Kitchen Garden Journal

Why is it that the moment for canning and preserving always falls on really really hot days? Everyone with childhood memories of canning remembers two things: the smell and the heat. For many, sadly, the trauma of the heat curtails nostalgic longing for the intoxicating aromas of jam and tomatoes.

Lately, the humidity has been awful and, of course, I seized my opportunity for canning on a particularly disgusting evening. I set out to repeat the most delicious product of last year’s repeated bouts of sweaty, tomato-vapored kitchen delirium: sugo.

Sugo means “sauce” in Italian. Jars of pre-made tomato sauce like Prego are called sugo pronto, ready sauce. My sugo isn’t really a heat-and-serve thing that you just dump on boiled spaghetti, but it does save a lot of time later when making richly flavored sauces.

Sugo is basically tomato puree that also includes onions, carrots, red peppers, celery and herbs.  It’s like tomato puree and vegetable stock all rolled into one. I usually add it to meat sauces for pasta, but it’s great for other things like vegetable soups, dried beans, beef stew, and Spanish rice. It has a distinct sweetness from the onions and peppers and aromatic depth from the carrots and celery. You can feel all the warmth of summer on those cold winter nights.

And, most importantly perhaps, it’s a great way to use up some of the piles of partially rotting but perfectly usable tomatoes, onions and peppers that inevitably accumulate around the farm this time of year.

The method is very similar to my recipe for tomato puree. Basically, what you do is coarsely chunk up all the tomatoes and toss them in a big pot and bring it to a boil. Then, toss in coarsely chopped pieces of all the other vegetables and stew them in the tomato liquid until they’re soft. I also threw in a big bundle of basil and celery leaves that I took out before pureeing . (I also removed the celery so it wouldn’t make the sauce a yucky color: never puree red and green together, it looks like puke. If you have very light colored celery hearts, go ahead and puree them, too.)

So, for Christmas I asked for a mechanized solution to making this and here’s the verdict: the Kitchen Aid food mill attachment is really messy. I have never made such a mess of my clothes while canning; it even shot hot tomato water in my eye. (WTF!) Will I go back to the hand crank method? Hard to say. It was quicker and less physically exhausting, but not by much.

Anyway, if you want to make this—and I encourage you to do so—you can follow the procedure for tomato puree. You’ll find all the little tips and tricks I’ve learned in that post from last year. 

So happy canning, and please, take a shower.

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The heat wave brought some intense hot and dry weather to the valley last week. While it certainly stressed out a lot of plants and farmers alike, it was the perfect opportunity to get our garlic and a lot of our onions out of the field.

Due to the cold, wet spring we had—which seems like a distant memory now—the garlic harvest started a week later than usual, around the second week of July. The hot, dry conditions that ensued were perfect for harvesting garlic. If it’s wet and rainy during the harvest, the garlic might not dry properly. That was definitely not the case this year, and after a couple of weeks hanging in the loft, the garlic is good and dry and we’re now bringing cured garlic to markets. Check out last year's garlic harvest post for some arty work shots.

After we missed the promised rain last Monday, I saw my chance to field-cure some onions and shallots. So we started windrowing them on Tuesday (where we lay them out in the sun in rows) and by the end of the week they were ready to bring inside. We got to use the onion boxes that we made back in March, which are copies of boxes used on this and many other Valley farms back in the old days. (The one that Alissa & Brian are modeling in this photo is an original one that we found in the barn here. The new ones are visible behind.)

Now the barn is filling up: garlic in all the rafters and onions all over the floor in the loft. Now we just need to sell some and quick, so we can stop worrying about the loft collapsing! Although we hopefully will still have some to sell during the winter time.

Some of our favorite garlic and onion recipes can be found in The Vegetable Pages, like spaghetti with aglio, olio and pepperoncino, Greek salad, and green beans with red onion & vinaigrette. We'll be demonstrating how to make french fries with aioli at this year's Garlic & Arts Festival, Saturday, October 1 in Orange, MA.

The heat  is also pushing along our summer crops and we’re excited to start harvesting some new things. Tiny Padron peppers are a popular snack in Spain just tossed with olive oil and pan roasted or grilled. Once in a while you get a hot one, so watch out! (Martha likes them.)

We’re also psyched about our artichokes coming in. They look great and the flavor is so amazing. So different from the week-old ones we get from California. Here's a link to how to trim an artichoke for cooking. Now we need to get our own page on artichokes up!

And tomatoes are really starting to come in now so stay tuned….   

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• 1 lb penne pasta
• 5-6 brightly colored sweet peppers
• Olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 8 oz sweet Italian sausage meat
• 1 pint tomato puree
• Salt & pepper ½ cup heavy cream
• Freshly torn basil leaves

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove stems and seeds from peppers and cut into bite sized pieces. Toss with a liberal amount of olive oil. Roast peppers for 1 hour on a large baking sheet, stirring from time to time, until limp and blistered. Set aside. Heat the pasta water. Brown the sausage meat in a little olive oil in a wide heavy skillet. (We like to use Pekarski’s sausage from their family smokehouse in S. Deerfield. They use plenty of fat and a nice amount of fennel seed in their mix.) If you have links, squeeze the filling out of the casings. When the meat is nice and brown, add the finely minced garlic and sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Add the tomato puree and roasted peppers. Cook the sauce for 10 minutes or so to meld the flavors (just long enough for your pasta to cook).  Remove sauce from the heat and stir in the cream and basil leaves. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (For a spicy version, add a few shakes of pepper flakes when you add the garlic.) Combine with the pasta and serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Even better the next day.

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Potatoes and peppers are a really amazing combination. When I was working on an olive farm in Italy, the grandmother would heat up a big pot of their oil (the best and freshest I've ever had) and fry potatoes in it. Then she would fry whole peppers in the same oil and when they were cooked, slip the skins off. Then she would put everything in a pan together and let it bubble away on the stove so the flavors melded together. This version is a simpler preparation that gives similar delicious results.

• 2 lbs potatoes
• 2 lbs sweet peppers
• 1 lb or less plum tomatoes
• 1-3 heads garlic
• ½ cup Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

This dish takes advantage of all the flavors of summer.  Cut potatoes into bite sized wedges for roasting.  Cut the peppers into quarters or wide strips (you want them in fairly large pieces).  Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters.  Peel the garlic cloves and leave whole.  Put everything into a large mixing bowl and start pouring on the olive oil, salt and pepper.  Mix well and spread it all out in a single layer of a baking sheet or two.  Bake in a very hot 450° oven for 45 minutes to an hour, scraping and turning every so often, until the potatoes are golden and tender and the peppers and tomatoes have dissolved into a concentrated, smoky tasting sauce and everything is floating in oil.  You could add some fresh rosemary to this dish if you wanted, to no ill effect.

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• 3 sweet peppers, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 sprigs parsley, chopped
• 1 ripe tomato, chopped
• 6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper

Sauté the garlic and onion in oil until soft. Add the peppers and cook on medium heat until softened. Add the tomatoes, parsley, salt and pepper and continue to cook for another 30 minutes, being careful not to burn.

Serve with pasta or atop toasted bread as crostini. It’s also delicious as a side dish for meat.

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• 2 lbs potatoes
• 2 lbs sweet peppers
• 1 lb or less plum tomatoes
• 1-3 heads garlic
• ½ cup Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

This is a really simple dish that takes advantage of all the flavors of summer.  Cut potatoes into bite sized wedges for roasting.  Cut the peppers into quarters or wide strips (you want them in fairly large pieces).  Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters.  Peel the garlic cloves and leave whole.  Put everything into a large mixing bowl and start pouring on the olive oil, salt and pepper.  Mix well and spread it all out in a single layer of a baking sheet or two.  Bake in a very hot 450° oven for 45 minutes to an hour, scraping and turning every so often, until the potatoes are golden and tender and the peppers and tomatoes have dissolved into a concentrated, smoky tasting sauce and everything is floating in oil.  You could add some fresh rosemary to this dish if you wanted, to no ill effect.

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