What the hell is mush you ask? Believe my friend Phaedra came up with it and gave it its name. Few years ago I had my first mush and it was DELICIOUS! It’s quite simple actually combine chili with mac n’cheese and you get mush!

Recently I found myself at Trader Joe’s again, trying to make something quick, simple and cheap, I used a recipe from my sister, Connie, for a cheap quick Trader Joe’s chili. Get a pack of ground beef around $2.25, a can of black beans and a can of tomato soup. Well I left the list of ingredients at work so I had to go with my memory. I thought she told me a can of diced tomato SO I got a can of diced tomato instead of a can of soup. Anyways, I also grabbed a bag of pasta. I went home and cooked the pasta just couple minutes short of al dente time, dumped the cans of black beans and diced tomatoes and mixed. In another pan while the pasta was cooking I cooked the ground meat. When the pasta mixture is nearly done I added the meat and a whole lotta parmesan cheese. Served it with bread!

The gang took a trip to Lowe’s on Saturday and came back with a bunch of seeds and planting supplies. We divided the seeds, that require sowing indoors first, among us and I spent a good part of Sunday sowing the seeds. Got basil, mustard greens, bell peppers, marjoram and tomatoes.

I was looking for a really quick and simple recipe this week and this Linguine with Tomatoes and Capers doesn’t get any more simpler. When you read through the recipe, you may ask “what the hell is tomato passata?” I sure did. With a quick google search I found, the very first result, that tomato passata is tomato paste. Okay BUT other links said that its tomato sauce. So…paste or sauce. I went with tomato paste and bought 3 little tins for 99cents each.

The longest part of this entire recipe was actually getting the pot of water to boil. Once the salted water started to boil, drop the pasta in and cook for 10mins. Then 3 minutes later, cook the tomato, capers, lemon zest sauce. When the pasta is done, drained (save some pasta water!) and add the sauce. Give it a good mix and add the parmesan cheese. When I was mixing the pasta with the sauce, I realized I should’ve went with the tomato sauce instead of pasta. The paste, well, was too thick, hence if you do you the paste save the pasta water because you’ll need it. But the end result was quite tasty and for under 20mins, this recipe was pretty damn good. I think for the next recipe I’ll try something for labor intensive.

can you guess what the topping is?

Back in late summer, when the Farmer’s Market was fairly bursting with fresh tomatoes, I had the “good” idea to freeze a few of them for use during the winter. This was actually pretty easy to do: I scored the tomatoes at the top and dunked them in boiling water for about a minute each, and then removed them and the peels came right off. The tomatoes went into the freezer on an aluminum pan first, and when they had hardened I put them into a plastic bag to store (this may seem like an unnecessary double step, but it’s important because if you just throw the tomatoes into a bag they will all stick together in one big lump; doing them in two steps avoids this problem — look up IQF if you really care¹). Later that day, my roommate came in and asked me if those were, in fact, tomatoes in the freezer. I said they were. He asked why. “Um, er… you can’t get really good fresh tomatoes during the winter,” I said. “Okay…” was his reply. Anyway, I had them in the freezer and I completely forgot about them.

Then one February day I was trying to decide what to make for lunch and I remembered the tomatoes. That’s when things got really weird.

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Here’s a quick and easy recipe that’s perfect for late summer. I started with a disposable aluminum pie pan, and poured a little olive oil on the bottom. Then I arranged slices of roma tomatoes in a circle around the pan, with two small pieces in the center. I drizzled some more olive oil on top, then seasoned liberally with salt and pepper. I also added a little sugar. Then I baked it in a 400 degree oven for about half an hour, until the tomatoes started to darken around their edges. I topped the whole thing off with panko breadcrumbs, grated pecorino romano cheese, and some more olive oil, and then put it back in the oven for about 10 minutes, until the breadcrumbs got brown. I let it cool for a few minutes and then garnished with some fresh parsley. The tomatoes were nice and soft, and their sweetness got concentrated. It all matched perfectly with the salty crunchy breadcrumb topping. Great tomatoes will only be around for a little while longer, so use them while we’ve got them.

I know that conventional wisodm says that you shouldn’t cook a perfectly ripe tomato, but I couldn’t resist. I wanted to make a light, simple pasta dish for lunch, and I had some perfectly ripe roma tomatoes from the market, and this is what I came up with.

While the pasta boils, saute some thinly sliced onions and chiles with some salt and pepper in olive oil. Whent hey are nice and soft, add some fresh tomatoes, chopped into pieces abut an inch long. Add some salt to help them break down, and reduce the heat to low. When the tomatoes are warmed through, turn up the heat, add some fresh oregano and the juice of one lemon. As the lemon juice evaporates, add some of the pasta cooking water and reduce the heat again. Add a little bit of butter to up the savoriness of the dish.

When the pasta is just about cooked drain it and add it to the tomatoes. Cook for another minute together, add a little more olive oil, and serve. Garnish with some more fresh oregano. The lemon juice disappears while enhancing the sweetness and acidity of the tomatoes, and the butter helps the sauce to coat the pasta nicely. Simple and delicious.