Eating Your Words Challenge : Saucy!

Apr
2010
01

Twitter has been all abuzz last month about the annual Eating Your Words Challenge hosted by ultra fab foodies Savor The Thyme and Tangled Noodle. This blog event is too fun encouraging cooks and bakers to get mega creative making word art with food crafted in their own kitchen.  Alas, the challenge deadline was the stroke of midnight March 31st, 2010 and here is my submission on the morning of April 1st. Thought I wasn't going to enter, huh? Fooled you (and myself; double April Fools prank)!

Eating_Your_Words_Badge_2010

Truthfully I'm just happy to have had this idea in the middle of last night long after I decided I had no worthy ideas to share for this year's Eating Your Words. Waking from my slumber I made a mental note of a word that is an adjective which when spelled by its food archetype takes on the aesthetics of all things full, velvety, and juicy. Dare I say bootylicious? My Eating Your Words 2010 Challenge entry is Saucy.

I'd like to thank my personality-believing myself to be a sassy and saucy individual-for the inspiration of this word art dish, and I am perhaps one of the sauciest, but inspirado really struck post a night in the chop shop, aka, my kitchen. Last evening while testing recipes for The Real Women of Philadedlphia cream cheese recipe contest I prepared a pretty quick Pomodoro Sauce. "Mmm, pomodoro sauce. What dish did you use that with?" you might be asking yourself at this moment. That, my dear readers and friends, must be withheld for just a few short weeks longer until either I learned lessons from entering another contest or I'm on a jet plane to Savannah to get crazy in the kitchen with the Southern Goodness Goddess herself, Paula Deen! If you me good luck and best wishes and dishes this month, I will be sure to repay the karmic favor.

Pomodoro Sauce is a simple tomato sauce typically less thick than a marinara, and in my family's recipes case, less spiced. Usually like marinara pomodoro is also served with fresh basil leaves or chiffonade. What I consider key to a sweet and tangy pomodoro is the choice of tomatoes.  Fortunately I've been schooled by my circle of Italian home cooks in the superior flavors of San Marzano Tomatoes. San Marzano tomatoes are a product of Italy-where all classically fabulous things come from-and the myth behind their flavorful lure contends these tomato seeds were a gift from the Kingdom of Peru to the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th century. The town of their namesake where the tomato seeds were eventually planted is nestled under Mt. Vesuvius. The volcanic ash in the soil acts there like a filter for impurities resulting in a fleshier, less seedy, and elongated, luscious tomato. Here in Orlando, FL you can find the Cento San Marzano Peeled Tomatoes at the College Park Publix on Edgewater Drive and at Antonio's Deli on Orlando Avenue. in Maitland. Hunt around your town for speciality Italian food stores or search in areas where a lot of Italian-Americans live for the BOOM ingredient that is San Marzano tomatoes and your time looking will not be in vain. I promise.  Now, eat your words!

Pomodoro Sauce Recipe

  • 1 28oz. can Cento San Marzano Peeled Tomatoes.
  • 4-6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or through a garlic press.
  • 3 tbl. olive oil
  • 1 tbl sugar
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • salt
  • pepper
  1. Put the olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Using a garlic press or your knife skills, add the garlic once the oil is hot. Cook 2 minutes.
  2. Add the can of tomatoes. Crush the tomatoes thoroughly with your hands over the sauce pan to release their juices.  Add salt, pepper, sugar, and onion powder.
  3. Bring to a simmer and turn the heat slightly down. Let the sauce reduce for 10-12 minutes. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if desired. Serve with fresh basil over pasta.
EatingYourWorldsChallenge_byrjoyce

Can you taste the sauciness?

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