Covid Cafe: Herb Garden + Hazan Tomato Sauce Onion

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First tomatoes (Glacier), 

warmed by the sun

A friend asked me yesterday about herbs. Herbs deliver more flavor in a small package than just about anything else in the garden. You can grow them in a pot (recommended for mint unless you want a field of it), a window box, or right in the ground.

Clockwise from left: 

Parsley, basils, mint, lemon balm, rosemary, and summer savory

More here on summer savory (from our farmshare and new to me)

 

Over the years I’ve learned to re-seed the garden so I have a summer-long supply of herbs that don’t overwinter, like basil, cilantro, and parsley. Rosemary, on the other hand, will survive winter if it’s planted in a spot that gets some warmth, such as against a sunny wall. Or you can plant in a pot and bring it inside. My rosemary plant in Chicago lived for decades in the ground.

Indiscriminate use of herbs:

chop any combination and use to brighten your food

Chefs, I still remember the first time I made Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce. It was a revelation. A can of tomatoes, a whole onion, five tablespoons of butter, and a little salt.  That's it (but it's so much more than the sum of its parts). You can make it with summer tomatoes too. 

Today Rob contemplates the “Hazan onion"...

I’m making Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce more frequently (click here for the recipe). It’s so good and easy and it goes on anything you can imagine.  After reading this New Yorker piece about the discarded onion, I now challenge myself to use it every time. (ed note: at our house, Art eats the onion.)

Here’s the sauce

I pulled the onion out with tongs and put it in a strainer, pushing out all the juices into a bowl before chopping it.

I used the jus from the bowl plus a tablespoon of butter to sauté some green beans.  It set the beans up perfectly.

  

  

In goes some of the chopped onion and bit of leftover bacon, though I know Heidi never has leftover bacon (ed. note: you can say that again).

   

I warmed some breaded chicken breasts I had cooked off for chicken Caesar salads earlier in the week and crowned them with the rest of the onion. Topped with the sauce and grated parm, after a short trip under the broiler and a sprinkle of fresh oregano we had a great meal!

 

3 Small Practices for Living in the Coronavirus Era

by Bonnie Myotai Treace 

From Bonnie Myotai Treace of Hermitage Heart Zen come these three “small” (but powerful!) reflections and practices to help us stay open-hearted and connected as we reckon with the fear and uncertainty that the coronavirus has brought so suddenly into our lives. More here.

Memorial Mind

Grief is coming, is here, will be here.
Make space and time for it.
Love, appreciation, reflection, sorrow:
You will need to sit quietly and let these happen.
We need to be real, are capable of being real,
Are called on to be real.
So, for at least five minutes
Let grief in. Let it have its way.
There are doctors, nurses, caregivers
dying right now for their patients, for us.
Moms have died. Dads. Beloveds in every country.
And there will be millions upon millions more.
To be real is to feel this.
Otherwise, we’re in denial.
“I will not forget you.”
Set a timer if you need to, something to call you back.
Exhale. Feel your breath. Be where you are.
Vow to not take the people around you
or gone from you
for granted.

Music

Gal Costa 

Desafinado