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P.K.’s Winter Pasta Sauce: On Canned Tomatoes and Carb-Loading

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So you think I’m only about whatever is at my local farmers’ market? Sure, as much as possible, but I live in New England, and I take nutrition and cooking far too seriously to limit my diet to only what’s in season. That’s why I’m calling today’s post…

It May Be Winter, But I Still Want Tomato Sauce

Chunky tomato sauce bursting with onions, peppers, spinach and zucchini over whole grain pasta is crazy nutritious way to carb load. Or just makes a great dinner!

Chunky tomato sauce bursting with onions, peppers, spinach and zucchini over whole grain pasta is crazy nutritious way to carb load. Or just makes a great dinner!

It’s about this time of year that I start dreaming of sweet summer corn and tomatoes, two of my favorite foods that I consume prolifically for the better part of three months when they’re in season. Indeed, there is nothing I love more than a homemade sauce made lovingly from mounds of fresh summer tomatoes. And I do even chop up a few fresh tomatoes in the winter now and again for a quick pizza sauce or marinara. That said, I’m ever grateful the supermarket provides delightful canned tomatoes, which are a high-quality, nutritious, and delicious alternative when fresh aren’t in season.

Or, er, if you simply don’t feel like doing all that chopping, which is okay, too.

Simmering this sauce for a few hours will turn it from a compilation of canned, frozen, and fresh vegetables into a rich, thick, chunky pasta sauce.

Simmering this sauce for a few hours will turn it from a compilation of canned, frozen, and fresh vegetables into a rich, thick, chunky pasta sauce.

Enter today’s dish, which is one of my favorite go-to dinners since I usually have a container of “summer” sauce sitting in my freezer. My supply is now tapped, however, so this past weekend I whipped up a new batch the night before my 20-miler using canned products and a selection of fresh and frozen veggies I had on hand. This version included no-salt canned tomatoes (diced, crushed, sauce) and frozen spinach along with white onions, three kinds of peppers (red, green, poblano), and zucchini.

For more cooking details, click here for step-by-step instructions and photos, simply substituting canned for the fresh.

Pasta and tomato sauce is such a filling, comforting dish, and my version takes a kid-friendly favorite and makes it a whole lot better for you. And, yes, pasta can be part of a nutritious diet, if it’s whole grain; more on paleo and gluten free diets here. As well, it’s a much healthier way to carb-load if you are an endurance athlete or runner training for the marathon, as I am. (More here and here on that.)

Better-for-you Carb Loading

In general, food decisions are based on taste, cost, and convenience. Nutrition and health considerations also matter for some people, like many of you reading this piece, no doubt. (Yay!) “Pasta and tomato sauce” is a classic meal used for carb loading, which boosts your glycogen stores in preparation for a long race.

While a great meal whether you’re “carb-loading” or not, today’s article also encourages athletes to take this familiar dish and make it even healthier by exchanging white pasta for whole grain and adding a whole slew of veggies for a nutrient boost that you won’t get from a store-bought sauce and white pasta. The latter dish will provide the carbs, yes, but can be loaded in salt and extra sugar and lacks the nutrients of unrefined grains. You get all the carbs you need from my version along with other fabulous vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients to fuel your body and race.

Side Bar: Tomatoes in Winter? Anathema!

I love tomatoes and corn so much that a number of my posts are dedicated to these very topics. In case you are looking for a little extra reading from The Nutrition Doctor, just search “corn” or tomatoes” from the “specifically speaking” word cloud on my home page and dream with me of Spanish grilled corn or heirloom tomatoes sandwiches with garlic aioli…

And guess what? My love of these foods doesn’t disappear once the autumn harvest is over.

Thus, as much as I enjoy eating seasonally, and do so as often as I can, I am ever grateful for the Spaghetti_Cropvast array of foods I can attain when I want or need them, as this generally keeps my diet healthier and more interesting. Yes, my meals are often dominated by all the great stuff I get at my local markets, but, as you can imagine, not so much on the tomato front in March. So I eat fewer of them, for sure, but tomatoes and other fresh veggies remain part of my repertoire during the other nine months of the year. The simple fact is that most Americans don’t eat enough vegetables, and frozen and even canned are fine sources assuming you read the ingredients and avoid brands with added salt and/or sugar.

So do what you need to do to eat more produce, however you can. Adding chopped veggies to something like tomato sauce is a great way to increase your intake while giving a major nutritional boost to your favorite foods.

And, you know, if it tricks your children or someone else you love into eating more vegetables, that’s great, too.

P.K. NewbyDr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She is currently training for the Boston Marathon, her third (more here, and here). She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my cooking videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thanks for reading!

SummerCornTomatoes

I’m dreaming of warm days filled with green-leafed trees and summer-sweet corn and tomatoes…

Seared Tuna Puttanesca with Creamy Corn Polenta

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Savory, with a hint of sweetness, a sprinkle of microgreens is a nice finishing touch.

Nope, it’s not just soup and salad every night for supper. That would get boring. I love creating pretty, plated meals that star seasonal produce so here’s a serving suggestion for you. The puttanesca featured summer tomatoes, onions, and herbs. The polenta was enhanced by the addition of fresh corn. (Polenta is creamy cornmeal, and it’s better than it sounds if you’ve never had it before. In fact, it’s delicious.) Tuna is a meaty fish with big flavors, so it can stand up to the sauce. Pairing the bold flavors of puttanesca and tuna with the sweetness of creamy corn polenta made a divine dish with flavors that perfectly complimented each other. A succulent dish for the eyes and tastebuds.

See my recipe for homemade tomato sauce to get you started, since puttanesca is simply a variation on the basic ingredients to which olives, anchovies, and capers are added. I wasn’t initially planning on making puttanesca, but as I was prepping my tomato sauce I decided to get some double-duty action from my chopping to make two different sauces. I’m so glad I did! Puttanesca is a rich, toothsome sauce – umami describes the flavors perfectly. Familiar with the word? Umami (think: savory) is the fifth taste humans perceive, along with sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Wikipedia has a nice description of it.

To your tomato sauce base, add the three key ingredients: 6 or so chopped anchovies, chopped olives (1/2 to 1 cup), and a couple of tablespoons of capers. Don’t forget fresh parsley and/or basil, or dried, if that’s all you have.  The classic recipe uses Kalamata olives, in case you were wondering, but I’d use whatever you like or have on hand. I also always add a bit of crushed red pepper, for a little kick (optional). The exact quantities depend on how much sauce you are making, though, so consult some recipes online if you’d like more precise proportions, as you know my philosophy on recipes. Or, start off using small quantities, cook for awhile, and you can always add a bit more later. You can never go back. As it simmers (an hour or more), the flavors really come together to create a complex, multi-layered sauce.  Even the color is a much deeper red compared to regular tomato sauce.

Because the olives, capers, and anchovies are fairly salty, I do not recommend adding any salt to the sauce when making it. You know that I’m always concerned with excess sodium in the diet, and this is not my regular, stand-by tomato sauce. Definitely for a special occasion. I will discuss the sodium issue in greater depth another time, but a key point is that the majority of sodium in the diet comes from prepared and processed foods. You’ll see the sodium issue is a common thread in my posts when choosing what to cook and eat. And check out my earlier post on tomatoes for more about the health benefits of eating tomatoes – for both you and the planet.

What if I don’t like olives, anchovies, and capers?

Puttanesca has some really big flavors and you may not be accustomed to using them in cooking. Perhaps you loathe them all. This dish would also be delicious with a classic, chunky tomato sauce if you’re not ready to go there. You could also leave out one of the ingredients though obviously it wouldn’t really be puttanesca by definition. (But so what?)

At some point, though, I’d encourage you to try it because the flavors are wonderful.  Taste is actually quite adaptive, and if you want to expand your palate for either culinary or heath reasons (or both!), you gotta try new things. And try them often, if you want to make a real change (e.g., from white bread/pasta to whole wheat, full-fat to non-fat milk, or whatever)  Not only is there research to support the “try, try again philosophy,” I’ve seen it work on friends, family, and me. I didn’t grow up eating olives, for example. But after acquiring a taste for them in my late twenties, I could not get enough. I LOVE olives now.

Delicious with pasta!

A final note on puttanesca is that it can be enjoyed so many ways. This dish is a fancier serving suggestion, but it’s commonly served atop pasta. I enjoyed a plate a few nights back with whole wheat spaghetti. Such a satisfying dinner. (With a mixed green salad on the side, of course. I eat a salad with dinner just about every night, and if you don’t that’s another thing you can do to help you on your way towards better health.)

(And if you don’t care for polenta, you can serve this same exact dish on a bed of pasta, although you won’t get the same mix of flavors.)

By the way…

Oh, are you wondering about the health benefits of tuna? And its potential risks, among other issues?  I can only cover so much in one post if I am to sustain your attention amidst busy schedules. We’ll get there, I promise.

P.K. NewbyDr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thanks for reading!

Fresh Tomato Sauce. Because It’s Just Better.

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Summertime Favorite: Fresh Tomato Sauce

I love summer for its glorious tomatoes, and this tomato sauce recipe has tons of applications from pairings with pasta and beyond. I describe a few of these in my post on the tomato trifecta.  Stay in touch for many more dishes that I make using this basic sauce. (A grilled vegetable parmigiana comes to mind, for example.)

The Recipe & Photos

Start with a slew of tomatoes. I used 10 large beefsteak tomatoes and 9 heirloom red zebra roma tomatoes, as shown. (They cook down. A lot.) Feel free to select those that suit you and/or chat with your local farmer about which make the best sauce. I personally like to keep to 2-3 varieties or so, making sure at least one of them is roma, which are meaty, thick, and classically used in tomato sauce.

Begin with chopped onion (I used 1.5 large yellow onions) and sauté in medium heat with EVOO – extra virgin olive oil – until soft but not browned. (I’m going to have to use that acronym, along with everyone else. Just easier.) Add veggies of your choice. I like red and green peppers, and used one of each, but sometimes I like to make a more serious veggie version that includes zucchini and eggplant, especially if my main use will be as a pasta sauce. Olives are also a great addition, if you like them. If you like it spicy, you could also use a hot pepper in here as well at this point.

While the veggies are cooking, ~8 minutes, chop or dice the tomatoes to the size of your liking. I prefer a chunky tomato sauce, so I do a small-medium chop. If you don’t feel like chopping so many tomatoes, you could always throw some of them into a food processer, similar to what you’d get from crushed tomatoes in a can. Be careful, though, as they will thin out considerably during this process, but it’s fine. If you start making homemade sauce, play around with chopping/dicing/food processing and you’ll figure out what you like and how much time you feel like investing to get the desired result. I personally enjoy chopping vegetables, but I know lots of people hate it. (And there’s always canned crushed and diced tomatoes and frozen veggies if you want to spend even less time. Still better for you and the planet than store-bought.)

After the veggies are tender, add crushed garlic to the pot and stir for about 45 seconds; I love garlic and used 5 cloves or so. Up to you. It takes very little time to cook garlic, so don’t let it burn. I also add some other spices at this point, such as oregano, basil, parsley, crushed red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Again, this is all to taste, but I’ll remind you not to add too much salt, because you can’t go back and with all the big flavors in there you don’t need as much as you think. I’d start with 1 teaspoon or less – depending on how many tomatoes you are using – and adjust later as necessary. (It will also be perfectly lovely if you don’t add salt at all, by the way; I’ve made it that way, too.) I also added some fresh basil and parsley (chopped) at this point, along with a few tablespoons of tomato paste for good measure, which adds both intense tomato flavor and body.

Add all the chopped tomatoes and stir everything up. Pour in some red wine (or balsamic vinegar, if you don’t consume alcohol), about 1/4 to 1/2 cup depending on how much sauce you are making and your own preferences. Bring everything up to a boil, then turn the stovetop down to simmer. It’s looking good at this point, but now everything needs to cook for awhile, which is when a lot of that water will leave the dish and it will thicken up. Give it as much time as you can, remembering that the bigger the batch you make, the more time it will take. We’re talking about hours here. If it’s a smaller batch, an hour could suffice, but the longer it simmers, the tastier and thicker the sauce will be as the flavors develop and the sauce reduces. And it really does reduce substantially over time. In about 1.5 hours the height of my sauce dropped by around 1.5 inches. Seriously.

Stir the sauce every 10-15 minutes or so and make sure it continues to simmer actively, which is needed for it to reduce. You’ll note that it looks somewhat watery on the top, since water is less dense than the sauce contents below.  In other words, it’s supposed to look that way and will do so between stirrings. Don’t cover the pot – you need the steam to escape for the sauce to thicken.

Note that people differ in their tastes for a “thick and rich” tomato sauce versus a “fresh and chunky” tomato sauce. If your sauce is not as thick as you would like, you have a couple of options. The first is to add tomato paste (a few tbsp to 1/2 cup), which will thicken it up quite nicely. Another option is to purée lightly some of your tomatoes in a blender to create a “crushed tomato” effect rather than to only add chopped (pictured below). You would add this alongside the chopped tomatoes.

You’re almost there, but don’t forget to sample the sauce along the way! Tasting is a critical component of cooking. Does it need more seasoning? Not sweet enough? Adjust the spices as you like, and sometimes I’ll add a little honey to balance the flavors and acidity but it depends on how sweet the tomatoes were to begin with. I also usually add a little more wine along the way as well (but that’s just me…).  Finally, if you like a less chunky sauce, get out the blender – a hand / immersion blender is easiest and it’s a fantastic kitchen tool to have, er, on hand – to obtain a more homogeneous texture, or simply to get it less chunky. Make it however you like it! It’s your sauce, after all.

One of my favorite flavors is spicy pepper, pictured here, and includes red and green peppers and crushed red pepper flakes. I transferred the finished sauce to this clean sauce pan simply to make a prettier photograph. See how thick and delicious it looks? There’s simply nothing better than fresh tomato sauce made in the heart of the season. Nothing.

When everything is done, I sometimes add some fresh parsley, basil, and/or oregano to brighten up the flavors.  It will give the sauce some earthy, herbal notes, so whether you like that or not is up to you. And remember there are so many variations on this that you can make. Spicy pepper is one of my favorites, but I also mentioned I sometimes use zucchini and eggplant. Mushrooms. Olives. Sometimes just tomato and basil. Whatever.

So there you have it. Make it as you like. Make it your own. Make it this weekend.

P.K. NewbyDr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thanks for reading!

Tomato Trifecta: Sauce, Soup, and Puttanesca

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Remember the picture of those succulent tomatoes I posted earlier this week? I really should have made sauce that very day. Alas, between shopping and a long run it wasn’t able to happen. Nor on Monday or Tuesday, for that matter. (See? I get it. I don’t always have time to cook, either.)

A bit messy, I know, but I was simmering two sauces, whisking polenta, and searing tuna simultaneously. You must check back tomorrow for the final tuna presentation. Much, much prettier.

On Wednesday, my tomatoes could wait no longer, and I spent part of the evening making a classic Italian tomato sauce along with a puttanesca sauce. This post will be dedicated to the former, as the other two recipes build upon that base. And, if I may whet your appetite, I’ll be posting soon about the puttanesca, which was served with seared tuna atop a bed of creamy polenta, and the velvety tomato soup.

As for the “how” you make tomato sauce, it’s rather straight forward, and I’ll post the recipe tomorrow in case you’ve never done it before. Today’s post will be dedicated to the “why,” given one goal of my blog is to explore why what you eat matters, not just how to cook.

First things first. Have you ever made homemade tomato sauce, in any fashion? Using canned tomatoes counts. I use those too, in the winter sometimes. That said, I’ve noticed increasingly I am able to obtain local, fresh tomatoes grown organically and hydroponically in the winter when tomatoes are out of season, so my dependence on cans may soon end. Anyway, if you’re making tomato sauce from scratch using cans, that’s a solid step in the right direction, and you can follow the same recipe I’ll provide, or another of your choosing.

So, why homemade, you ask, especially given there are so many wonderful jarred sauces out there? So many reasons. Let’s start with the obvious, given this is the week of the tomato. (In my world, that is. Not like it’s an official holiday, or anything. That I know of.)

First reason: Taste. As I mentioned, tomatoes are still in season and they are so exquisite that they need to be enjoyed while they can. Clearly you cannot get these in a can, since most canned tomatoes are basically run of the mill field tomatoes and/or plum tomatoes. But even the popular San Marzano tomatoes – think expensive canned tomatoes from Italy that all the Food Network people use, if you’ve never heard of them – are just one kind. Perusing all the colors and varieties of tomatoes and selecting a good mix to make tomato sauce is simply something that cannot be reproduced from cans. Literally.

Second reason: Better for you. Some of the basic nutrition of the tomato will be found in the canned variety, which includes lots of antioxidants, carotenoids such as lycopene, vitamin C, and potassium, for starters … alongside a whopping amount of sodium, in many cases. And don’t get me started on the jarred varieties, which in addition to the sodium have a lengthy list of preservatives, thickeners, added sugar, and lots of other stuff that, frankly, interfere with the tomato-y goodness of fresh sauce and compromise its healthfulness. Americans consume far too much sodium and high intakes are associated with development of hypertension, for one thing. Canned foods in general are the biggest contributors to sodium intake, so limiting intakes is always a good idea and/or specifically look for low- or no-sodium varieties in a pinch.

Third reason: Better for the planet. This is the perfect time to address how cooking whole foods is not only healthier for you, but there is much less waste created when cooking from scratch. One day in the winter when I’m making sauce and there are no fresh tomatoes to be had I will take a picture or do a video further demonstrating just how much refuse there is from all of the cans. (If you do use cans please make sure to recycle, but remember that reduce is the fundamental step of sustainability.) And let’s not get started on the food miles it took to get those canned tomatoes to you … especially if they are the fancy ones from Italy. Without question, my bag of fresh tomatoes from the market was much kinder to the planet as well as my palate.

Fourth reason: Better for your wallet. Yes, really, and especially if you are accustomed to purchasing jarred tomato sauce, which can be pricey, in my opinion. I used to buy it on occasion, too, so I know all about this, as I really love tomato sauce and I always used to have jars on hand (way back when). I will put it on my list of things to do to quantify the price difference at some point in the future, but in the meantime believe me.

Fifth reason: It’s fun! Okay, well, I think so. (Obviously.) Also, it doesn’t take too long to prep – less than an hour, for sure, with the rate limiting step being chopping all the tomatoes. Even if you aren’t sure you feel like spending time dicing veges (yet!), go ahead and use cans for now as a start, which will reduce the prep time substantially.

Convinced yet? Remember, those tomato days are numbered now and it’s not too late to make a batch this coming weekend. I guarantee the redolence of garlic-imbued tomato sauce simmering away on the stove top will leave your mouth watering. I’ll actually be making another big batch of sauce this weekend to freeze since I used most of mine in my dishes this week that you’ll hear about. Do note that the sauce spends a lot of time on the stove reducing (i.e., the water evaporates from the sauce and it gets thicker), and even a very large pile of tomatoes ends up making less sauce than you’d think. So buy a lot, and make a huge batch to ensure you have enough to enjoy for the evening meal and leftovers later in the week; you might even try out some my dishes or get creative and make up your own. Homemade tomato sauce is very versatile indeed.

Finally, if you do make sauce you simply must ensure you make enough to freeze at least one container. I do so every time so it’s on hand. Sort of like keeping jarred or canned sauce in the pantry, but so much better than that! Tomato sauce freezes beautifully, and if you remember to take it out of the freezer in the morning some cold winter day you’ll have farm-market-fresh tomato sauce to remind you of warm summer days, and the next tomato season.

P.K. NewbyDr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thanks for reading!