Eggplant Parmesan

This Eggplant Parmesan recipe is the very first recipe I ever created on my own and I am quite proud of it.  I basically adapted it from my mother's lasagna recipe and substituted eggplant for the lasagna noodles.  The type and quality of the ingredients has changed over the years (the original recipe called for cottage cheese as we did not even know that ricotta cheese existed, and the parmesan cheese came from that green shaker) but the base has remained the same.

You can make the tomato sauce up to three days ahead (or more, if you freeze it).  Some people salt their eggplant and leave it to macerate for a while to remove any bitterness but I have not found that to be necessary.  Your mileage may vary.

The recipe is also versatile.  Don't have or don't like eggplant? You can use zucchini or potatoes instead.  Sometimes I'll throw mushrooms on top of the eggplant.  And if nothing else, you can use pasta and call it lasagna!

It is a great dish to make for a large group.  I always get compliments when I serve it.  You will, too!

Home Cooking v9.76 Chapter: Beans and Vegetables
EGGPLANT PARMESAN 1 batch Italian Style Tomato Sauce
1 large eggplant, sliced crosswise 1/8" thick
1 lb ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb mozarrela cheese, grated
1/2 cup parmigiano regiano cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Spread a large spoonful of the sauce on the bottom of a 15" x 9.5" baking dish. Arrange eggplant slices in a single layer over the sauce. Spread one third of the ricotta mixture over the eggplant and then spread one third of the tomato sauce over that. Repeat two more times, with the top layer being the shredded mozarella cheese.

Cover and bake for one hour. Remove the cover and sprinkle the parmigiano regiano over the top and bake uncovered for another half hour, or until the cheese is golden and the eggplant is completely tender.

3/29/2020
Exported from Home Cookin v9.76 (http://www.mountainsoftware.com/)

Italian Style Tomato Sauce

I have been making this tomato sauce for years but I have never posted the recipe.  What makes it special is the grated carrot that I add.  It gives the sauce a little more body and sweetness that makes folks wonder what there is about it that makes it so good.  At some point a few years ago I got lazy about grating the carrot and stopped adding it.  The sauce was still tasty, but not as good as it could and should have been.  So lately I have been adding it back in and all is right with the world.

This sauce can be used for anything but it is especially delicious when used in casseroles like lasagna and eggplant parmagiana.  But it is equally delicious over pasta with a generous sprinkling of Parmigiana Reggiano over it.  It can be refrigerated for several days and freezes especially well.

Home Cookin v9.76 Chapter: My Recipes
ITALIAN STYLE TOMATO SAUCE 2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, grated
6 oz can tomato paste
24-1/2 oz jar passata or tomato sauce
2 14.5-oz cans diced tomato
1 Tbsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large saucepan. Add the onion and cook for aminute, then add the garlic. Cook until the onion is just translucent. Add the grated carrot and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute, stirring constantly, then add the passata, tomato, and the spices. Add a cup of water and stir everyihing together. Bring to a low simmer and cook, uncovered, until the sauce has thickened and turned dark, for at least an hour up to two hours. Remove from the heat and adjust the seasoning to taste.

1 March 2020

Exported from Home Cookin v9.76 (http://www.mountainsoftware.com/)

Summer's Bounty: Marinara Sauce

More summer goodness. I do believe I have taken advantage of summer's bounty more this year than any other summer since I first started going to the Green Market eleven years ago. That might be due to my newly-reconditioned air conditioners that have kept my apartment cooler than my old unreliable ones were able to do. That has made the summer more bearable, but I am still happy to feel the weather changing. Fall is definitely right around the corner.

But until it comes, I have started stockpiling some of summer's goodness in the freezer, for use when I have had one too many rutabagas and am longing for a taste of summer freshness. To that end, I put together a batch of marinara sauce using fresh San Marzano tomatoes I found at the Leaning Shed Farm, which has become one of my favorite stands at the Green Market. They have the widest variety of heirloom tomatoes and peppers, and some killer garlic. They are now the first place I head as soon as I hit the market.
I didn't know that they can officially call them San Marzano tomatoes, since the ones that come from San Marzano, Italy, are D.O.P., but I guess they can, as long as they don't pretend that these are the genuine Italian tomatoes it's ok to call them San Marzanos. They are similar to a plum tomato, but smaller, and have a more intense, sweeter flavor.

Last week they had something called Super San Marzano tomatoes, which looked just like the San Marzanos but were just a little bigger. They were the most luscious deep red, so those are the ones I bought that day. I made a lovely Marinara sauce that served as a delicious base for pizza (just the sauce, some garlic, and mozzarella and parmigiana reggiano - scrumptious!). I wanted to get more so I could make a batch or two to freeze, but by the time I made it back to the Green Market this weekend (darn those family visits!) they were out of the supers. But they did still have the regulars so I gt those instead.

I am all for opening up a can of tomatoes and whipping up a tasty sauce in the middle of winter, but I have to say, there is definitely a difference using fresh. The only way I can think to describe it is that you can taste summer. The sauce is bright, fresh, and you get a more intense flavor without having to cook it down quite so much.

Right now I have two jars in my freezer. I plan to have more by the time the tomatoes are gone. Which will be all too soon, I know.

If you want to capture a bit of summer for yourself, here's how I did it:

First, make sure you have plenty of fresh basil on hand. The potted basil I bought for myself did not make it through the summer, so I bought this big bunch of green at the market for two dollars. It was more than I needed for my sauce, so I have plans for a batch of pesto that will go well with pizza or pasta sometime down the road.

If I had been thinking faster, I would have taken pictures of the tomatoes before I started the sauce, but I was halfway through chopping them when I decided to start snapping pictures. This is about half of what I started with. I cut an x in the base of each one and dropped them, about 6 at a time, into a pot of boiling water and left them for about 15 seconds. Then I took them out and dropped them into a bowl of cold water. After that, it was easy to peel off the skins. And then it was short work to cut off the stem end and chop them. They are quite meaty and do not have too many seeds, so they were not as messy to chop as the bigger, more round varieties tend to be.

To start the sauce, I thinly sliced 6 cloves of garlic and put them in a large skillet with olive oil. I turned the heat on low and let the garlic heat up with the oil so it would cook without browning, or burning. Usually, I believe you would then take the garlic out of the oil, leaving behind just the flavor, but I like garlic too much to do that so I left it in.

While the garlic was cooking I was chopping the peeled tomatoes. This is the first half that I had chopped before realizing I wanted to take pictures. My chopping board is on the small side and I couldn't fit all of the tomatoes on it, so I raised the heat on the skillet and added these first, giving them a good stir, and then I finished chopping the rest of the tomatoes and added them to the skillet. At this point I seasoned with salt and a little freshly ground pepper. I also added a pinch of sugar after tasting it. These tomatoes were a little more acidic than the supers were.

This is what it looks like when the tomatoes have first been added. Even though the tomatoes are not terribly juicy, they turned liquid soon enough. It never looks like they are going to cook down, but I just lowered the heat and let them simmer for about 45 minutes, until they were nice and thick. I turned off the heat and stirred in a generous handful of roughly chopped basil, then I tasted for seasoning and added a little more salt.

The sauce can be used right away, or frozen for future use.

Product of the Week: Moramarco 00 Pasta Flour

Several weeks ago I took a knife skills class at the Chopping Block with my friend Nicole. I have been wanting to take this class for a long time and, since I have been trying to learn the proper techniques by myself (mostly via the internet - this is actually a decent video on the subject), I have been curious to see what I would learn in the class.

As it turns out, I learned quite a bit. I was gratified to discover that I have been holding my knife correctly, and my basic handling of the foods that were to be cut were decent enough, although I did learn a thing or two there. What I had not been doing properly, or maybe I should say to maximum effect, was the slicing itself. Every time you make a cut you must follow through with the knife on the board, positioning it for the next cut on the way back. That turned out to be worth the price of the class in itself. My chopping speed and precision have both improved amazingly since I took that class.

I arrived early, as is my wont these days, so I had plenty of time to look around the shop. They have all kinds of lovely kitchen tools, dishes, pots, knives and utensils, all top quality (and the price shows it). They also have a good selection of gourmet (for lack of a better term) food products, which seemed inordinately expensive to me. There were a few items they carried that I had seen for a considerably lower price at Treasure Island, and I do not consider Treasure Island to be expensive. So I just wandered around, looking, with no intent to purchase.

And then I saw the one thing I have been unable to find anywhere else that I have looked. Ever since I started making my own pasta, I have been reading about "00" flour, from Italy, which is a finer grind than the all-purpose flour we have here in the States. Several chefs swear by it for pasta and for pizza, so of course I was curious. But I was having trouble finding it. So I was pleasantly surprised to find it on the Chopping Block shelves. As with their other products it was quite expensive, but I decided it was worth the price to see how it compared to my regular flour.

It may be difficult to see in this picture, but this flour does, indeed, have a finer grain than all-purpose flour.

It also seems to be a brighter white. That might be due to it being milled from a different kind of wheat than we use here in the States. But it is an almost blinding white, compared to the off-white hue of the King Arthur all-purpose flour I usually buy.



I decided to start with a half-batch, using my usual by-hand process. The flour seemed a little more stiff than the all-purpose, but other than that it behaved pretty much the same. I was maybe a touch more elastic, and I wasn't sure at first that I would be able to roll the dough out as thin as I usually can roll the all-purpose. But in the end, the noodles looked the same. Now the test was in the cooking.



I decided to make a cream sauce with radicchio, which needed to be used sooner rather than later. The flavors seemed subtle enough for the texture and flavor of the pasta to come through so I could compare it to my regular pasta.

And I have to say, there was a difference. The 00 flour made for a denser, more chewy noodle. As for taste, there was a subtle difference that is difficult to describe - maybe a little more wheat-y, if that is a word.

The final result? There is a discernible difference between the two pastas. Whether it is a strong enough difference to justify the extra cost of the 00 flour remains to be seen. For now, I think it might be nice for special occasions, but the all-purpose flour is good enough for all-purpose use.