Monday, January 24, 2011

SAUCE - #3 - prawns in a sweet tomato sauce


i hate the word sweet. let's not use that word in the print cook zine, SC. Why? I got out of the water and some guy in a cardiff aloha shirt asked me how it was. i said, "it's still good, so get out there." and he replied, "sa-weet." like, two syllables. sa-weeet. it really got to me, and i'm taking it as a sign not to use it here in this, the third recipe of the tomato sauce persuasion.

SAUCE - #3 - prawns in a sweet tomato sauce

there's many ways to do this, and they are all sweet, i mean great.

one--you've made you tomato sauce and have it in the fridge. great. take a few spoonfuls of it and add it with a lob of butter to a fry pan. heat over medium to high heat, get good and hot, and toss in some shrimp (raw ones). give the pan a shake, give it a toss, and mix it all up. you can add some lemon to this... that would be good. lower to a simmer and heat until shrimp are done... don't overcook otherwise you'll have chewy shrimp.

sprinkle some chopped parsley over the top. or some fresh Parmesan. serve as is with some crusty bread. or spoon on top of some noodle pasta.

Friday, January 21, 2011

SAUCE - #2 - putanesca


working girl's sauce. why? ladies of the night used to put this sauce in their windows to attract potential male customers. ow ow.

this is made the same way as red sauce, but after the step where the onion is soft add a handful of Calamata Olives (pitted and halved), a couple tablespoons capers (drained) and a couple of chopped anchovies fillets. if you like really spicy, add more red pepper flakes. cook until the anchovies are liquid... couple of minutes. then finish cooking as with the red sauce.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

SAUCE - #1 - basic tomato sauce


gather tools:
- chef knife, cutting board, can opener, sauce pan (medium), big spoon for stirrin'

gather ingredients:
- a few glugs olive oil. two big cans of whole tomatoes. one onion, chopped. four cloves garlic, chopped. dried red pepper flakes. red wine for drinkin' and flavor. salt and pepper.

make:
- in a saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
- add onion and garlic and some salt & pepper. The salt will release liquid from onion and keep onion from burning. and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.
- add the thyme red pepper flakes, and cook 5 minutes more.
- add the tomatoes and juice, crushing the whole tomatoes with your hands as you add them. bring to a boil, stirring often. add a splash of red wine. lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, up to a few hours. Season with salt and pepper and it's done.

freeze this for up to six months. or boil some water, make some pasta and serve sauce over the top with some parm. for a smoother sauce, blend it. or you can spin the sauce four different ways... ways to be posted in the coming days.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

SAUCE - tomato


Now kids, we'll add ingredients to a basic tomato sauce to spin it five different ways in the next five days. learn well, study well and by the end of day four you'll know how to make all this:
  1. basic tomato sauce
  2. puttanesca for pasta
  3. prawns roasted in sweet tomato sauce
  4. portabella mushrooms baked with earthly herbs and tomato sauce
  5. tomato cream sauce
  6. ribollita
#1 coming tomorrow.