pork: With palm of one hand firmly steadying a cutlet on cutting board, and with your knife blade parallel to meat, slice almost all way through meat, leaving last ¼-inch uncut.

2. Open up cutlet like a book, season it with salt and white pepper, and set it aside. Repeat with remaining pieces of pork.

3. Sprinkle cut side of one cutlet with a tiny pinch of minced garlic, a couple of pinches of parsley, and a generous tablespoon of each cheese.

4. Roll cutlet into tight log and set aside, seam side down.

5. Tie braciola. The simplest way is to use 2 or 3 short lengths of butcher’s twine for each roll and tie them around meat to hold it together. If you’re a master of more professional ways of tying—like a real butcher’s tie—go for it. But the braciola doesn’t (or shouldn’t) get roughed up too much during the cooking process, so it doesn’t need to be in a straitjacket or anything.

6. Bring tomato sauce to a steady, gentle simmer in large pot.

7. Nestle braciola into pot of tomato sauce. Simmer for 3 hours, or until tender; you should be able to easily pull away a strand or two of meat with tug of fork.

8. To serve, remove braciola from sauce and snip off the twine. Arrange, whole or sliced, on a platter with generous blanket of sauce. Transfer remaining sauce to serving bowl. Serve hot or at room temperature. Garnish with grated Pecorino Romano and serve. Use leftover tomato sauce from the braciola in any recipe that calls for tomato sauce.

Gazpacho Grandé

• 1 hot house cucumber, halved and seeded
 (not peeled)
• ½ red bell pepper, cored and seeded
• ½ yellow bell pepper, cored and seeded
• 5 plum tomatoes
• 1 red onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 24 ounces canned tomato juice
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• ¼ cup good olive oil
• ½ tablespoon kosher salt (optional)*
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Put each vegetable separately in food processor fitted with steel blade and pulse until coarsely chopped. Do not overmix. After each vegetable is processed, combine in large bowl and add garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Stir and chill for 4 hours before serving.

A to Z Soup (Avocado Zucchini Soup)

Avocado Zucchini SoupPhoto © the California Avocado Commission

(Makes 4 servings)
Ingredients

• 4 cups fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 4 green onions, sliced into ½-inch pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups zucchini, thinly sliced
• 2 large, ripe California avocados, seeded, peeled, and chopped

Directions:
In large pot with lid, heat 1 cup broth, onion, green onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. When boiling, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for
15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add remaining broth and zucchini and bring to boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes. Remove lid and allow to cool. In food processor, purée zucchini, broth, and avocado in batches. Return to pan; stir gently. Serve in soup bowls and garnish to taste.

Cool Cucumber Soup

• 2 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and grated with box grater/food processor
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced
• ½ cup low-fat sour cream
• ½ cup Greek yogurt
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• Salt and white pepper (if you have it, black if you don’t), to taste

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in food processor. Transfer to bowl, stir, and chill. Serve topped with any of the following: chopped cucumber, fresh dill or mint, dollop of sour cream or yogurt, diced avocado, snipped chives, or green onions.

MMM… Soup (Mango-Melon-Mint)

• 2 mangoes, peeled, pitted, and chopped
• 2 cups cantaloupe, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh mint, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt

Directions:
Purée all ingredients in food processor or blender and chill for 2 to 3 hours. Pour into glass bowls, garnish with mint leaves, and serve.

Canning

Tomato Sauce

(1 pint-sized jar holds 2 cups)

• 7 cups prepared tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green peppers
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 2 basil leaves, snipped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Wash tomatoes and dip 4 or 5 at a time in boiling water for 30 seconds, using a steaming basket for easy retrieval. Dip in cold water for 30 seconds. Slip off skins and remove stem ends. Cut into quarters into measuring cup and then into bowl. When you have 7 cups, prepare rest of sauce.

Heat oil and butter or margarine. Stir in onions, peppers, and garlic. Cook until onion is soft.

Add tomatoes, oregano, basil leaves, salt, and sugar. Stir until mixture boils. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until mixture is thick.

Canning

Pour hot tomato sauce into hot, clean jars, leaving 1/2 inch head room. Adjust lids and closure. Place on a rack in a pressure saucepan and process 30 minutes at 10 pounds pressure (10 minutes in standard pressure canner). Remove from heat and do not open canner until pressure has returned to 0.