Nana's Food of the Gods
This is one of my favorite recipes from my mother. It reflects a wonderful blend of my mother's summer cooking style and my father's garden. It also reflects their shared love of zucchini and their amazing collaboration between garden and table. The name for this dish came from my father during a family vacation at a place amazingly called "Crotch Lake". My daughter Christine calls it spicy sauce. Once you taste it, I'd like to know what you'd call it. I made it for my fella who once believed that zucchini wasn't something he could like. How happy I was to prove him wrong!
I remember the summer day my mother visited me and taught me how to make it in my kitchen in the time when I had summers off (why I walked away from summers off, I will never know!) It is a perfect summer dish, makes great leftovers and can be eaten hot, cold or at room temperature. It is a joy to share it.
First: "Vegetables Stage One"
2 large onions roughly chopped
4 large cloves of garlic chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed large preferably stainless steel Dutch oven over medium heat. Add red pepper flakes and onions and saute until onions soften. Add half of the garlic and save the other half for later.
Meanwhile: "Vegetables Stage Two"While onions soften cut the following into 1 inch pieces:
2 large green bell peppers
2 large or three medium zucchini
Once the onions soften and you add the garlic, add the peppers and zucchini and saute until the flavors marry and the peppers and zucchin just start to soften.
Meanwhile again: (If you time this right this dish will take so little time to get going so you can buzz around and do other things like noodle in the garden or just sit on the porch and sip something cold while you make the house smell so good everybody just loves you like crazy!)
The Sausage:1 1/2 pounds of the highest quality link pork hot Italian sausage with fennel.
Cook the following on top of the stove in a heavy bottomed frying pan with just a touch of oil for about 20 minutes on medium low heat or until lightly browned. Cool and slice into 1/2 inch slices and set aside.
The Tomatoes:2 large cans of crushed tomatoes (Redpack or Contadina)
OR 2 large cans of plum tomatoes crushed by you with your hands. It's a lot of fun to do this, but it takes the sauce longer to cook.
10 large fresh basil leaves chopped
Add tomatoes to the pan, stir. Add half of the basil and the remaining garlic. Add the sausage. Let the sauce simmer on medium low for about an hour to an hour and a half. Add the remaining basil just before serving. This is great as stew of sorts with bread, but it is amazing with linguine and of course a nice bottle of a very dry Italian red like that nice Zacagnini (sounds a bit like Lacagnina doesn't it?)
I remember the summer day my mother visited me and taught me how to make it in my kitchen in the time when I had summers off (why I walked away from summers off, I will never know!) It is a perfect summer dish, makes great leftovers and can be eaten hot, cold or at room temperature. It is a joy to share it.
First: "Vegetables Stage One"
2 large onions roughly chopped
4 large cloves of garlic chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed large preferably stainless steel Dutch oven over medium heat. Add red pepper flakes and onions and saute until onions soften. Add half of the garlic and save the other half for later.
Meanwhile: "Vegetables Stage Two"While onions soften cut the following into 1 inch pieces:
2 large green bell peppers
2 large or three medium zucchini
Once the onions soften and you add the garlic, add the peppers and zucchini and saute until the flavors marry and the peppers and zucchin just start to soften.
Meanwhile again: (If you time this right this dish will take so little time to get going so you can buzz around and do other things like noodle in the garden or just sit on the porch and sip something cold while you make the house smell so good everybody just loves you like crazy!)
The Sausage:1 1/2 pounds of the highest quality link pork hot Italian sausage with fennel.
Cook the following on top of the stove in a heavy bottomed frying pan with just a touch of oil for about 20 minutes on medium low heat or until lightly browned. Cool and slice into 1/2 inch slices and set aside.
The Tomatoes:2 large cans of crushed tomatoes (Redpack or Contadina)
OR 2 large cans of plum tomatoes crushed by you with your hands. It's a lot of fun to do this, but it takes the sauce longer to cook.
10 large fresh basil leaves chopped
Add tomatoes to the pan, stir. Add half of the basil and the remaining garlic. Add the sausage. Let the sauce simmer on medium low for about an hour to an hour and a half. Add the remaining basil just before serving. This is great as stew of sorts with bread, but it is amazing with linguine and of course a nice bottle of a very dry Italian red like that nice Zacagnini (sounds a bit like Lacagnina doesn't it?)
Love Love Love
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