Gorilla Blog: The Garden Part 16 - September 27, 2009 -- Plus Cooking!

Almost a month since the last garden update, but there hasn't been much to discuss. Here's a quick recap of where everything is at.

Squash

The squash is pretty much done. We could probably get a few more to harvest, but Sage is sick of eating them and no one at my office wants them, so these will probably get dug up in a couple of weekends. This will probably be the location of the garlic I'll be planting in the next couple of weeks as well. More on that when the cloves get planted.

Basil

Our basil plants are really strong. I'll be picking these before the first frost (should be any day now), and in order to use "fresh" basil all year long, here is what I do with it. I throw all the basil leaves in a food processor with just a little bit of olive oil and chop it all up. It ends up being a bit pasty, and then I take that and freeze it in a ziploc bag, flattening it out. When I want some fresh basil for cooking I simply break off a piece and throw it in the pot. Works great.

Peppers

The pepper plants have needed some support. Most started knocking over, so I tied them all up. But I've had a few other problems with them as well. First, the red bell peppers that I planted seem to not want to turn red. I'm not sure if it's because of lack of sunlight or what, but they grow green and just stay that way. The 2nd problem, which is a bit more concerning, is that there's some sort of blight on the peppers. It seems that if I let them grow past an even small-medium size, something seems to be getting in to them and they start to rot and turn black. The volcano peppers seem to have this problem worst of all, and I haven't been able to get hardly any red volcanoes before they all go bad. So now I've started to pick everything early and hope they ripen in the house, but that's not going well either. I really like peppers, but it seems that I just don't have the knack for getting a good yield. Next year I'll have a better plan though.

Tomatoes

After the huge growth of the tomatoes the past few weeks has shown a very limited yield of actual fruit. The juliet/cherry tomatoes keep coming in, but the roma plants just seem to have had enough and have stopped blossoming and died off. The brandywines are doing okay, but again they're having a hard time turning red. The ones that have come in have been incredible -- great tasting, very juicy. I think next year will be entirely roma/plum and just a few brandywine/heirlooms.

And now, another installment of Cooking From Doug's Garden. This week: Rigatoni with Sausage and Peppers -- also known as Rigatoni Gabbiano. (Gabbiano being our favorite chianti that features in the recipe.) This recipe has evolved over several years. The base really has its origins in Mom's spaghetti sauce recipe that was probably the first meal I ever learned how to make. The sauce base is pretty much the same no matter what kind of "red lead" I'm making (unless it's a marinara or something lighter, of course); the only difference is the amount of vegetables included. I might not be as good of a cook as Clemenza, but I also don't ruin a gravy with sugar either. Anywhere, here it is.

First, fry up some sausage meatballs. The best/easiest way to do this is to simply buy some good italian sausage (I like it hot, of course) and just squeeze out the meat from the casings and form it into meatballs.

Sausages that turn into meatballs

Heat up a large dutch oven over medium high heat, put a very small amount of olive oil in the bottom, and fry the meatballs up until browned on all sides.

Fry them up.

While that's going on, cut up your veggies. In this dish I like onions and peppers -- 1 medium onion, 1 red pepper and 1 green pepper. (IMPORTANT NOTE: Normally, if I have the time and inclination, I will peel the peppers first. If you don't, you'll most likely end up with pepper skins all over the sauce when you're eating them, and that gets to be quite annoying. The easiest way to do this is to quarter your peppers and put them over a high flame -- either on a gas grill or over a gas stove. Once the peppers have blackened, put them in a brown paper bag and close it up for 10-15 minutes. Remove the peppers and the skins should come right off. Actually, they NEVER come right off, and they usually stick to your fingers and get me all annoyed. But in theory that's what they should do, and in the end, it's a much better dining experience. This time I didn't roast/peel the peppers because A) we had a bunch of leftover, cut-up peppers from the veggie dip we had last night, and B) it's raining lions and hyenas out there, and I don't feel like getting wet to grill them up.) Cut up the peppers and onions into long strips -- do NOT dice them. I also have one of the volcano peppers from the garden (the green pepper is from the garden as well) which I did dice up (as it's a lot hotter) and then I diced up about 3 cloves of hard-neck garlic from Lynn's garden.

Cut up peppers and onions

Once the sausage has been browned on all sides, remove from the pot and let drain on some kitchen paper. Depending on the amount of grease left in the pot, you may need to drain some of it out, leaving just about 2 Tbsp of fat/oil. Still on medium-high heat, throw in the onions and peppers. These should saute for about 5-6 minutes, just to let them get a tad soft.

Sauteing the vegetables

I know this looks like a lot of vegetables, but this dish is almost like a stew, so the large amount works. Also, frying them in the grease from the meat gives the vegetables some good strong flavor. After the veggies have softened a bit, make a small area in the middle for the garlic and let that saute for about 1 minute.

Wine, paste and tomatoes ready to go.

To this point it's all been pretty straight forward. But here is where I've discovered a couple of important "tricks" to turn a good sauce into a great one. Once the veggies are softened a bit, add in about a glass of wine. (As I said, we use Gabbiano Chianti Classico -- something with some teeth to it.) Let the wine cook with the onions/peppers, and as the alcohol cooks off the vegetables really start to suck up that great wine flavor. Then, add in about 2 ounces of tomato paste. Mix the paste in with the wine, and turn this into what I call my "italian roux". As cooks out there will know, a roux is the base of most french sauces, and is basically flour and fat. (It's also the beginning of a good gravy.) At its core, a roux is just a concentration of flavor, and that's what I have here at this point: tomato paste, wine, and vegetables that have fried up in the fat of the meatballs.

Veggies and the Italian Roux.

Let this cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly, and get all those great flavors to come together. Then add in 1 large can of crushed tomatoes. (When it comes to crushed tomatoes, the brand is key, in my opinion. Over time we've used a lot of different tomato brands and have found that while many are very good, some completely ruin the taste of the sauce. You wouldn't think that would be the case, but it's true. While in MD and NC we really liked Furmano's brand, but we can't find those up in MA. However we've found Tuttorosso brand are really good as well, and that's what I'm using today.) At this point it's time to season the sauce, and for this dish I like to use about 15-20 turns of the black pepper mill, a couple shakes of dried oregano, a shake or 2 of crushed red pepper (depends on the heat of the sausage used), and then plenty of basil. (If it's dried basil, about 4 shakes. Fresh/frozen, I break off a couple small corners. Fresh is much more poweful than dried, obviously.) Put the meatballs back in and bring the sauce to a boil, stirring constantly. Once it's bubbling, turn it down to low, put a top on it, and let it simmer for an hour or so.

The red lead, ready to simmer.

Once it's time to eat, cook a pound of rigatoni. Once it's done cooking, drain it. At this time, add about 1/4 cup of fresh shredded parmesean cheese to the sauce and stir it in. This gives it a semi-creamy texture that really adds more than you would think to the meal. Throw the drained pasta into the pot with the sauce, and mix up generously.