Archive Recipe of the Week: Tomato Sauce with Root Vegetables

The Archive Recipe of the Week is finally back! No excuses. No explanations. Let’s eat!

When I made this sauce for pasta a couple years ago, I was so impressed by this great, flavorful, healthful use of the late-winter bounty of root vegetables. I used to subscribe to a winter share from a CSA* and had lots and lots of vegetables that needed a delicious home.

And delicious this sauce was and still is. In fact I was surprised all over again by how good it is. What I have found out since that first try of the recipe, however, is that packing finely chopped or shredded vegetables into spaghetti sauce is nothing new. Some moms and grandmas I know have always done this to trick their kids into eating more vegetables. Blanketing extra vegetables in a long-cooking sauce not only makes more palatable vegetables for the faint of heart, but also makes for an even more tasty sauce. One of my friends insists that her grown children have been asking for her secret spaghetti sauce recipe, but she won’t give it to them, fearing their reaction when they learn that they had been tricked throughout their childhood.

I really like the earthy flavors contributed by the carrots, parsnip and rutabaga in this sauce. If you want to hide these particular vegetables on your kids, you might want to try a smaller dose and replace the missing bulk with another can of diced tomatoes. I also like the richness brought in by the red wine, but if you don’t want wine in your sauce, you could replace it with more water.

This winter has been a rough one, and we’re all ready for spring, but I hope you won’t give up on winter vegetables just yet. This sauce is really a fabulous celebration of what might be left from the last of those warm days so long ago. And it will warm and comfort you the way only a rich tomato sauce can.

 

 

*While I no longer subscribe to the CSA, I still like to support the farm and can get great vegetables from there as well from other great growers in the area at local markets.

 

 

Tomato Sauce with Root Vegetables

Adapted from Recipes from the Root Cellar by Andrea Chesman

The amount of added salt needed will likely depend on the amount already present in the canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Taste the sauce and adjust for salt as you like it.

1 medium carrot, peeled

1 medium parsnip, peeled
1 small to medium rutabaga (or half of a large one), peeled
1 medium yellow onion, peeled
¼ cup olive oil, preferably extra-virgin
1 head garlic, about 10 medium cloves, separated, peeled and left whole
1 ½ cups water
1 cup dry red wine (I used a Cabernet-Merlot blend)
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste if desired
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
cooked pasta of your choice for serving
grated Parmesan cheese for serving

 

1. Coarsely chop the carrot, parsnip, rutabaga and onion. Place them in a food processor fitted with a chopping blade and pulse until very finely chopped, but not completely pulverized. Remove any larger chunks of vegetables and cut finer by hand if desired.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add the finely chopped vegetables and cook, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables have begun to soften. Add the garlic cloves and cook, stirring, one minute more.

3. Stir in the water and scrape up any browned bits that may have formed on the bottom of the pan. Add the wine, tomato paste, tomatoes, bay leaves, basil, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.

4. Cover, reduce the heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, for 2- 2 ½ hours, or until the vegetables are very soft and practically melted into the sauce. Taste for salt and other seasonings and adjust as desired. Seek out, remove, and discard the bay leaves. Serve with hot cooked pasta of your choice and a generous grating of Parmesan cheese.

Makes 6-8 servings.

 

Other recipes like this one: Basic Tomato Pasta Sauce, Pasta with Shredded Winter Vegetables

 

One year ago: Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

Root Vegetables in Spaghetti Sauce

Sure, the sun is getting higher in the sky and I’m beginning to crave those lovely fresh green things that are still months away, but I’m not too sad about the inevitable persistence of winter just yet. That’s because I’m still grooving on roots and tubers, those sweet and starchy winter storage vegetables. This week, I put them in my spaghetti sauce. (Which I served with penne instead of spaghetti.)

This might seem like an unusual place to use a parsnip or a rutabaga, but I got the idea from a recipe in Recipes from the Root Cellar by Andrea Chesman. The winter vegetables are slowly braised in a tomato sauce, taking up residence where you might usually find bell peppers or even eggplant and zucchini. There’s also a whole, lovely, delicious head of garlic left in whole cloves that cook down to a buttery, rich and very welcome addition to this wonderful sauce.

The original recipe called for celeriac (aka celery root), but they’re hard for me to find after early January. Rutabagas, on the other hand, are forever, and I love them, so I put half of a large, sweet one in my sauce. The vegetables need to be very finely chopped in order to cook in anything like a timely fashion, so I followed Chesman’s advice and went at them with a food processor. This worked really well. In addition to significantly reducing the workload for this recipe, it also allowed the vegetables to almost melt into a moderately chunky sauce.

The sweetness of the carrot and parsnip nicely balances the acidity of the tomatoes and red wine, and the more complex flavor of the rutabaga gives the sauce a unique and delicious richness. The garlic is garlic, wonderful, wonderful garlic, nicely mellowed by the long, slow cooking. I won’t say “no” to garlic.

This sauce takes a long time to cook (at least 2 hours), but once you get the vegetables peeled and coarsely chopped, there’s little left to do but wait for them to simmer. There’s a lot of sauce in this recipe, and I currently have some in the freezer to test whether I can store it effectively there long-term. (I can only go so many days in a row with leftovers.) I really like this stuff, and hope to make it one of my winter go-tos. If nothing else, it’s a delicious way to use up some lingering roots. Even if I have to admit that it is an unusual place to use a rutabaga.


Tomato Sauce with Root Vegetables
Adapted from Recipes from the Root Cellar by Andrea Chesman

The amount of added salt needed will likely depend on the amount already present in the canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Taste the sauce and adjust for salt as you like it.

1 medium carrot, peeled
1 medium parsnip, peeled
1 small to medium rutabaga (or half of a large one), peeled
1 medium yellow onion, peeled
¼ cup olive oil, preferably extra-virgin
1 head garlic, about 10 medium cloves, separated, peeled and left whole
1 ½ cups water
1 cup dry red wine (I used a Cabernet-Merlot blend)
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste if desired
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
cooked pasta of your choice for serving
grated Parmesan cheese for serving

1. Coarsely chop the carrot, parsnip, rutabaga and onion. Place them in a food processor fitted with a chopping blade and pulse until very finely chopped, but not completely pulverized. Remove any larger chunks of vegetables and cut finer by hand if desired.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the finely chopped vegetables and cook, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables have begun to soften. Add the garlic cloves and cook, stirring, one minute more.

3. Stir in the water and scrape up any browned bits that may have formed on the bottom of the pan (I had few if any). Add the wine, tomato paste, tomatoes, bay leaves, basil, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.

4. Cover, reduce the heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, for 2- 2 ½ hours, or until the vegetables are very soft and practically melted into the sauce. Taste for salt and other seasonings and adjust as desired. Seek out, remove, and discard the bay leaves. Serve with hot cooked pasta (I used penne rigate this time) and a generous grating of Parmesan cheese.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Pasta with Shredded Winter Vegetables, Simple Tomato-Garlic Sauce, Pizza Sauce

One year ago: Soup Beans

Two years ago: Bittersweet Almond Amaretto Truffles

Noodle Noir, Part 2

(Continued from Part 1)
After many turns of The Roller’s crank, lots of sweat, and a few choice words (but no tears, not this time), I finally had fresh pasta that I could fill, cook and sauce (see Noodle Noir, Part 1). I also had a suitable filling (also see Noodle Noir Part 1), but sauce?…I needed a sauce.

After all the labor of the noodles, I needed to use my head. The sauce had to be simple. I would have loved fresh herbs in this sauce, but it was only April, and I was still in Minnesota. I needed to use what was in the cupboard. I also only needed enough for two, so I made half the recipe.



Simple Tomato-Garlic Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
16 ounces tomato sauce
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

I sautéed the garlic in the hot oil, until it started to brown a little, being careful, oh so careful, not to burn it. I then added the pepper flakes, then the tomato sauce and the seasonings. Satisfied that it would behave itself, I set the sauce to simmer on a back burner while I dealt with the ravs.

I had to work quickly, before the raw noodles dried out. I spooned out the filling by heaping teaspoons (any more and it would bust out of the ravs and make an ugly mess) onto the lower third of the long side of the noodle strips. I left a couple inches breathing room between each blob. It would be best if they didn’t contact each other. I think you understand why. I brushed some water on three sides of the filling, to help the noodle pocket stick together, then tucked the blobs in for a nap by folding the top part of the noodle over the filling. I pressed the noodle together around the filling, keeping as much air out of the pocket as possible. I then cut the ravs apart from each other and pressed the edges together pretty hard, satisfied that the spinach and ricotta would not see daylight until dinner time.








When all the ravs were made, it was time to really put the heat to some, and put the rest on ice. Remember, I was only cooking for two, and would save the rest of the ravs for another, busier day. I brought pot of salted water to a boil for the hotties and froze the rest in a single layer on wax paper-covered pans. I was careful, having learned from experience that if these babies are stored too close to each other, they’ll stick together better than even the toughest crime families. Once they were frozen, I locked them up in freezer bags in their new, icy home.

Once the water was at a simmer, I put in some ravs, giving them elbow room, not too many at a time. I also didn’t want them to completely fall apart under the pressure, so I didn’t boil them hard. Just a simmer. There are some who would say these babies will float like corks when they are done cooking. I don’t believe them. The last piece of detective work I needed to do was to investigate my cooked ravs. I didn’t want to go through this much work only to eat raw dough. I checked a representative sample by cutting into a piece of pasta to see if it was done. 3 to 4 minutes of gentle simmering and they were cooked. I removed them from the pot. I repeated this process with the rest of the ravs, keeping the cooked ones warm in the oven.

When they were all done, I poured some hot sauce over each serving and topped it with grated cheese-Parmigiano Reggiano for me, please. Tasting it all was the real test of my day’s work, and I passed that test. Passed it with flying colors. The nuttiness and firm texture of the whole wheat pasta were a welcome change, and the increased WFQ* was just a bonus. The filling and the sauce were equal supporting partners. This was good. This was really good. I was in my happy place.



With a warm fuzzy feeling, I watched the April rain and thought of those spring foods that were still to come to Minnesota. I would wait. Perhaps not patiently, but I would have to wait. And a sexy vegetarian ravioli in a spicy red sauce would go a long way toward making me feel better that they weren’t here yet.

The End.

* Whole Food Quotient




Epilogue:

I checked back, perhaps a little over a week later, on the ravs in the chiller. They had served enough time, though I suppose they could have lasted in there a month or more. I sprung them from their confinement, simmered them (a little longer since they were frozen) and sauced them. It was the right thing to do, and it confirmed my earlier suspicion: their only crime was being delicious.



(Photo at top by Harry Leckenby)