Marinara Sauce from Chef Tony in Sorrento

Chef Tony at Quanto Baso cooking school in Sorrento was fun and informative for our group cooking lesson, arranged in advance.  In general he warned us against using garlic and onions together because they cover each other's tastes (what?!).  He said 'you Americans' use too many ingredients in your red sauce, too much garlic...  And we did notice even before this class that the marinara sauce there was light and very tasty.  

On our Food Walking Tour on our first day in Naples, our tour guide Alex had us try marinara pizza (as well as fried pizza, buffalo mozzarella, gelato, limoncello, sfogliatella and another pastry ...).  He said he knew we wouldn't believe it, but just pizza crust with just marinara is amazing.  And it was!   So it was exciting when chef Tony said we would be making some.  Remarkably, he used canned tomatoes, which helped me believe we could reproduce it at home.  At some of the places we asked, we were told the tomatoes or the onions they used can only be found in Italy, so we were convinced we would not be able to do the same here. 

With Chef Tony, and our 'classmates' from Chile, NY and Australia, we joyfully made and consumed fresh made gnocchi in marinara, delicate dishes of eggplant parmigiana, and tiramisu covered with chocolate chips - chef Tony's favorite.  

So here's the simple marinara that we enjoyed on our first night at home.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Tbsp EVOO per person

64 - 70 ounces San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes

1 clove of garlic ("not 6, not 8, but ONE), cut in pieces

2 basil leaves, torn

5 large pinches of salt

DIRECTIONS:

Heat pan on high.  Add oil, garlic and basil.  

Add the tomatoes and crush them inside the pot.

Simmer - that's it! 

No Bake Peanut Butter Power Bars (gluten free)

This is from Melissa Nicalaou.  I can no longer find it on the website balanced platter.com.

Makes12 small bars or 24 squares.

Ingredients:
8 Medjool dates, pitted
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup cooked quinoa (or dry rolled oats)
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/2 cup unsalted smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup raw honey (or maple syrup, date syrup, molasses to keep vegan - up to 1 Tbsp molasses)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used hemp hearts instead)

Directions:
1)  Add the dates to the bowl of a food processor and process until chopped.
2)  Add the nuts, quinoa (or dry oatmeal) and seeds, including hemp and process until a meal has formed.
3)  Add the peanut butter and honey (or maple syrup) and process until a thick dough forms.
4) Transfer the dough to a parchment-lined baking pan. A square baking dish works well.
5) Place the bars in the freezer until set, about 1-2 hours.  Remove from the freezer and slice into bars.  Store in the freezer until you're ready to eat them.  They're tasty when they reach room temperature, but extra special when eaten soon after removing them from the freezer.

NUTRITION FACTS per 1 square of 24, using maple syrup as sweetener:

Total Fat  5.7 grams

Sat fat  0.8 gm

poly Unsaturated fat 2.3 gm

Mono Unsaturated Fat 2.3 gm 

Total Carbs 11 gm

Dietary fiber 1.9 gm

Sugars 8 gm 

Protein 2.8 grams

African Peanut Stew

From the WSJ 5/2020  Adapted from Rachel Ama's Vegan Eats (Ebury Press)

This was very tasty and much thicker than a traditional stew.  Everyone liked it! And that was with forgetting to add all the toppings.


6 servings.

For the spice paste:
2 yellow onions, roughly chopped
5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
Thumb-size piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tsp chile powder
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground fenugreek
1/2 fresh red  Scotch bonnet chile (optional - not used)
Pinch of salt

For the stew: 
2 Tbsp oil, preferably peanut
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1  14 ounce can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1  14 ounce can of diced tomatoes
3 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup smooth natural peanut butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces spinach, chopped
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 fresh red chile, seeded and finely sliced.

Directions:
1) Make the spice paste:  combine all ingredients in a food processor and blitz into a coarse paste (don't be alarmed that this doesn't taste good).

2) Heat peanut oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium low heat.  Add spice paste and sauce stirring occasionally and adding a little more oil if it sticks to the pan, until lightly browned and fragrant, 10 minutes

3) Add sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas and tomato paste to saucepan, and mix to combine.  Stir in canned tomatoes, vegetable stock and peanut butter.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cover pan with a lid and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until sweet potatoes are tender, 25 minutes.

4) Remove pan from heat and stern spinach, leaving it to wilt in pan, 5 minutes.  To finish, add lemon juice, taste and adjust seasoning.  Sprinkle cilantro, scallions and sliced smiles over the top and serve.