Produce News for Week of Sept. 6, 2010

POMODORO Y BASILLICO PART I (Monday, September 6): Hey, Labor Day. That means, of course, school’s going to start real soon and that means we’re going to get back into the habit of cooking a little bit more, and I thought I’d have fun with a tomato that you probably have seen before but maybe you haven’t tried before. It’s called Nature Sweet. They are what we call in the produce industry cocktail tomatoes, a little bit larger than cherry tomatoes, but…Oh, my goodness! One of the things I have fallen in love with about these things…you know, 365 days out of the year you have a good sweet tomato. You know why? Because it’s grown in hot houses. It’s grown in like Club Med conditions where you have the perfect sugar and the perfect acid content 365 days of the year. So I know in the middle of summertime we can get some beautiful summertime tasting tomatoes, but what about in the middle of winter? What about fall? What about spring? That’s why I love this so much. So we are going to be doing a Pomodoro y basillico recipe this week. It’s simply tomato and basil pasta

POMODORO Y BASILLICO PART II (Tuesday, September 7): Hey, today in 1998 Google began, so I want you to google this…google – How did Chicago get its name? You will find that Indians in that part of the country called this right here, garlic, its name was chikaagwa, and that’s how we get the name Chicago. So we’re going to do a tomato basil pasta and all good Italian recipes begin, of course, with garlic. So what I’m doing, I just took the clove and, you know, you press on it and it breaks it all apart and then what you’re going to do, you’re going to take the little sheaths off. Now, this is new crop garlic so you may have to spend a little bit more time getting those peels off, but don’t worry about it. They are full of flavor because they are so full of oil content. Now when you get these, I want you to get a sauté pan, two tablespoons of olive oil going, and then here’s what I want you to do. Thinly slice this little garlic. Thinly slice. I want you to thinly slice about five of them, and that goes right in your olive oil.

POMODORO Y BASILLICO PART III (Wednesday, September 8): All right. We’re doing a tomato basil pasta. It’s called Pomodoro y Basillico if you want to know the Italian name for it – very, very traditional. And we’re going to do it with these little Nature Sweet cherry tomatoes or cocktail tomatoes. Now what I’m going to do….get your kids in the kitchen by the way. This is a great easy way. Get them in the kitchen. Have them take off all these little stems. I guarantee you, once you get your kids in the kitchen and have them, you know, work with you, I guarantee they’re going to eat better. Now, what we’re going to do with these cherry tomatoes…be very careful. You need a very sharp knife for this, okay? I want you to cut them in half and some of them you’re just going to leave halved like this, but a lot of them…here’s what I want you to do. I want you to take those halves and then I want you to take those halves and cut those in half so now you have quarters. So you have some of them halved. You have some of them quartered. Don’t leave me now. We’re going to take some of these and we’re gong to take the halves, cut them in half, and then we’re going to take those quarters and cut them in half as well so now we have a mixture in there of some small pieces and some larger pieces

POMODORO Y BASILLICO PART IV (Thursday, September 9): All right. A little tomato and basil pasta. We call it pomodoro y basillico, and what we need to do at the very end of our cooking…we’ve had our cherry tomatoes in a sauté pan just sautéing for about 10 minutes – very, very simple, very easy. Now we’re going to take our basil – now again, this is another great way of getting your kids in the kitchen because the little Marks brothers, you know, they can take off basil leaves. They can stack them up, and then you roll them up really nice and tight. Now this is a French word called chiffonade. Basically what you are doing, you are cutting this into fine strips, fine ribbons. Look at this. Now it’s key to have a very, very nice sharp knife because the more you cut this, the more oxidation you’re going to have. The less oxidation the better you’re going to have…now this goes into my tomatoes at the very last 60 seconds of the cooking and then you’re almost ready to plate.

POMODORO Y BASILLICO PART V (Friday, September 10): All right. All this week we’ve been making Pomodoro y Basillico, which is a tomato basil pasta. Now you can use any pasta you want. I love bowtie pasta, especially if you have kids, you know, because it’s really easy to pick up with a fork. So we’re just going to plate that on there, and then what we’re going to do…we’re going to…ah, man, if you can smell this, a little “smellevision” – just take that wonderful tomato mixture that you have…we’re not done yet. Don’t go away because you have the finishing touches. Remember, we had some of that basil? What I want you to do is sprinkle a lot of that basil on. In fact you can take some of these leaves of basil and just have the kids just kind of shred it up like this in their hands and put that all over the top. And then, of course, maybe right on top maybe some shaved parmesan right on top. And there you have one of the easiest dishes you can find, and it started with these Nature Sweet tomatoes. Oh, my goodness! The sweetness and the acid content – perfect tomato flavor 365 days out of the year. I’m ready to eat. Oh, my goodness! I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.