Roasted Tomato Sauce with Serranos and Olives

Farmer and the Cook is my favorite place to stop for groceries for dinner.  The combination of surprise fresh ingredients from the farm, combined with the limited selection always constrains me just enough to create something new and unexpected.

(For a Vegetarian Version, use maybe Capers instead of anchovies and leave out the Worchestire Sauce)

1. Heat Oven to 400.  Core and Slice the amazing tomatoes in half and put on a cookie sheet. Rub olive oil on the faces and grind pepper on top.  Put in oven.  Start a pot of salted water and bring to a boil.

2. Meanwhile, mash up some cloves of garlic, mince up some anchovies and serranos.  Mash together into a paste.

3. Meanwhile, mince up some red onion and chop up some parsley.

4. Meanwhile, use a small knife to carve the flesh away from the pits of the delicious green french olives from the Paradise Pantry that you happen to have in your fridge.  (Olivia also has some homemade olives at FnC).

5. Meanwhile, toast some pine nuts.

6. When tomatoes seem done, remove from oven and pour into a bowl, mashing.  Heat olive oil in same pan you toasted the pine nuts in, and once hot, throw in the anchovy paste till fragrant (about a minute).  Pour mixture into tomatoes and stir.  Add some balsamic vinegar and a little Worchestire Sauce (this was the a surprise "thought" tonight).  Add the olives, onions and parsley and stir.

7. Put the egg tagliatelle pasta into the boiling water and cook for 4 minutes.  Drain and add to sauce.  Stir to combine.   Serve with pine nuts scattered on top.  We added Parmesan too.

Dialing in the Family Pasta Sauce. This time with Chipotles.

Growing up my mom had a spaghetti sauce recipe that she followed to a T every time. For a long time I imagined that one day I would too have a sauce that we made consistently. It just hasn't worked out that way. Sauce is always a play of what you have in stock, what is available locally, what the mood is and who you are feeding. Tonight's sauce was spicy and sweet and yummy.

So tonight, we made the sauce like this:

1. In a Dutch Oven like pot (my Crueset is my go to), heat a little olive oil, cook up pieces of hot Italian turkey sausage. Remove with slotted spoon to a bowl.
2. Add a little more olive oil to pot and add 1/2 minced yellow onion, 2 minced carrots, 2 minced celery sticks. Saute for a while.
3. Meanwhile, mince up some fresh rosemary. (I love a little fresh sage too, but did not have any tonight). And mince up the left over pork chop from last night that you already cooked. (Optional and not necessary of course).
4. Once veggies have sauteed to your liking, add the herbs and mix. (Tonight I added Mexican Oregano, Thyme and Fresh chopped Rosemary, Red Pepper Flakes and Lots of Freshly Ground Pepper). Then make a little room to brown the pork a bit. (This could have been done pre veggies, but I spaced). Once pork has browned a bit, add sausage back to pot and stir and let "meld" a bit. Usually I use red wine to deglaze the pan, but tonight I used some port. (Made it too sweet which led to the adding of the chiptoles.) Stirred and allowed to soak until pan was again "dry".
5. Add a can of Fire Roasted Chopped Tomatoes. I wanted the sauce more "saucy". So I peered into my fridge to see if I could find some tomato sauce. I found one labeled 11.03.08. It did not seem okay. If I had had beef broth, I would have added that, but I had some Chicken Stock, so I added a little of that.
   
6. I started the water to boil and began prepping the garlic bread.
   
7. When I tasted the sauce, it seemed too sweet, so I added 2 canned chiptoles. This fixed the problem. Brought Sauce to a boil and allowed it to simmer.
   
8. Once pasta was cooking, I added some chopped fresh Italian Parsley and continued to allow to simmer. I added some salt. (We like the Strangled Priest Noodle).
   
9. Serve with Parmesan to grate.