The Quigley Family Cookbook

Archive for the ‘tomatoes’ Category

The past few weeks the squid have been thick as fleas at the Nahant wharf. Ben and I have been catching our fill of the tasty  little buggers. With a mild taste and needing minimal cooking time, calamari are ideally suited to sauces. Here’s one I adapted for them from a dish originally designed for shrimp. It also takes advantage of the fresh herbs abundant in the garden this time of year. Serve alone or over pasta or rice.

The quantities are rough and can be scaled to taste.

• Prep Time: 15 minutes (this does not include any time needed to dress the squid)
• Cooking Time: 45-60 minutes
• Servings:  8 servings

Ingredients

• 2 large (28 oz) cans of whole tomatoes
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 6-8 medium (approx 8 inches long) squid heads, cleaned and cut into rings
• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, diced
• 3 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3 tbsp fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 tsp oregano
• Salt to taste (1 tsp approx)

Directions

1. In a pot, heat 2 tbsp of the oil. Concurrently, in a saute pan, heat the other two tsp.
2. When the oil is hot, add the onions to pot and the sausage to the sautee pan.
3. Brown the sausage. Then remove it from the heat and place in a colander to drain.
4. When the onion is translucent, add the tomatoes, wine, garlic, and oregano. As you add them, squeeze each tomato in your hand to reduce it to a rough pulp. Also pour in the juice from the tomatoes.
5. Stir the mixture, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Stir from time to time, making sure not to burn the sauce.
6. Add the sausage, basil, parsley, red pepper flakes, and 1 tsp salt. Stir and return to simmer for 10 minutes. While it cooks, taste the sauce and adjust the ingredients as necessary.
7. Add the calamari and cook an additional 3-5 minutes. Calamari takes very little time to cook so take care not to overcook it!

Preparation/Cooking Notes

• Make sure the calamari is well-drained before you add it. If necessary, pat it dry with a paper towel. The sauce will coat it much better than if it is wet.
• Two teaspoons of red pepper flakes makes for a nicely spicy sauce.  I would not recommend more. For people who prefer less spice, use only 1 teaspoon.

Variations

• Shrimp can be used in place of or in addition to the calamari.
• While you can substitute crushed or even ground tomatoes, whole tomatoes give the dish a much more interesting texture.

Here is a very subtle and delicious tomato sauce taught to me by my erstwhile, good food-loving friend Gary. You may wonder at its simplicity: the lack of spices, garlic, even pepper and salt. But it is the omission of these stronger flavors that allows its “secret” ingredient–honey–to shine.

This is a sauce best left simple. It goes especially well with heartier pastas…gnocchi or bow-tie, for example, where it compliments without overshadowing the pasta’s own meaty flavor.

• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cooking Time: 90 minutes
• Servings: Makes 1/2 gallon, approximately 16 servings

Ingredients

• Two 32 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
• 1-2 shallots or 1 small onion, minced
• Honey
• Fresh rosemary

Directions

1. In a pot, heat olive oil and then sautee the shallots/chopped onion until soft.
2. Add the tomatoes and cook at medium heat.Bring to low boil then reduce heat to medium low.
3. Add 1-2 tablespoons of honey. Stir and taste it as you add…you don’t want the sauce to be too sweet.When honey is right, add a 4 to 6 inch sprig of rosemary.
4. Cook for 15 minutes or so then taste to determine if it needs a little more rosemary. Be careful: Too much rosemary can ruin it so be judicious in adding it.
5. Cover and cook at low heat for an additionaal 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from burning.Remove rosemary before serving.

This recipe comes to me from an Italian friend who wrote:  “Mike, once you do this (if you enjoy cooking) you will never buy sauce from a jar again in your life. I make HUGE pots of gravy–freeze it in family size portions and have it for dinner for weeks.”

The basic sauce is quite simple. If you prefer, you can dress it up using a number of variations.

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cooking Time: 2-4 hours
• Servings: Makes 1 gallon of sauce

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 cans of whole plum (Italian) tomatoes (I prefer San Marzanos)
• 1 can tomato puree
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 medim onion, chopped
• 4-5 basil leaves
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Blend the whole tomatoes,  smooth or chunky, according to your preference.
2. In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and onion and fry lightly. Do not brown the garlic; just let the garlic and onion get soft and infuse the oil.
3. Add blended tomatos and puree and bring to a boil.
4. Stir and reduce heat to a simmer. For a thinner sauce, cover pot. For a thicker sauce, do not cover. Cook for two hours or more. Add salt and pepper to taste.
   Stir constantly to avoid burning the sauce.
5. When the sauce is just about done add basil leaves and cook a little longer.

Preparation/Cooking Notes

• Be careful not to burn sauce. Keep heat low and stir often.
• The same is true of the garlic/onion; be careful not to brown it or the sauce will have a burnt taste. If you accidentally do, better to throw it out and start again.

Variations

• Fry some Italian sausages and add to the pot.
• Lightly fry up 2-3 country style spare ribs (the really meaty ones) and add them to the pot. After about 4 hours of simmering, the meat of the ribs just falls off the bone in shreds and makes for a very nice texture/taste. As an alternative, instead of ribs add 1 or 2 lightly fried Braciola.
• In the olive oil/garlic/onion mix, prior to adding the tomatoes, add a full tube of double-strength San Marzano tomato paste and cook well. This infuses the oil/veggie mixture into the paste.
• Add one or more of the following to the sauce: fresh parsely, more basil, oregano, a few bay leaves, 1 or 2 thin strips of green bell pepper.

If you love tomatoes, and especially if you grow your own (or have access to homegrowns), here’s a tangy, tasty salad that stars them front and center. It was a staple in my house growing up, appearing in my mother’s repertoire from mid-summer through fall, as the homegrown tomato crop came in.

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Servings:  6

Ingredients

• 8 medium (baseball-sized) tomatoes cut into wedges 1/2″ to 1″ wide
• 4 medium-large green bell peppers, seeded and cut into bite-sized chunks
• 1 medium onion, halved and then sliced thinly

Directions

• In a salad bowl, prepare Giselle’s Vinaigrette.
• Chop the tomatoes, peppers, and onions and add to the bowl.
• Toss well before serving.

Preparation Notes

• A key to this recipe is good tomatoes: ripe, sweet, succulent, flavorful. If all you have access to are the thick, dry, pulpless, flavorless market tomatoes one is often limited to out of season, give it a miss.
• If the tomatoes are especially pulpy, prior to adding them to the salad, allow them to drain in a colander or even use a knife to remove some of the pulp. Otherwise the salad can become “soupy.”
• Green bell peppers are also fairly essential: both in the flavor they bring and in the pleasing contrast their color adds to the tomatoes. Red bells, while great in many other things,  are too sweet for this salad, and green fryers are too thin-walled. Stick with green bells, at least the first time you make it.  You may get good results experimenting with other non-red balls such as yellows.
• Generally this salad works best as is. I’ve tried adding cucumber slices and found they added little, in fact detracted from the presentation. If you have some fresh basil on hand, one or two teaspoons minced can be a nice addition.
• While you don’t need to use Giselle’s Vinaigrette, do be sure to use a vinaigrette as the dressing for this salad. Use one that does not overpower, but allows the natural flavors of the tomatoes and peppers to own center stage.

Serving Notes

• Salad can be served lightly chilled or at room temperature.
• Unlike green salads, which go soggy and become inedible within several hours of tossing, this salad can keep for several days. It is often even better the second day, when the flavors from the tomatoes and peppers have had time to coalesce with the vinaigrette.