Sweet Heirloom Sauce

Summer's hanging on by a thread.

I wore a skirt today and walked home from class but never took of my jacket. You can almost feel the anticipation brewing for wool sweaters and crisp leaves. I've also been fighting off my first cold of the season (new Seattle germs...) and leaning towards warm comfort foods. Grilled cheese is always a good one, but a batch of cheap cheap heirloom tomatoes a the Queen Anne farmers' market got me excited about sauce.



Warm and deliciously fresh sauce. Sweet sauce. I've added a small dash of sugar to the past few tomato sauces I've stewed up, to appease Steve's sweet tooth, and they always taste amazing. But this time I wanted to see if I could achieve the same effect in a different way: ripe heirlooms (sweet), fresh basil from my new housewarming herb-garden (sweet-ish), and removing the seeds (bitter-ish when cooked).



Ingredients:

- 3 to 4 large heirloom tomatoes
- 5 to 6 fresh basil leaves
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- salt and pepper
- dash or sweet paprika (optional)

Slice the tomatoes and remove the seeds. For really ripe heirlooms, the flesh is so dense that there will be very few seeds to remove, as compared with roma or hothouse.


Dice roughly, cover and simmer with olive oil, salt and pepper for about 5 minutes. Remove lid and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes, or until sauce starts to thicken. At this point, you can blend or food-process, or let the chunks live.


Chop the basil and stir in with paprika.



Assemble with optional accouterments (sauteed broccoli and feta!)





The results? Perfectly yummy and comforting, but no comparison to the spoonful of sugar for sweet-tooth satisfaction.

Eggplant Parm Pizza

I'll be honest: I'm not crazy about eggplant.

I don't like how it (and mushrooms) try to replace sliced meats in vegetarian sandwiches. They always absorb all of the oil out of my stir-fry and Thai dishes, ending up too greasy without leaving any saucy-flavor for the rest of the veggies to enjoy. Nope, don't like eggplant at all.... EXCEPT in Italian restaurants where it is smothered with tomatoes and cheese, in which case I still don't like it- I love it.


Now I'm not sure about the Seattle markets (yet), but at the farmer's market in SF Civic Center the perfect time to shop is 3:45pm. At 3:30, vendors begin to throw bushels of produce into plastic bags and sell them for a dollar, and at 4:00 they begin to pack up and leave. And voila': $2 pizza toppings!


I salted the eggplant slices and pre-cooked them on a grill-pan over the stove for some nice char marks. (I've found that it's helpful to stove cook fresh produce like bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant prior to putting them on pizza because they take a little longer to soften up.) The tomatoes become a sauce without too much effort: wash; dice; simmer with olive oil, bay leaf, salt and pepper.


And then the easy part: toppings. Spread some mozzarella (I used to try freezing and grating it, but what's the point? Thin slices melt just as well). Spread some freshly-grated Parmesan. Arrange eggplant slices.


Bake! (On 450 until crust is golden brown or slightly charred)


Serve! (Preferably with a nice glass of red wine... maybe a side salad... but wine is key).

Healthy Chicken Parm

I hardly ever cook meat for myself, partially because of the expense and hassle (more expense now that I'm trying to go toward organic meats and dairy), but mostly because I'm just as happy without it. Yet when cooking with or for somebody else, it's sometimes nice to go with a more traditional main-course protein.

Enter Chicken Parm, a classic favorite. I like to make a healthy version, baked in the oven without breading or frying. I also make my own tomato sauce, though I'll admit, it might not take me 2 hours to prepare a meal if I took a store-bought shortcut here or there.



INGREDIENTS:
- 3 organic chicken breasts
- 1-2 cups grated Parmesan
- 1/4 cup grated Fontina (optional)

FOR THE SAUCE:
- 5 ripe tomatoes on the vine
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon sugar


To make the sauce:
Chop or dice tomatoes and combine in a medium saucepan with olive oil. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cover for 10-15 minutes. Cut one clove of garlic into quarters; dice second clove. Add both cloves of garlic and 2 bay leaves to the sauce. Continue to simmer, covered, for another 10-15 minutes. Remove lid and stir in 1 tsp. sugar. Continue to simmer, uncovered, until thickened (about another 10-15min). Remove garlic quarters and bay leaves before serving.

To make the chicken:
On my mother's advice, I like to pan-fry chicken briefly on each side before baking in order to seal in the moisture, which can otherwise leach out into the baking pan. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan. Sear chicken breasts over medium-high/high heat for about 4-5 minutes on each side. Place seared chicken in a glass baking dish and cover with tomato sauce. Sprinkle with the cheese blend, leaving a handful aside for the last 5 minutes. Bake on 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Sprinkle last handful of cheese and bake for 5 more minutes. Remove, cool, and serve.