Ratatouille

My first time making ratatouille. I envisioned something hearty, a cross between vegetable stew and gumbo. This was really good; rich and tomato-y with large, distinct chunks of eggplant and zucchini. Wonderful as pasta sauce. Serve over polenta if you're lucky enough to find some certified gluten free.



Serves 3 to 4
45 to 50 minutes
- extra large saucepan
- pot to cook up polenta or pasta or quinoa
Easy

INGREDIENTS
1.5 large eggplant
6 cloves garlic
1 large yellow onion
10 fresh okra fruits
1 large red bell pepper
1.5 large zucchini (+ half of onion)
2 large tomatoes
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 of a (6 oz.) container tomato paste*
1/3 c. red cooking wine*
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. herbs de providence (-or- fresh rosemary and thyme)

10 oz. cooked pasta, or corn polenta or quinoa

*Hunts and Muir Glen tomato paste is GF; Holland House cooking wine is GF.

DIRECTIONS
0. Sweat the eggplant. Peel the eggplant and cut into 1/2 inch rounds. Stack the pieces inside a bowl, generously salting each layer. Let the eggplant slices sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Once soft, squeeze the eggplant slices with your hands to remove the bitter, brown juice (should act just like a sponge). The vegetable flesh will become rather bruised, but not tear too much.. this is good. Rinse the squeezed eggplant slices several times to remove the salt.
1. Wash, peel and dice the garlic. Peel and dice up half of the yellow onion. Group the diced garlic and onion together.
Wash and cut the ends off the okra. Slice the okra into 1/4 inch rounds. Wash and core the red bell pepper. Chop pepper up into 1 inch pieces and group with the sliced okra.
Cut the sweated eggplant slices into rather large cubes (1/2" chunks). Set cubes aside.
Wash and remove ends of the zucchini. Slice into 1/2" round, then quarter each disk. Coarsly chop up the remaining 1/2 of the yellow onion. Group zucchini quarters with the large yellow onion pieces.
Chop the tomato into 1/2" chunks; don't bother peeling them. Set tomato apart from the other chopped veggies.
2. Place the garlic and diced onion into the large saucepan with the 2 Tbsp. olive oil. Cook over medium heat until the oil is sizzling and aromatic-- about 2 minutes.
3. Add in the red bell pepper and okra slices. Throw in a dash of herbs de providence and maybe a little water. Stir well. Let cook for 5 minutes
4. Add in the eggplant cubes and cook for another 5 minutes
5. Now add in the zucchini and (coarse) onion. Let everything cook for an additional 5 minutes.
6. Stir in the fresh tomatoes. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
7. When the tomatoes begin to break down, mix in the tomato paste, cooking wine, black pepper and remaining herbs de providence. Heat for an additional 5 minutes, or until the veggies are nice and mushy.
Serve over prepared pasta, polenta or quinoa.

Beef BBQ Sauce

Tangy and thick. Goes great with beef brisket. You can always use your favorite pre-bottled sauce, but this one is so damn fast, and it's so worth it.

Makes 1.5 cups

15 minutes

-medium saucepan

Quick and simple

-

INGREDIENTS

1 c. ketchup*

1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce*

1 tbsp. butter (or use Earth Balance Buttery Sticks for a dairy-free version)

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp. honey

1 tsp. Colgin's liquid smoke (use same flavor as you used on the beef-- I liked

Mesquite)

1 tsp. chili powder*

1 tsp. garlic powder*

1 tsp. onion powder*

1/2 tsp. celery flakes *

1/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper*

*Colgin's Liquid Smoke is GF; McCormick spices are GF; Heinz ketchup is GF; Hunt's tomato sauce is GF

DIRECTIONS

**Make this up when about 30 minutes remain on brisket cooking time

1. In medium saucepan, mix ketchup, tomato sauce, and butter. Begin heating over medium-low heat, stirring to melt the butter.

2. Add in brown sugar and honey. Stir to dissolve the sugar and fully mix in the honey.

3. Add in all the spices, stirring well: liquid smoke, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, celery flakes and a dash of cayenne pepper.

4. Once the sauce is fully mixed and heated through (turn down heat if the sauce begins to bubble) taste it. Add in more honey if too hot. Add in more cayenne pepper if too sweet. Add in more liquid smoke if not tangy enough.

5. Keep moderately hot while meat finishes cooking. Serve generously over warm cooked beef brisket. Works great as a BBQ sandwich sauce. Freezes well.

Fresh Strawberry Syrup

Scandalously easy and oh so good. Perfect for a painless GF dessert (no expensive, hard to get GF flour!!). I once made this for a bunch of friends, serving it over regular vanilla ice cream. They couldn't believe something so yummy could be so simple. Wonderful and fresh with only 3 ingredients.





Serves 3-4
15 minutes
-medium saucepan
Quick and simple

INGREDIENTS
1 lb of fresh strawberries
1/4 c. water (approx.)
1/4 c. white sugar (or more, if desired)

DIRECTIONS
1. Wash and coarsely cut up the strawberries. Any way you cut them up is fine, but thin slices of berry will totally fall apart when cooking . If you want strawberry pieces left over in your syrup, leave the slices at least 1/4th inch thick.
2. Place cut strawberries into a medium saucepan. Add in enough water so that the bottom of the pan is covered (it might be less than 1/4 cup, depends on your pan). This is important.. don't add too much water. Your berries should NOT be swimming in water.
3. Add in white sugar and being cooking berries over high heat. Stir to fully dissolve the sugar. Water will begin to collect rapidly in your pan. Once the water comes to a rapid boil, reduce heat to medium-high.
4. Continue cooking the strawberry syrup for 5 more minutes, watching the pan as the water foams and boils. Take a taste of the pink froth-- add in a bit more sugar if not yet sweet enough.
5. Once the water is reduced by half (might have to briefly remove the pan from the heat to see the water level) turn off the heat and let cool.
6. Serve over white cake, ice cream or pie. Store chilled.

Sweet Marinara Sauce

Not my favorite pasta sauce recipe.. any sugar in red sauce is too sweet for my taste (even though this was thick and flavorful and very easy!) . I'll probably make it again later, though, if I ever find time between homework sets to make garlic bread. I bet this would be a good, rich dippin' sauce.



Serves 2
30 minutes
-small pot
Quick and simple

INGREDIENTS
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes* (or fresh romas, if you don't mind paying an arm for some vegetables) Canned tomato sauce would also work.
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. garlic powder*
1 tbsp. onion powder*
1 tbsp. dried sweet basil*
1 tsp. dried oregano*
1-2 tsp. white sugar
salt and pepper to taste
*DelMonte tomatoes are GF; all McCormick spices are GF

DIRECTIONS
1. Pour entire contents of canned tomatoes into a small pot. Add olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, dried basil and dried oregano.
2. Cook over medium-high heat for about 2o minutes, uncovered. Tomatoes should be boiling, so check back frequently and add in more water if mixture gets too dry.
3. Once the tomatoes have broken down into a thick sauce, remove from heat and add in sugar to fit your taste. Serve hot, over pasta or spread across bread.

Red Spaghetti Sauce

My Italian mother's tomato spaghetti sauce... easily the best red sauce I've ever had. Meaty. Thick. Savory, not sweet. Easy to make and freezes well.



Serves 2-3 -- easily doubled or tripled
1 hour and 15 minutes
-medium pot or saucepan with lid
Easy

INGREDIENTS
1/4 lb. ground beef**
14.5 oz. can tomato sauce*
1 medium white onion, diced (not too small)
6 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried sweet basil*
1/2 tbsp dried oregano*
salt and pepper
grated parmesan cheese, for topping over pasta
*Hunt's isn't 'listed' as GF, but I've never reacted to it and I'm very sensitive; McCormick spices are GF
**VEGETARIAN: Replace beef with 1/2 tbsp. olive oil

DIRECTIONS
1. Cut up onion and mince garlic cloves.
2. Wash ground beef and place in pot or medium saucepan. **
3. Brown meat over medium-heat (cook it till outside surface is no longer pink, but not fully cooked).
4. Add in can of tomato sauce, onions and garlic. Also stir in basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste.
5. COVER, reduce heat to medium-low (or low) and simmer gently for 45 to 60 minutes. Stirring occasionally and adding more water if needed.
6. Serve over cooked GF pasta, with parmesan, or use in lasagna or eggplant parmesan-- Tastes better the second day!! I sometimes double the recipe, freeze in small baggies and heat up later for a quick lunch.
**If making a meat-less sauce (like for eggplant parmesan), skip this cooking step and instead add 1/2 tbsp olive oil directly into the tomato sauce.

Chunky Salsa

Unlike many salsa recipes, this one doesn't involve a food processor. Instead, ingredients are shortly saute'd, allowing the flavors to blend. Adjust spicy-ness to suit your own taste.



Makes about 2 cups.
35 minutes
-medium pot
Easy

INGREDIENTS
1 medium-sized fresh jalapeno pepper
1 small bundle of fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar*
juice of ½ fresh lime
1 tsp garlic powder*
dash of salt
½ finely diced yellow onion
½ finely diced green bell pepper
½ finely diced red bell pepper
1 14.5 oz can petite/finely diced tomatoes, undrained*
*Heinz red wine vinegar is GF, McCormik spices are GF, DelMonte canned veggies are GF

DIRECTIONS
1. Finely dice up fresh jalapeno and chop cilantro and place in medium-sized pot. Add olive oil, vinegar, lime juice and sprinkle with garlic powder and a bit of salt.
2. Dice up onion, green and red bell peppers, but do not add them, yet.
3. Cook jalapeno, cilantro and juices over medium-high heat until oil sizzles and cilantro becomes limp (about 2 minutes).
4. Add onion and bell peppers. Cook for another 1 minute—do NOT cook too long, want onion and peppers to still be crisp.
5. Add in whole can of diced tomatoes, liquid and all. Stir to mix thoroughly, then turn off heat.
6. Place in a plastic or glass container and refrigerate. Serve with corn, tortilla or rice chips.