Slow-Roasted Grape Tomato Spread

I tried this recipe for the first time towards the end of the summer, and it quickly became my favorite way to use up the grape tomatoes from my CSA boxes! The spread tasted DELICIOUS with some goat cheese and pasta! I’m so happy that I have more of this in the freezer now to last me through the winter. If you’re into trying new things, whether it be canning or making homemade almond butter or granola, you should check out Marisa McClellan’s blog over at Food In Jars. It’s one of my favorites. I have both of her cookbooks and they are amazing!

from Preserving by the Pint

Serves: makes about 1 cup, which is probably enough for about 4 servings of pasta

Time: about 40 minutes total

Ingredients:

• 1 pint grape tomatoes (which is about 12 oz, this is approximate)
• 5 garlic cloves
• 3/4 tsp dried thyme
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp fine sea salt, or whichever salt you prefer
• black pepper

Directions:

1) Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Spread the clean tomatoes onto a rimmed cookie sheet or baking dish.

2) Add the garlic cloves randomly on the dish, spread throughout the tomatoes. Sprinkle the thyme, salt, and pepper, then drizzle the olive oil over all.

3) Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft and shriveled. Take the dish out of the oven and let it cool. Then put the contents of the dish into your food processor. Pulse it until the tomatoes have become a chunky puree. You can make it chunkier or smoother to your liking.

4) To store this spread, put it in an airtight container and top it with a thin layer of olive oil. Then you can keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to a year.

5) To serve, try tossing some with pasta and goat (or your favorite) cheese, or add it to omelets. I’m sure there are many other uses for this…I’m picturing it with some chicken…but personally I thought it was fabulous with pasta!

Homemade Ravioli

Making homemade ravioli was one of the first serious from-scratch kitchen projects that I ever tried. It was even before I started dating an Italian, whose family actually makes homemade ravioli together every Christmas. After a couple of tries at building the ravioli with only a knife and my own fingers as tools, I went on Amazon and bought a ravioli press, which works great for cheese ravioli. Andrew’s family uses a ravioli rolling pin for their Christmas ravioli, which is a meat ravioli. Either way, making ravioli is such a fun project. It’s even more fun with 2 people, but I have done it alone also.

The Dough.

I’ve made the dough in a food processor and also by hand. Either way, it’s pretty simple. Here’s how we did it by hand for these ravioli.

• 3/4 lb flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2-3 tbsp lukewarm water

1. Put the flour in a big bowl and make a hole in the center like a volcano. Crack the eggs and put the water in the hole.

2. Mix the flour into the eggs, starting in the middle and working your way outwards.

3. Once almost all the flour is mixed in, dump it onto a cutting board or other surface. Knead the dough for several minutes, turning 90 degrees after you push the dough down.

4. Make the dough into a smooth ball and let it sit covered in plastic wrap for 30 minutes.

The Filling. (Goat Cheese.)

• 11-12 ounces goat cheese
• 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp minced basil
• 2 tbsp thinly sliced chives
• 1/4 cup finely diced red onion
• salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir until well-combined and totally smooth (no cheese lumps!)

 The Ravioli.

With the ravioli press, it’s pretty easy to form the ravioli. This time around we tried out the pasta rolling machine that I got Andrew for Christmas. It worked pretty well! However, it’s also pretty easy to roll out the dough with a rolling pin. You just want to make sure you get it thin enough. It’s easiest to divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll each one of those out separately. When the dough is almost see through (but not actually see through yet) it’s ready.

Ravioli station!

To use the ravioli press, you flour the metal part, put a piece of dough on top, and press into it with the plastic piece. This makes the little pockets where the filling goes. Then add a little filling in each ravioli. Finally, put another piece of dough on top and roll over the whole thing with a rolling pin. The rolling pin presses the two layers of pasta together, and the metal base piece makes the ravioli shapes. It works well and it’s fun too! The directions that come with the press are also very helpful. However, you can also make the ravioli by hand if you like.

Artsy picture of the scraps!

Clean-out-the-produce-drawer Pasta

Since joining the CSA, my produce drawer has always been very full! I am grateful for it, but I also worry about using everything up. Last Monday I decided to throw a bunch of veggies into a pasta dish and see what happened. It came out great!! Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a box of pasta, any kind (a short pasta like penne is probably better than something like spaghetti)
• pesto sauce (I used my garlic scape pesto, but you could use any kind, or even red sauce!)
• assorted veggies, such as corn, zucchini, green beans, kale…
• grated Parmesan, if desired

Directions:

1) Start cooking your pasta. Steam your veggies. Put things like zucchini in the steamer before other things like corn.

This is when I added the kale!

2) Drain pasta and check veggies. When they are tender, toss them with the pasta.

3) Add some pesto and toss. You can add as much or as little sauce as you want.

4) Sprinkle with Parmesan if you like!

Pasta with Sausage and Zucchini

This is a delicious pasta recipe that comes courtesy of my boyfriend Andrew’s mother, Ena. It’s an easy and tasty meal that’s also very flexible and forgiving. I made it a couple of weeks ago with some grocery store zucchini, but I’m excited to make it again with some CSA zucchini if and when I get some!

Serves: 6-8, depending on portions. To keep calories under control, I like to weigh out 2 oz of dried pasta per serving.
Time: about an hour

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Italian sweet sausage (they come in packages of 6. You could lighten this recipe up by using chicken sausage)
• 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (I used whole tomatoes, and I crushed them in a bowl with a potato masher)
• 1 lb pasta–the traditional choice here is rigatoni, but you could also try something like penne or rotini
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 medium zucchini (these will be thinly sliced)

Directions:

1. Put the sausage in a large skillet or saute pan with a cover and add about 1/4 cup water. Cook the sausage for about 15 to 20 minutes to get the fat out, piercing the sausages a few times each with a fork about halfway through cooking.

2. Remove the cover and cook till water is almost gone (about 5-10 more minutes).

3. Add about 2 tbsp of olive oil and brown the sausages.

4. Remove to a plate. To the pan, add about 1/2 tablespoons more olive oil and the garlic. Saute the garlic for about a minute.

5. Slice the sausage. To the pan add the sausage, tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on medium-low for about 20 mins. Meanwhile, thinly slice the zucchini. I used my mandoline, which works great. While the sauce is simmering, bring salted water to a boil and cook the pasta.

Tomatoes, sausage, garlic, and olive oil simmering away!

6. After the sausage & tomato have simmered for 20 minutes, add the sliced zucchini. Cover and cook till zucchini is tender, which will take about 15 more mins. Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste if desired.

Beautiful zucchini and garlic

7. Toss the pasta and sauce together and serve. This is enough sauce for 1 lb of pasta, but you can make less pasta and freeze some of the sauce instead. That’s what I did…I love making enough food for a few meals and freezing the extra for quick and easy dinners later!