Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Sunny Golds with Bacon Pasta Sauce

August 14, 2020 by Mary 5 Comments

It’s summertime and the living should be easy, right? Well in this Covid/ pandemic time, nothing seems easy. But I hope this super simple, really easy and wonderfully tasty Sunny Golds with Bacon Pasta Sauce Recipe will cheer you up.

Pasta in Italy

First of all, pasta is always a great comforting dish, which is sorely needed in these anxiety-ridden times. I remember my summer living in Italy and helping Bianca with her broken leg, making a pasta for dinner, and Bianca said she could eat the whole bowl of pasta and eat it every day!

However, in my experience with the Italians at home, I saw them carefully weighing their dried pasta before cooking, so as to not overeat as they love it so much. They are not fat.

Easy peasy.

This Sunny Golds with Bacon Pasta Sauce recipe couldn’t be easier as just a little bit of time is needed to cut the tomatoes. Literally, that is the most labor-intensive thing here.

And if you’re not a meat eater, just skip the bacon and use 2 tablespoons of olive oil instead. Although the bacon does add that wonderful smokey flavor and everything is always better with bacon, right, as long as you eat meat.

Sliced Sunny Gold tomatoes with minced garlic. — Minced garlic added to the sliced Sunny Golds.

Sliced Sunny Gold tomatoes and raw bacon ready to roast. — Sunny Golds and bacon ready to go into the oven.

Be sure to trim the bacon of any big fat chunks, as the fat will be left in your finished dish.

The Sunny Golds are so sweet and flavorful, you can do it either way, with or without the bacon. I did it both ways just this week. Because the high heat of the roasting brings out the flavor of the tomatoes even more, I know you will really enjoy this.

Here is the recipe – don’t forget to add LOVE while slicing those tomatoes!

SUNNY GOLDS WITH BACON PASTA SAUCE – serves 3 – 4

A little less than a quart of sunny gold tomatoes, washed and cut in half
3 slices of no nitrate, thick cut bacon, cut into 1/2 pieces. Remove large chunks of fat and discard.
OR use: 2 Tbs. olive oil
3 cloves of garlics, smashed or minced
1 tsp. crushed dried oregano
¾ of a pound of dried pasta
Grated Pecorino cheese
Fresh basil leaves for garnish

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Toss the tomatoes with the bacon or olive oil (not both as the bacon will provide the fat as it cooks), garlic, dried oregano, salt and pepper in a 9” x 9” glass Pyrex baking dish and bake at 425 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes, until the bacon is cooked and the tomatoes have collapsed.

Meanwhile, boil your water for the pasta, salt liberally, preferably with coarse sea salt and cook your pasta according to the package directions, starting to check for doneness at 2 minutes less than the lesser time. You will not be cooking the pasta any more in this sauce so make sure it is done to your liking but still al dente. Drain the pasta in a colander.

Warm the bowls you will be serving the pasta in as well as the large bowl to combine it all.

When the sauce is done, remove it from the oven and toss it with the pasta in the separate warmed large bowl. Use tongs to combine. Scrape in all the juices too!

When it is thoroughly combined, serve in warmed individual bowls garnished with fresh basil and offer fresh grated pecorino and an extra pinch of LOVE.

Sunny Golds and bacon finished roasting and ready to toss with the cooked pasta.

A serving of Sunny Gold Tomatoes with Bacon Pasta Sauce on spaghetti in a white bowl. — Finished single serving!

Enjoy!!

What We Should Be Eating & Making Now

July 15, 2020 by Mary 4 Comments

So, I have been trying out new recipes for you BUT, I haven’t found any that are great enough to share with you. They just aren’t and I’m sorry I haven’t had the time to fuss with them to make them better and therefore sharable! However, recently I came across this article that outlines the diets of the longest living, healthiest people on the earth, and there are six tenants for What We Should Be Eating & Making Now.

Here are the highlights from the article entitled The 6 Golden Rules of Eating for Longevity, According to the Longest-Living People on Earth by Allie Flinn from the blog Well+Good.

1.) Drink wine after 5 pm.

It’s 5 pm somewhere! Ideally with friends and a meal. I’m in!!

2.) Eat mostly plant-based foods.

Now I do eat meat, almost every day, but I have been trying to have more meatless days…

3.) Include plenty of carbs in your diet.

Surprising to me! They eat grains, greens, tubers, nuts, and beans. Beans seem to be most important, and I know when I am hangry (hungry and angry because of it), beans or lentils calm it the most.

4.) Enjoy meat only on occasion, and only 6 ounces at a time.

Your portion should be no bigger than a deck of cards – that is enough.

5.) Stick to black coffee, water and wine as your beverages.

In other words, pure stuff, no sugary nonsense.

6.) Practice modified forms of intermittent fasting.

I personally have been fasting 16 – 18 hours per day and I have lost weight and feel so much better. So, I may eat dinner at anytime between 6 pm and 8 pm and I will not eat anything the next day until 1 or 2 pm and that really works for me. At that time, I do have a really good meal, like a full dinner, with protein being eaten first. This is working for me in so many ways, I hope you try it for yourselves. And no, I do not miss breakfast first thing. You do not need it at our age.

I will also add to this list a few other things that I have been doing:

Practicing mindful eating.

Eating and chewing slowly, being conscious of what you are enjoying, is so important. This practice will result in eating less as it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to tell you that your stomach is full.

Intentional choices for your food.

I was having high blood pressure readings, most likely from the stress of trying to remake my life after the sudden passing of my husband, Steve, as well as lack of sleep from the stress, so my doctor immediately wanted to put me on blood pressure medicine, but I was not going to go in that direction. Instead I did some research and started eating a lot of broccoli – raw or barely roasted – sweet potatoes, flax seed crackers and taking the oil in supplement form, and eating 6 cashews a day as a preventative action for cancer. I am happy to say that my blood pressure is back to my usual good-to-low readings.

And then of course, are you drinking enough water

Years and years ago, I once had a doctor explain to me that your body needs plenty of fluids flowing always, to transport the white blood cells around to kill any infections that might be lurking. So drink up that filtered water!!

Food can have a profound impact on how people think and feel.

I would love to know the diets of the violent rioters. I wonder if they’re full of processed foods, high in saturated fats and simple carbs?

What do you think?

Since I don’t have any new recipes at this time that are good enough to share, here is a reprise of some of my summer favorites!

Feta radishes watercress and mint toasts platter. — **Feta, radishes, watercress and mint toasts**

Midwest potato salad in a white Le Crueset bowl garnished with parsley. — **Midwest potato salad at Tanglewood**

Best potato salad with fennel, Parmesan cheese, cipollini onions and picholine olives. — **Best Potato Salad** with fennel, Parmesan cheese, cipollini onions and picholine olives.

Sorrel pesto on a spoon. — **Sorrel Pesto**

Greek Roasted chicken, chicken with parsely garnish — **Santorini Grilled Chicken with a Lemon/Garlic Basting Sauce accompanied by a Greek Salad**

Greek Salad, salad with feta cheese tomatoes cucumbers greek — Tomato and cucumber Greek salad

Make and serve all with LOVE!

Garlic Scape Pesto

July 2, 2020 by Mary 6 Comments

Summertime means pesto time, right? Usually it is basil for me but my friend Lainne at Ethel and Tom’s farm stand in Red Hook told me that Kim, from Second Chance Farm was buying bunches and bunches of garlic scapes to make Garlic Scape Pesto, and I was intrigued.

I wondered if she sautéed the scapes first or just pureed them raw…

Great neighbors and friends

At any rate, I naturally bought several bunches and started to hunt down Kim’s number to text her. But then I saw her husband, Charlie, at the dump on Saturday and he had Kim call me! This is my wonderful small town that I live in, in upstate New York. Everybody knows each other or knows someone who knows that person. And everyone wants to be truly helpful and is so sharing. It is so nice!

So, Kim texted me a photo of her handwritten recipe for this Garlic Scape Pesto. I have made it twice already, shared with my kids, and gotten rave reviews – so thank you Kim!!

And no, Kim does not saute them first. The scapes go in raw, chopped in ¼” pieces so that makes this pesto super easy to make. Way easier than the basil variety! No washing of the leaves and letting them dry and no peeling and chopping the garlic.

Another tip I learned while living in Italy, is to buy Parmigiano Reggiano grated, if you’re going to be making a lot of pesto soon, as it makes it so much easier to be able to skip that hand grating step. Because I went grocery shopping often with my friend Cristina, she taught me this little trick, as I was surprised. She said, “Why spend the time? This is just as good!”

Process it well!

Be sure to add the oil streaming in the food processer while it is running to enable it to fully incorporate. Additionally, this will need a few extra minutes to process as you do want to make sure the raw scapes are very finely chopped.

Here you go with the recipe – super quick and easy. Make with LOVE.

GARLIC SCAPE PESTO – serves 4 – 6 on pasta

1 cup of chopped garlic scapes – use the green part only – up to the bulb but do not include the bulb, chopped into ¼” pieces
1/3 cup walnuts
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup grated Parmagiano
Salt to taste
Fresh ground pepper to taste

In a food processor, chop the scapes and walnuts until fine. Slowly add in the EVOO to combine. Add the cheese, a large pinch of salt and 20 grinds of fresh black pepper. Process again until all combined and pureed.

To serve on pasta

Boil your pasta 2 minutes less than the lesser amount of time on your package in well salted boiling water. Before draining the pasta, save about ¾ of a cup of the pasta water.

Combine sauce and pasta with a few tablespoons of pasta water to help loosen the sauce, make it adhere to the pasta better and finish cooking the pasta over medium-low heat, stirring constantly.

When the pasta is al dente, serve immediately in warmed bowls. You may add more cheese but I don’t think it needs it. Some additional fresh ground black pepper is nice. A Spumante Brut pairs great!

And of course, you can always add more LOVE.

Char-grilled Broccoli with Sweet Tahini

October 27, 2019 by Mary 6 Comments

Did you know that broccoli is one of THE most nutritious vegetables? I just learned that and I LOVE broccoli. This recipe from Ottolenghi of Char-grilled Broccoli with Sweet Tahini is super delicious and really different tasting.

Make this soon while it is still warm enough to grill outside, because trying to grill it inside does produce a fair amount of smoke, so better to be outside.

Nutritional benefits

More importantly, back to the nutritious benefits of broccoli, did you know that a cup (91 grams) of raw broccoli provides 116% of your daily vitamin K needs, 135% of the daily vitamin C requirement and a good amount of folate, manganese and potassium? It’s a top source of natural plant chemicals shown to help lower the risk of some cancers (though many other things also affect your cancer risk).

According to one doctor, broccoli is all you need! It’s because the green vegetable is good for healthy gut bacteria, bowel health, and improving immune health.

As an overall marker of health, gut health is quite important as it has a “profound influence not only on our digestive function but also on our mood and brain function” and may also affect our weight and potential joint pain, according to Dr Chatterjee.

This link between healthy gut bacteria and a healthy mind is relatively new, as science emerges.

According to Harvard University Medical School, a person’s stomach or intestinal distress can actually be the cause of anxiety, stress, or depression “because the brain and gastrointestinal system are intimately connected”.

So this is why we must all eat more broccoli!!

Now I am NOT a lover of tahini. In fact, I do not like it at all in hummus, but because this is sweetened a bit with honey, along with the addition of garlic and lemon, this is just different, delicious, and delectable!

Charred Broccoli with Sweet Tahini Dressing.

CHAR-GRILLED BROCCOLI WITH SWEET TAHINI – serves 4

1 head of broccoli – 1+ lbs.
1 TBS. olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
2.5 TBS. tahini – at room temperature and stirred thoroughly so all oil is incorporated
1½ tsp. honey
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed
Water – at room temperature
1 tsp. each white and black sesame seeds, toasted (or just 2 tsp. toasted white sesame seeds)

Trim any big leaves off of the broccoli and cut off the woody base of the stems. Blanch for three minutes in boiling, salted water until al dente, refresh, drain and leave to dry.

Toss the broccoli in the oil, a teaspoon of salt and a large pinch of pepper, then cook on a very hot, ridged griddle pan or outdoor grill for two minutes on each side, until slightly charred and smoky. Set aside to cool.

Whisk the tahini, honey, lemon juice, garlic and a pinch of salt, and slowly start to add water, half a tablespoon at a time. At first, the sauce will look as if it has split, but it will soon come back together. Add just enough water to make the sauce the consistency of honey – around three tablespoons in total. Arrange the broccoli on a platter, drizzle with sauce and scatter the sesame seeds on top. Serve at room temperature.

Charred Broccoli with Sweet Tahini Cose-up. — Charred Broccoli with Sweet Tahini Close-up

This is a perfect accompaniment to any meal. And you can make it ahead of time – no sweat!

I hope you LOVE this Char-grilled Broccoli with Sweet Tahini recipe as much as I do.

Rhubarb Sauce with (optional) Bing Cherries

September 9, 2019 by Mary 6 Comments

I know I haven’t been as attentive as promised, it’s just so hard with Steve being gone and I’m sorry. However, this Rhubarb Sauce with (Optional) Bing Cherries is super delicious, easy to make, and very versatile, so I wanted to share.

You can use it in either a sweet or savory position – great on grilled salmon, chicken, or pork, AND great in yogurt or on top of ice cream. Totally yummy, all ways.

Adding the cherries is extra work – to pit and halve them. It’s optional as you don’t really need them but I thought they added a nice full-bodied contrast to the texture of the sauce. And the cherries are nice in either the savory or sweet rendering. I called my good friend, Tiziana, in Italy and chatted for nearly an hour while I pitted and halved cherries and it was a great time for us to catch up on the news on everyone! Put your phone on speaker mode and you’re all set! SWEET!!

Hope all is good in all of your worlds.

Here’s the recipe for the Rhubarb Sauce With (Optional) Bing Cherries. Do make it, it’s so easy, and enjoy! Hurry, before the rhubarb and cherries are out of season.

Rhubarb Sauce with Bing Cherries Ingredients. — Rhubarb Sauce with Bing Cherries Ingredients

Rhubarb Sauce with (optional) Bing Cherries – cooking in the pan.

RHUBARB SAUCE WITH (OPTIONAL) BING CHERRIES – serves 6 – 8

1 lb. fresh rhubarb, washed, cleaned and cut into 1” pieces
1 ½ cups pitted and halved Washington Sweet or Bing cherries
¾ cup of water
¼ tsp. ground allspice
1 bay leaf
1” piece of fresh ginger, finely minced
1 stick of cinnamon
1 star anise
5 Tbs. sugar
Salt to taste – just a little
1 Tbs. unsalted butter

Combine all ingredients, except for the salt and butter, in a saucepan and simmer until all the rhubarb is broken down. The cherries will not break down and that is what gives you the different texture, which is nice. This will take 30 – 45 minutes or so. Stir often while cooking this.

Once the rhubarb is all broken down and you have a nice marmalade texture, remove from heat, add a little salt to taste and swirl in the butter until melted. Remove the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, and start anise.

Serve as a puddle on the plate for grilled salmon, sautéed pork chops, or grilled chicken thighs, and then top each item with a little sauce. This is also great stirred into yogurt or on top of ice cream. Only serve with LOVE!

ENJOY! Delizioso!!