Alley's Recipe Book: tomato

Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts

Dei Fratelli

I got a chance to work with Dei Fratelli, an Ohio based company specializing in canned and cartoned tomato products. Now I typically grow and can my own tomatoes, but this summer will be a first time since having a garden I will not be growing tomatoes. Since my garden is so small, the only way to avoid tomato blight in the plants is to take a year off. So I was kind of in a conundrum because I'm not giving up tomatoes for a whole year. The next best thing to growing and canning your own tomatoes is supporting a company that is local, organic, and GMO free!

Dei Fratelli is based out of northwest Ohio and sources nearly all of their tomatoes from family farms in Ohio and Michigan. You can get their crushed tomatoes to tomato juice to salsa to marinara sauce in cans, jars, and cartons. I picked up some of their cartons and they have one of the coolest tricks I've seen... the seal, that is always impossible to get open with slippery cooking hands opens when you unscrew the cap, thought that was pretty amazing! Also, I love the cartons because you can store the unused portion in you fidge for almost two weeks... which is perfect when you're only cooking for one or two people.

The best part is that it tastes like home canning! When you unscrew that cap, you get the same wiff of summer just like after that mason jar lid clicks off the jar. Probably one of my favorite smells in the winter. If you're in the market for some canned tomatoes, definitely give Dei Fratelli a try! Not only are you supporting a local company and local farmers, but it also tastes better. :) Also, enter to win a few cartons to try by entering here!

Here are some recipes to try...

cheesy fajita couscous with shredded chili chicken
chicken parm paninis
zucchini stuffed shells
not so sloppy joes
creamy tortellini soup

cheesy fajita cousous with shredded chicken and enchilada sauce

Avocado Toasts - total time 5 minutes

I've seen a lot of avocado recipes out there lately! You would think they were in season or something. Hass avocados (which is what is in most grocery stores) can grow in California all year long, so I guess they are really always in season. Other avocados are harvested in late summer and fall.

But there is a reason everyone loves talking about avocados! They are delicious... buttery and nutty... and they are nutritious... with healthy fats in omega 3s and potassium. Nature's butter. I use it in place of mayo in things like chicken and tuna salad. It's also great on toast! Which brings us to today's post...

I started making "avocado toast" way back in the day, in fact, it was one of the first recipes on this blog. I usually don't roast my own tomatoes for this any more, especially if tomatoes aren't in season. I love getting sun-dried tomatoes packed in jars with olive oil. The flavor is amazing! I always have a jar or two in the pantry to add to pastas and pizza... and toasts. :) Any way... now that we're using jarred tomatoes, it cuts out all of the prep time in this recipe and gets you to the eating portion that much faster! That makes it perfect for breakfast, snacks, or on-the-go lunches.

This is my trusty toaster oven that we received as a wedding gift closing in on eight years ago. It gets used almost every day and I was cleaning it the other day and some of the words and numbers started rubbing off the dials! Good thing we have it all memorized!

Recipe for one avocado toast...
1 piece of bread (or english muffin)
.25 hass avocado
1 sun-dried tomato
a few shavings of parmesan cheese

1. Toast bread.
2. Scoop out avocado with a spoon and smear on the toast.
3. Cut up the sun-dried tomato and layer on top.
4. Sprinkle parmesan on top.
5. Devour.

Roasted Tomato and Garlic Pasta - total time 20 minutes

It's nice and warm outside now (finally), so a quick light pasta is the only kind of pasta that will do.

I planted my garden the first weekend in May and covered it with a hoop house... getting it in the ground early and the extra heat from the plastic cover means I'm starting to get cherry tomatoes already! They're perfect for roasting quickly in the oven along with some garlic and tossing into pasta with basil and parm. So simple and quick, it might end up being your go-to meal this summer!

Oh boy, I am such a messy eater. My husband can always tell when I've been getting into something sweet because I somehow end up with chocolate on my face. I really have no idea how it happens, but he always notices! I swear it's happened when I haven't had anything with chocolate...

So if it happens with a bit of chocolate, you can imagine what happens with something like wings or... heaven help me... sloppy joes. You don't even want to see the damage afterward.

As a result, I have steered clear of the sloppy joe sandwiches. The occasional exception needs to be open-faced with fork and 10 napkins in hand.

But what if you could make it less messy? Why not make it encompass all of the sloppiness? My husband called these sloppy joe hot pockets... but I would like to think these are of higher quality than a microwaved, processed, pocket of heat. It really is just sloppy joe made from scratch (although I just ran out of my own canned tomatoes) and just like you would eat a normal sloppy joe, just all wrapped up! Perfect for lunches and days your short on napkins. :)

You might have noticed there aren't really any red meat recipes on this blog. That is because I rarely eat it. I just don't care for it. There are several reasons for not eating red meat, or any meat in general. I find that most of these ideas are a little extreme.

For example, the health claims that red meat is bad for you. Yes, it might have more cholesterol and fat than other foods, but it also has more protein and iron. Or maybe you have seen PETA videos about the treatment of animals in CAFOs. But thanks to journalists and authors for bringing issues like this to the public, grass-fed, free-range, organic options are available at nearly every grocery store. This change also essentially eliminates other worries (Mad Cow disease, "pink slime", or other recall issues).

So when I saw Food Inc posted this article on Facebook defending Publican's Quality Meats against PETA, I was a little confused at first. But after reading the article, I realized their point was exactly the same point I took away from their documentary. It's not that eating meat is bad, it's a natural thing for most of the animal kingdom, it is about doing it with a conscious. This means voting with your dollar by purchasing that grass-fed, free-range, organic meat or going to restaurants that serve it. If everyone made this change, but our current quantity demand remained the same, there wouldn't be enough land to raise enough livestock. So, it also means reducing that quantity in favor of quality.

To all of those vegans and vegetarians out there, more power to you! I know I could do it, but I also don't want to know what is in that mock meat. I like to keep my options open so I don't feel bad about indulging in a hamburger on occasion or trying something new (like Anthony Bourdain) while still trying to be conscious about my decisions and keeping produce and grains the bulk of each meal.

With that being said, here is another chicken recipe! The pasta and chicken are pretty standard, it's the sauce that has a bit of a twist. Vodka sauce was new to me a few years ago. After having regular marinara all my life, the creamy, cheesy goodness became an instant favorite. If you remove the cheese and use fresh cherry tomatoes, you keep the flavor and make the dish a little lighter.

We ate quite a bit of seafood last week while we were in the Seattle area... salmon, Dungeness crab, black cod, mussels, and more. Almost got tired of it... almost... but when seafood is that fresh, you have to enjoy it while you can! I mean, we saw the salmon swimming upstream. We watched the fish get thrown around at Pike Place Fish Market. And we walked down the spit of the Dungeness crab refuge. You can't get fresher than that unless you caught it yourself!

Considering all the seafood, we didn't have my husband's favorite... shrimps! This recipe is so easy and flavorful and is almost a one-pot meal. And the fact that we're making the sauce from scratch and getting dinner on the table in 40 minutes makes it a perfect weeknight dinner! The cream in the sauce adds the perfect richness, the wine adds some complexity, and cooking the shrimp in the sauce means you keep all of that shrimp flavor. This is definitely one to keep in frequent rotation!

Canning tomatoes is like storing a little bit of summer and getting to open it up again when the ground is covered in snow. It is also pretty easy to do. As long as you have a large pot, some mason jars, and lots of tomatoes... you can do water bath canning. Tomatoes are high enough in acidity that it doesn't require being canned in a pressure cooker. There are only a handful of things you can can this way, and even with high acidity, you still need to be careful and follow every step. You're not putting the preservatives and additives that food producers use in their canning process. So follow the steps and make sure your kitchen is nice and clean before starting!

It is Tomato Festival time in my town this weekend. A little bit of rural fair fun close to the city. And there is a little bit of history behind it too. Down the street from where they set up the festival every year is where Alexander W Livingston grew the first hybrid tomatoes through hand selecting which plants to cross pollinate to encourage beneficial traits. He would select plants based on their disease tolerance, fruit flavor, shape, and color to create the "perfect" tomato plant. Bees have been cross pollinating flowers since the beginning of time, but this was the first time humans involved themselves in the process. Just like how some siblings can have a trait, like blue eyes, while the other siblings do not... it took many attempts to get the desirable traits from multiple plants to come through in one plant.

So, as we celebrate tomatoes in the "birthplace" of the commercial hybrid tomato, our tradition is getting fried green tomatoes at the festival (which we did today!). But some times you have some green tomatoes at home, especially right before the first frost, and it is very simple to fry them up at home too. If you have some meaty ripe tomatoes, those will fry up just as well.

Nothing beats fresh tomatoes in the summer time! There is a reason why tomatoes are the most home grown fruit or vegetable. Some times they end up getting eaten like an apple right there in the garden while they are still warm from the summer sun. The ones that make it inside are enjoyed fresh with some basil and mozzarella, cooked into different meals, made into sauce, or canned to unlock summer again in winter.

I read this book titled Tomatoland last summer. You won't find it in my good reads list only because I felt it was kind of drawn out for a handful of good points, so I'll summarize those points in a few sentences. At one time, tomatoes grew wild in Mexico, and if you search carefully, they still do. The first hybrid tomato plant was grown down the street from where I live today (BTW, hybrids are not GMOs). Most of the tomatoes we see in grocery stores are picked way before they are ripe; while they are still green and hard, so they are sprayed with a gas to ripen while in transit. Tomato field workers travel to where the tomatoes are growing that week, get paid very little, and work in poor conditions.

Right now is about that time of year when everyone is looking for zucchini recipes. Whether your garden is full of them, you couldn't pass them up at the farmers market, or you're preparing for sneak some zucchini on your neighbor's porch day, you may be a little overwhelmed. A couple of my friends have already been offering up their zucchinis!

I can't believe that only a 10 years ago I had never even heard of zucchini, much less ever ate it. Which is why I try to make it a priority to try new foods and cook new things nearly every week. It is easy to get into a routine of the same ten or so meals... but just think of all the things you might be missing out on... like me and zucchini!

Zucchini is such a versatile vegetable. When I first started cooking it, it was usually just a quick saute as a side dish or baked into bread. As I try new recipes, there are many entrees that include zucchini...

A couple recipes where zucchini is the star of the entree...
zucchini enchiladas (my favorite)
stuffed squash blossoms (well, this is before the zucchini is a zucchini)
zucchini fritters
creamy squash casserole

A couple recipes where zucchini is the supporting role...
veggie sushi rolls
beer braised sausage & veggies
vegetarian stuffed peppers
veggie jambalaya

For those of you that think bacon makes everything better... here is a dish for you! I have never been that into bacon. I mean, it is good in small amounts on occasion. This dish kind of changes my mind. The bacon gives it a salty, rich flavor with the crunch of the pan toasted ravioli tossed in some delicious veggies. Basically, I can't wait to make this again!

Cutting out meat has meant cutting out a lot of my favorite foods. But not to worry, many meals can be made meatless! Chicken tortilla soup is one of those soups that I love to make and also get at restaurants. Is has a lot of southwestern ingredients which is perfect for someone who loves Mexican food as much as I do. This soup is not really a meatless version of chicken tortilla soup, but takes a lot of the southwestern flavors... with grilled cheese croutons on top! When I saw that on Pinterest I thought it was complete genius. Grilled cheese is a perfect pairing with just about any tomato-based soup. Yum!

2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups tomato juice
1 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 avocado
1 cup corn
.5 cup dry white wine
.5 cup cream
.5 cup sour cream
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

For the croutons use these grilled cheese tips.

1. Heat butter in large pot. Add chopped onions and saute for three minutes. Add juice and broth, bring to a simmer.
2. In a separate pan, heat corn on medium heat and add spices. Add tomatoes and roast for three minutes.
3. Add corn, tomatoes, and wine to simmering pot. Continue to simmer for five minutes. Add cream and sour cream, stir to combine. Bring back to a simmer and serve, add avocado and grilled cheese croutons.

Veggie Stromboli - total time 30 minutes

There is this place called Sarefino's at North Market in Columbus that serves up the best strombolis I've ever had. So delicious, we get some every time, even if it is to take it home and eat later. There are a couple must stop at vendors at North Market... I always come home with a bag full of tasty treasures after even a quick trip.

Any way, I know I could never recreate their veggie stromboli perfectly, so I made some modification (not to improve upon their recipe, but to prevent mine from turning out soggy). I used the same concept I did for my Italian Chicken Braid, but used most of Sarefino's ingredients (I know they use ricotta, but I have no idea how they make that work).

Whenever I think about taco salads I remember this Bud Light radio spot from way long ago (apparently there was a TV commercial that went along with it). It was about how taco salads have crazy amounts of calories, but because it is a salad, people think they are being healthy. That commercial kind of stuck with me over the years and I don't think I've ever really had a taco salad since even Bud Light thinks it is an unhealthy option. Well, here's one that is light on calories, full on flavor, and completely meatless! It was so good wanted to go back for seconds despite being completely full.

Yippee! I got a new pot this week! It is 'tri ply' like my pans, which means it combines three different metals to get the best advantages from all of them (copper, stainless steel, and aluminum). No more of the non-stick teflon coating! Actually, my old soup pot didn't have the coating either, but anything that did is officially out of my kitchen now. Using a small amount of healthy fats, like olive oil, to prevent food from sticking to your pots and pans is way better than something that the EPA says is a 'likely carcinogen'.

Any way, I made this tasty tomato based soup in my new pot and it is delish!

1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp butter
.25 cup cream
1 cup milk
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups tomato juice (or tomato paste & water)
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 package tortellini
italian herbs
salt & pepper

1. Melt butter in pot. Add in chopped onions and saute for two minutes. Add in garlic, salt, and pepper and let cook for another 2 minutes. Add stock, tomato juice, tomatoes, and herb; bring to a simmer.
2. After it has been simmering for three minutes, add milk and cream, bring back to a simmer. Once simmering again, add tortellini, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Top with some shredded parm and enjoy!

My shiny new pot!

Mini Taco Pies - total time 40 minutes

Another mini, individual serving meal... this may become one of our go-to, easy meals. Taco/fajita night used to be a staple in our house... at least every other week. But because of Pinterest, I have been trying new and different things most nights. We haven't had a taco night at home in a while. Well, it's back! These little guys would be cute as an appetizer too.

1 pound ground turkey

3 torillas

1 cup tomatoes, chopped

1 cup bell peppers, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1.5 cup shredded cheese

chili powder

red pepper flakes

salt & pepper

dollops of sour cream

green onions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook ground turkey. Add onion, tomato, pepper, chili powder, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper and cook for seven minutes. Add in half the shredded cheese; melt and incoorporate.

2. Cut tortillas into smaller circles using a jar or container as a guide. Spray muffin tin with oil and then tuck each tortilla into each cup. Scoop meat/veggie mixture into each up. Top with remaining cheese. Bake for 15 minutes.

3. Top with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of green onions. Eat with your hands! They are tacos afterall!