Make Room fer Arrabbiata Tomato Sauce and Succotash

For my inaugural post, two recipes, both a frantic scramble to make room in my fridge.

Make Room fer Arrabbiata Tomato Sauce (vegan)
adapted from the Green Kitchen Stories’ recipe for Tomato Sauce Arrabiata
(arrabbiata= maaaad. See how the word ‘rabid’s kinda in there.)

I used:

2 tbsp olive oil 

3 medium sized leeks (lazily chopped) 

2 cloves strong garlic (minced) 

2 dried chilis (boiled, cut lengthwise and scraped of inner so-spice. PLEASE wash your hands after doing this, or I guarantee that pepper juice will get in your eye. If you insist on not taking precautions, you can kill the burn in your eye by holding a shot glass of milk on it. No kiddin. ) 

3-4 Tbsps olive juice 

4 medium to large crimini mushrooms 

4 large green tomatoes that are starting to turn red and yellow (cut into quarters) 

All the other tomato pieces in the fridge, including half a handful of sun-dried tomatoes (minced) 

Dash of dried oregano 

Dash of dried basil 

Dash of salt (I used savory flavor bomb Brown Barrel: Ohio Proud Maple Syrup & Bourbon Peppercorn variety. You might be short on it, plain ol' salty salt will probably do. Or leave the salt out all together, that olive juice is going to pack a punch.)

Here's how it all came together:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot on low. Add leeks, garlic, and chili and saute for 5 minutes or however long it takes the leeks to get all filmy. 

2. Add olive juice, mushrooms, and tomatoes and cook until mushroom are nice and smooshy.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 10-20 minutes. 

4. Lower the heat and let it simmer. The firm, green tomatoes had a lot more to prove than say regular ol’ roma, so they needed a LOT of time. I kept the sauce on a super low flame with the lid on for about 2 hours all told. A word on consistency- those tomatoes release a torrent of water, so while you’ve got the lid on, keep an eye on the water level. If it’s too soupy for ya, take the lid off and let that thing reduce. I gave it an additional 45 minutes or so without the lid for this very purpose.

My fella and I had our Arrabbiata bombata over ribbed macaroni and it was TOTALLY OUTSTANDING. I think the combination of the olive juice and all the fresh tomatoes did the trick. Nothing like salt and baller produce.

Succotash on the left, Arrabbiata on the right

Now this sauce used up a lot of what I needed to clear out, but not everything. While it was on the simmer, I whipped up this little number:

Make Room fer Succotash (vegetarian, vegan-able)

I used:

1 C quinoa (cooked)

1 16 oz can black beans (rinse em!)

1 ear of sweet corn (de-kerneled)

1 summer squash, grated (a medium sized one should be enough. I had a state fair winning big bad mamajama so I halved it. Don’t want that raw squash flavor to take over,) 

salt & pepper to taste 

optional- .5 C grated pepper jack. I added this to give the mix a little cohesion. Leave this out or grab the Daiya to make it vegan. Or, use a salad dressing instead, something creamy, maybe tahini or avocado based. Dang, that sounds awesome, I wish I thought of it before I added the jack. O well, I’m not mad at cheese. 

Throw everything together in a bowl and mix it on up. Eat it right then or chill it for later. Use it in wraps, taco, pitas, on a bed of lettuce, with chips, whatever you want. Put the arrabbiata sauce on it, there are no rules! I made collard wraps for lunch, and they pleased me mightily. 2 hints for collard wraps:

1. Gena Hamshaw from the earth shatteringly awesome blog Choosing Raw can show you how to do it.
2. Holes in your leaves? Use a scrap of butterleaf or other lettuce to patch that sucker up. Where's that quinoa goin'? Nowhere.