Garlic | I Can Cook That

Tomato Sauce

My mom and aunts make mean tomato sauce. But sadly, they have not signed on to making sure my freezer is sufficiently filled with their delicious sauce. So I’ve finally broken down and attempted my own. Tomato sauce is quite adaptable, you can really throw in whatever you wish. Here’s my attempt at making a tomato sauce my Italian relatives would be proud of…

Ingredients:
2 cans of crushed tomatoes
1 can of pureed tomatoes
1/3 cup of red wine (whatever you already have opened will do)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons each of parsley, oregano, basil, and thyme
1 bay leaf
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper
1 shallot, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil

Begin by preparing the garlic and shallots. I happened to have shallots on hand, so that’s why I used them instead of an onion. Shallots kind of taste like sweet onions with a bit of garlic to them, so I thought that would work well in the sauce.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and shallots and saute for 1 minute.

Add the cans of tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, spices, wine, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir and bring to a boil. (Be careful, the tomato sauce pops up). Feel free to add more spices or sub in whatever you’d like.

see?

Lower the heat and cover. Simmer for 1 hour. If the sauce seems too thin, add a teaspoon of tomato paste to the sauce. Be sure to remove the bay leaf.

Tomato sauce always tastes better after its been frozen and has had time to meld all the flavors, so I still don’t know how well it turned out. I did have a bit with some spaghetti right after it finished cooking and so far, so good. I can already tell it doesn’t stack up to my family’s sauce, but hey, not to shabby for a girl with freckles if I do say so myself 🙂 I wish I had thought ahead and made meatballs with the sauce too. Meatballs add a nice earthiness to the sauce that really enhance the sauce. Next time…

Parsley Hummus with Toasted Pine Nuts & Pita

Hummus is really easy to make and can be customized to whatever suits your tastes. I am still working through my parsley, so I decided to try a parsley hummus on Epicurious with a few adjustments.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of parsley leaves
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 can of chickpeas, rinsed
the juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons tahini
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
pita bread
cooking spray
salt, to taste

Preheat the over to 450 degrees. Cut the pita into triangles and arrange on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray.

Cook for 4-5 minutes and set aside. Place the chickpeas in a colander and rinse with water.

Roughly chop the garlic.

Put the parsley and the garlic in a food processor and process until thoroughly mixed, about 1 minute.

Add the chickpeas and process for another minute.

Add in the lemon juice, lemon zest, tahini, olive oil, cumin, cayenne pepper, and salt (to taste). Process until smooth.

Place the pine nuts in a saute pan over medium heat. Shake the pan frequently to keep them from burning. When fragrant and browned, remove from heat.

Take 3/4 of the pine nuts and finely chop.

Add the chopped pine nuts to the hummus and mix in with a spoon. Top the hummus with the remaining whole pine nuts.

The spices add great flavor but there isn’t enough in it to give heat. The pine nuts give the hummus some crunch. And for some reason, it makes me super happy that this hummus is such a pretty green color. If you’re not in the mood for toasted pita, tomatoes or sliced cucumber would be quite tasty with this.

Seared Scallops with Garlic-Parsley Butter

I found a recipe on My Recipes for Seared Scallops with Garlic-Parsley Butter. It even includes my other favorite ingredient: mushrooms. And, even better, the recipe is served over a mashed potato puree! I think they might have written this recipe just for me.

Ingredients:
6 oz of larger sized scallops
Salt and Pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons minced spring garlic
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 package shiitake mushrooms, rinsed, stemmed, and thinly sliced
1/2 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons canned crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Ingredients for Yukon Gold potato puree:
1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons whipping cream
Salt and Pepper

Bring 2 to 3 quarts water to a boil. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1-inch pieces.

Add potatoes to the pot and cook until tender when pierced, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and put in a bowl.

Mash the potatoes with 1/4 cup chicken broth, 2 tablespoons whipping cream, salt and pepper to taste. I just used a fork, but a potato masher would have really sped up the process. Set aside.

Rinse the scallops and pat dry.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Prepare your mushrooms. Remove the stems and discard. Thinly slice the caps.

Mince the shallot and green garlic. Green garlic is also known as spring garlic. It happened to be part of my CSA share, so if you just have normal garlic, that will work just fine.

Heat a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add scallops to the pan and cook, flipping the scallops once until browned on both sides and opaque, about 4 minutes total.

Transfer the scallops to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add 1/2 tablespoon butter, garlic, and shallot to the saute pan.

When the butter is melted, add the mushrooms.

Stir often until mushrooms are browned, about 5 minutes.

Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter, chicken broth, parsley, tomatoes, white wine, and lemon juice.

Bring to a boil and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the potato puree to a bowl. Top with the scallops and spoon mushrooms and sauce over the scallops.

Oh this was so so good. I don’t know how this recipe managed to get so many of my favorite ingredients into one dish and still make it taste good, but I don’t think I’ve ever been happier on a Monday night. Yum.

Wilted Spinach with Garlic Vinaigrette

Most sides are a bit of an afterthought. I tend to just whip something up really quick to give my dish more color, or to make me feel like I’m being healthy because there is some green on my plate. But this Wilted Spinach with Garlic Vinaigrette side dish is so good, I’d be happy to have just this for dinner. I am not the biggest fan of mustard in general, but the small amount of Dijon mustard really ups this side from good to great.

Ingredients

1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 garlic cloves, minced (or thinly sliced, whatever makes you happy)

6 cups baby spinach leaves

¼ cup sliced red onion

To prepare the vinaigrette, combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl (up to salt) combining with a whisk. Heat the vinaigrette in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Gradually add the spinach (it will shrink up a lot!) and toss to combine. Remove from heat when wilted (1-2 minutes).

The spinach ended up stealing the show when I made it (I had a pasta/chicken dish along with it). It was a very quick and easy side; I cannot wait to make this again!