Two Dinners in 30 minutes: Wilted Arugula Tomato Pasta and Tequila Shrimp Pasta

Two Dinners in 30 minutes:

Wilted Arugula Tomato Pasta and

Tequila Shrimp Pasta

Serves: 2-3

Wilted Arugula Tomato Pasta

Tequila Shrimp Pasta 

Using Larue’s Long-simmered Fresh Tomato Sauce: the thrust of today’s blog is the base to serve as a springboard for some fabulous quick mid-week meals.  There are a myriad of ways to use the tomato sauce. If you have not had a chance to make it (though I know you will soon!) use a plain, high quality, store-bought, jarred marinara sauce in place of the homemade tomato sauce base. While it will not have the same depth of flavor as a homemade fresh long-simmered sauce, the recipes featured below are flavorful enough on their own to more than compensate.

Both recipes specify 1½ - 2 C to tomato sauce and ½ - ¾ lb pasta, which yields 2-3 servings. Made with ½ lb, they’ll yield 2 main course servings with a somewhat runny sauce – perfect for sopping up with crusty bread. Made with ¾ lb, they’ll yield 3 main course services with enough sauce to sufficiently coat, but not drown, pasta. Fluctuation in amount of tomato sauce will also vary the results a bit. Most sauces follow the same cooking order. You can create your own variations by copying this sequence:

1. sauté ingredient(s) in oil
2. deglaze pan by adding liquid (like stock, wine, spirits, water or juice) to dissolve pan deposits and release flavor
3. reduce liquid to concentrate flavors by simmering to evaporate a portion
4. add base tomato sauce to flavor and thicken sauce

As a general rule, ingredients aren’t sacred! Try swapping shrimp for scallops, snapper filets or chicken, watercress for arugula, etc. Add seasonings or change them. Feel free to experiment! As a general rule, sauces containing seafood, poultry or other meats benefit with additional “flavor blending” time. To prevent them from overcooking, don’t simmer the sauce during this time. Instead, simply turn off heat and let flavors slowly blend into warm sauce.

Wilted Arugula Tomato Sauce 

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 quart packed arugula leaves
• ¾ C fat-free chicken stock or vegetable stock
• 1½ - 2 C tomato base
• ½ - ¾ lb pasta of your choice
• Water
• Salt
• ¼ oz freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a saucepan over low heat. Add garlic and sauté until golden, about 2 minutes.  Be careful to not brown, as garlic will turn bitter. Add arugula leaves and sauté until wilted about 30 seconds only. Increase heat to medium, deglaze pan with chicken or vegetable stock. Reduce heat to low and simmer 3 minutes. Add tomato base.  Bring to a simmer and cook 5 minutes.

 

Garlic, arugula, and base sauce

Wilted arugula

The sauce is ready for the pasta!

Meanwhile, cook pasta in plenty of rapidly boiling salted (like the ocean!) water until al dente. Drain and place in a large serving bowl. Pour sauce over, toss, sprinkle with ¼ C freshly grated Parmesan and serve immediately. YUM!

Tequila Shrimp Pasta 

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 finely diced jalapeno chilies
• ½ lb. peeled and deveined raw shrimp
• ¾ C gold tequila
• 1½ - 2 C tomato base
• ½ C minced cilantro, divided
• ½ - ¾ lb pasta of your choice
• Water
• Salt

Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a saucepan over low heat. Add jalapenos. Sauté about 2 minutes and then add garlic, sautéing an additional 1-2 minutes. Increase heat to high. Add shrimp. Sauté just until shrimp turn pink, about 3-5 minutes pending their size. Do not overcook, as they will turn tough. Using a slotted spoon, remove and reserve shrimp (and any clinging bits of garlic or jalapeno), allowing oil to drip back into pan.

 

Plump raw shrimp

Saute with the garlic and jalapenos

Deglaze pan with tequila. Reduce heat to low and simmer until harsh alcohol flavor evaporates, about 3 minutes. Add tomato base. Bring to a simmer and cook 5 minutes.

Add reserved shrimp and ¼ C minced cilantro. Cook just until shrimp reheats, about 3 minutes. Time permitting, turn off heat, and allow flavors to blend up to 30 minutes and reheat briefly just before serving.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in plenty of rapidly boiling salted (again, like the ocean!) water until al dente. Drain and place in a large serving bowl. Pour sauce over, toss, sprinkle with an additional ¼ C minced cilantro, toss again and serve immediately. DOUBLE YUM!!

Enjoy!

Larue

Dr. Larue’s Long-Simmered Fresh Tomato Sauce with Canning Basics

Dr. Larue’s long-simmered Fresh Tomato Sauce with canning basics

Yields about 8 (1½ C) Portions

Ms. Larue’s long-simmered Fresh Tomato Sauce

I have been growing, cooking and canning tomatoes for years for a variety of uses.  Easily the most versatile is tomato sauce. If you are not growing your own, head to your farmer’s market toward the end of the day, and pick up a bushel of tomatoes to turn into the best ever tomato sauce. If you freeze it or can it you will be a brilliant chef all winter.  This sauce is very basic – nothing but great tomatoes, onions, a bit of seasoning and garlic, of course. I use it in a myriad of pasta sauces all year-round. 

The base tomato sauce made with fresh vine-ripened tomatoes and long simmering will deliver the richest of flavors, and, in turn, will create more complex tastes in your sauces. Because the base tomato sauce is a foundation, you can use it to build a more flavorful sauce with the addition of a myriad of ingredients. Next week I will post two quick “under 30 minute” entrees featuring the base tomato sauce. Look for them.

Feel free to quarter, half, double or even triple this recipe depending on how much sauce you want to make or by how badly that bumper crop of tomatoes is taking over your garden.

• 1/3 C olive oil
• 2 lbs. red or sweet onions, chopped
• ¼ C garlic, minced
• 10 lbs vine-ripened tomatoes, cored, diced – and peeled if not using a food mill
• ½ C fresh basil leaves – plus, if canning, 1 leaf per jar
• 1 Tb fresh oregano
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 Tb kosher salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• Fresh lemon juice if canning, 2-3 Tb per jar 

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add onions and cook, covered, 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, reduce heat to low, and cook, covered, 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove cover and cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add diced fresh tomatoes, ½ C basil leaves, oregano, red pepper flakes, salt and sugar and cook 2 hours, stirring occasionally. If you have peeled the tomatoes, remove 1 quart at this time, puree in a blender, return to pot and cook an additional 1-hour. If you are using a food mill, cook the entire batch for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

Diced tomatoes

Basil...also from the garden

Tomato sauce, pre-food mill

If using a food mill, put all thru mill on the coarsest disc. Cool if you are not canning, measure into 1½ C – 2 C portions and package in plastic zip-top freezer bags or other containers. Use immediately, refrigerate up to 4 days or freeze up to 4 months. Follow instructions below for canning.

 

Ancient wrist torture device, also called "food mill"

Sauce post-food mill

Canning Instructions

Keep the tomato sauce warm. Wash jars, lids and screw bands with hot sudsy water, rinse thoroughly and dry. I usually run the jars through the dishwasher just before I begin canning use the hot dry cycle and pull the hot jars from the dishwasher just before filling. You want the jars sterile and hot when adding hot sauce to them. Clean and hot are the two key words in boiling water canning. The aim is to avoid contaminating the jars (be sure to touch them only with clean utensils) and to keep them warm so a tight seal will form. Essentially clean, hot jars are filled with food, boiled (“processed”) to sterilize their contents. As the jars cool, the food and any air inside contracts, creating a vacuum that sucks the lid on for a tight seal. That's all. J

Getting ready to can

This method can only be used for high-acid foods. In order to be safe, I always add 2-3 tsp of fresh lemon juice to each jar of tomato soup or sauce before boiling. (As an aside, use a pressure canner for low-acid foods such as homemade soups, unpickled vegetables and stews.)

Start water boiling in large canning pot. I usually have a second pot with boiling water so I can easily add additional water to large canning pot if needed in order to cover the jars.

 

Under water and boiling

Ladle the hot sauce into clean, hot jars, leaving ½” headspace. Add 2-3 tsp fresh lemon juice. Run a clean nonmetallic wand or chopstick around the inside of the jar to remove trapped air bubbles. Wipe rims of jars with dampened, clean paper towel; secure the lids with screw bands tightened by hand into place. Carefully lift jars and place in canner rack in pot of softly boiling water. Add more hot water if needed to cover jars by 1½ - 2 inches. Once water resumes boiling – begin timing for 45 minutes. When complete, carefully remove jars and set on a nearby towel. You will hear popping sounds as the vacuum is created. Do not tighten the bands after the jars have been processed as this could break the seal. Cool the jars for 24 hours. When cool, one can remove the screw bands. They are not necessary once the lids are sealed and may rust and distort storage, ruining the seal. Check each seal by pressing on the center of the lid. Sealed lids should be slightly concave in the center. If the center pops down when you press it and stays that way the seal is probably fine. If it pops back up after it’s pressed, the seal is broken and the jar should be refrigerated.

 

Final product....you can remove the screw tops safely for storage if there is a good seal

Canned tomato sauce or the Umami-rich Tomato Soup can be canned and stored for 10-12 months. Imagine fresh tomato sauce or soup from a summer harvest year-round. What could be better!

Larue

Spice-Infused Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Whipped Cheese or Lemon Tahini Sauce

Spice-Infused Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Whipped Cheese or Lemon Tahini Sauce

Serves: 6

 

Spice-Infused Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Whipped Cheese or Tahini

Whipped cheese....or you can make the Lemon Tahini Sauce for lower cal option (also below)

I quickly tore this recipe out of Bon Appetit, without even glancing at the ingredients or method of cooking, based on the picture alone. It originates from a fabulous New Orleans restaurant, Domenica, of the famed Besh restaurant group. The picture looked that great. Then, like too often in this hectic life, it was filed away under “someday”. Today was that day. Good thing for me cauliflower is pretty much available year round. Now I have done it….twice actually and soon to be three or four more times.

 

Cauliflower as art!

I have been a huge fan of roasted cauliflower ever since I first tried it. There is just something about roasted cauliflower…roasting it takes something that is pretty boring and transforms it into something that is extraordinary. Even in its simplest form as posted July 23, 2012 – Oven Roasted Cauliflower – it is ridiculously addictive. (http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2012/07/oven-roasted-cauliflower.html) I could easily chow down on a bowl of it rather than popcorn while watching a movie. Really. So it comes to the only real question, why stop with olive oil, salt and pepper when you could add any number of flavors or seasonings? The basic idea is to precook in a seasoned flavor-packed poaching liquid, which infuses it with flavor, roast it and then serve it alone or a myriad of sauces. On this culinary trip, I made a whipped cheese sauce.

2½ C dry white wine

½ C olive oil, divided

¼ C kosher salt

3 Tb fresh lemon juice

2 Tb unsalted butter

1 Tb crushed red pepper flakes

1 Tb sugar

1 bay leaf

8 C water

1 large head cauliflower, leaves removed

2 oz. fresh goat cheese

1½ oz. cream cheese

1½ oz. feta cheese

¼ C heavy cream

Coarse sea salt for serving

Preheat oven to 475 degree F. Bring wine, 1/3 C olive oil, kosher salt, lemon juice, butter, red pepper flakes, sugar, bay leaf and 8 C water to a boil in a large pot. Add cauliflower, reduce heat, and simmer, turning occasionally, until knife easily inserts into center, 15-20 minutes.

 

Cauliflower after boiling

Using two slotted spoons, transfer cauliflower to a rimmed baking sheet or pan, draining well. Roast the cauliflower, rotating sheet halfway through, until brown all over, 30-40 minutes.

 

Cheeses for the cauliflower...soon to be whipped

While cauliflower is roasting, blend goat cheese, cream cheese, feta, heavy cream and 2 Tb olive oil in a food processor until smooth; season with sea salt. Transfer whipped cheese to a serving bowl. Whipped cheese can be made 1 day ahead. Cover. Chill. Serve at room temperature.  Drizzle with olive oil just before serving.

Lemon Tahini Sauce

Transfer cauliflower to a plate. Drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with sea salt. Serve with whipped cheese and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

The cauliflower is wonderful alone. But if looking for alternatives, try a sprinkling of zatar with yogurt, or cheddar cheese sauce, or mixture of yogurt and feta. Wouldn’t this be great with a Thai peanut sauce!?!

I am particularly found of tahini – and I committed in earlier blogs to bring more uses for tahini to you. Try this with roasted cauliflower.  Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Sauté 2 tsp garlic in the oil 1-2 minutes, or until fragrant. Stir in 3 Tb tahini, 3Tb fresh lemon juice, or more to taste, 6 Tb water and salt (to taste). Simmer over low heat 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat, put thru a blender if you need to smooth it out, sprinkle with chopped parsley and toasted sesame seeds and serve alongside cauliflower. Look for another tahini recipe: Roasted eggplant with Goat cheese, tahini & pine nuts (http://cookingwithlarue.blogspot.com/2013/07/roasted-eggplant-with-goat-cheese.html).

However you serve the whole roasted cauliflower, it will delight you and your guests.

Bon Appetit!

Larue