To curtail my family's food waste, I cook mostly from scratch. When it looks like fruit or veggies are about to go bad, I turn them into something. Last week I made spicy Pomodoro sauce when the tomatoes at my parents house were starting to look squiffy (we were house sitting for them). Mom had left 6 tomatoes in the fruit basket and they were starting to get soft. I took them home and pulled the tomatoes and half of a sweet onion I had put in the freezer just a few days ago.
[caption id="attachment_1033" align="alignleft" width="526" caption="Both fresh and frozen- these babies are ready to be cooked!"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1032" align="alignleft" width="534" caption="1/2 of a large sweet onion in a teaspoon of butter."]
[/caption]Here is the recipe:
Spicy Pomodoro Sauce
Makes about 4 cups of sauce
- 11 fresh, whole ripe tomatoes (they can be frozen)
- 1/2 chopped large sweet onion (about 1 cup)
- 1 teaspoon butter (or olive oil if you are vegan)
- the following spices to taste: Italian seasoning, garlic powder, dehydrated onions (if you like your sauce very onion-y), kosher salt, pepper, dried red pepper flakes
- Saute onions in butter until clear, about 10-15 minutes.
- add whole tomatoes (it's ok if they are frozen), cover pot and simmer on medium for about 30 minutes, until the tomatoes start to fall apart. Stir every 10 minutes or so.
- add spices to taste, and mash tomatoes up with a potato masher.
- Simmer for 1-2 more hours. Sauce will be chunky.
Serve sauce on pasta of your choice or on a bed of lightly sauted spinach. If you don't like your sauce spicy, omit the red pepper flakes.
Another recent "from scratch" dish I made was strawberry syrup. We've been getting a lot of strawberries lately, but last week, we didn't get around to eating them all before they became a little squishy. So I hulled and chopped them up and tossed them into the freezer, in a bag with other chopped up hulled strawberries that were dead ripe. The bag was getting full, so Saturday evening, I decided to make strawberry syrup for our Sunday morning pancakes.
I used my mom's recipe for homemade pectin free jam and just didn't cook it as long. You can substitute in any other fruit you prefer, except pineapple, kiwi, mangoes, bananas, or coconut (they won't gel). This is best with berries.
Strawberry pancake syrup
Makes about 2 cups
- 3 cups chopped ripe fruit (can be frozen)
- 1 1/2 cups of white sugar (do not use splenda or honey)
- 1/4 cup of water
- Add all of the ingredients together in a pot, cook on medium, and stir every 5-10 minutes to keep the sugar from burning.
- Once it has boiled and the fruit has thawed (if working with frozen fruit), mash up fruit with a potato masher.
- Turn the heat to low and simmer gently for about 30 minutes, or until the mixture looks glassy.
- Remove from heat, pour into a container with a lid (I use a ziploc bowl with a screw on lid) and store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
The mixture will be slightly chunky, and not as firm as jam, but a little more substantial than pancake syrup. This is also good on ice cream or pour a few tablespoons into plain Greek yogurt.
There are a lot of great dishes you can make from scratch anytime- you don't need to wait for the veggies or fruit to start to turn! We make applesauce from scratch at least 3 times a month.
I make veggie broth/stock when I bring home veggies from the store. I clean all the veggies and toss the celery hearts, onion skins and carrot tops into a pot with water, salt and pepper and a little garlic and let it cook on low for 4-6 hours. If we have leftover chicken in the fridge, I'll pull the meat off and add the carcass to the stock pot. after it's cooked for 4-6 hours, I strain off the veggies and the carcass and discard them. I then add the chicken pieces I had previously pulled off the carcass, as well as a hand full of noodles and cook on medium until the noodles are tender. Home made chicken noodle soup made from leftovers!
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