This is what Eats for One is all about.

tortellini served

You have noted my harping on the creative use of leftovers; Monday’s lunch presented a perfect example. In order to have leftovers, you have to have meals (duh!), and this is what I had been cooking.

About a week ago, I made a K Paul Meatloaf and had half a green bell pepper left over. I put it in a baggie and stuck it in the crisper.

Last Wednesday I made a pan stew of scallops, peas and pearl onions. The recipe –from the Tra Vigne Cookbook – calls for 1/2 pound fresh pasta in a shape about the size of a pearl onion. I usually use conchiglie (little shells) or gigli (little lily) but this time I used fresh cheese tortellini, which comes in a ten ounce package. So I had some fresh pasta left over.

Thursday, I cooked Swordfish Provencal from a recipe I found on the Beyond Salmon blog. It calls for a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained. I saved the juice/puree in a POM jar.

Saturday, I made braised chicken thighs with tomato, capers, anchovies & olives from a Janet Fletcher story on chicken thighs in the Chronicle. It calls for a 28 can of whole peeled tomatoes, drained. More drained goodness. In both cases, I used cans of Italian San Marzano tomatoes; they’re more expensive, but well worth it.

Looks like lunch.

I put a pot of water on to boil. While that was going on, I diced the bell pepper put it on to sauté in olive oil, about 5 minutes. While the pepper softened I chopped half an onion and put that in with the pepper (another 5 minutes). I diced an Aidells Cajun Style Andouille (not left over) sausage and threw that in followed by the tomato sauce and seasoned it with salt, pepper and thyme. While the sauce cooked down a bit, I cooked the pasta (3 minutes), drained it and added to the tomato mixture. I let that bubble a little to get the flavors all going together, and served myself a nice lunch.

EATS ON THE ROAD

Copley Square, Boston

Eats for One is going on the road to see friends and sights in Boston and spend Thanksgiving with sons Eric and Brian in Maine, where Eric is raising his own turkey. I’ll surely have tales to tell when I get back.

Eric -- out standing in his field

My brother and his wife were coming on Friday from South Carolina and I wanted to cook, rather than sample a fine San Francisco restaurant; specifically, I wanted to make pasta. I remembered seeing a scrumptious picture of pappardelle with tiny meatballs in Jamie Oliver’s book, Cooking with Jamie. Love pappardelle, love meatballs, it looked easy and could be made in stages. What’s not to like? I was so pleased with the idea, that we invited my nephew and his lady friend, as well.That same week, I was browsing the Cookbook section at Books, Inc and saw a stupid simple idea in the new A-16 cookbook: they use raw tomato sauce for their pizza. Just run San Marzano tomatoes through the medium disk of a food mill. I can do that!

san marzano                           early girl

Generally, I use San Marzano tomatoes for sauce, but sometimes I like Early Girl tomatoes; they’re not as rich, but bright and tomatoey. I happened to have a couple pounds of them. I reckoned that a sauce of Early Girls, beef broth and red wine would work just fine. I was thinking of a brothy sauce rather than a saucy sauce.Another neat feature of this dish is that my brother, who likes to cook, could roll meatballs with me and catch pasta coming out of the roller while the girls have a glass of wine and kibitz.
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Friday Sept 12, Urban Farm Tour, 10 am – 3:30 pm

Join CUESA for a tour of two urban farms: Happy Quail Farms in East Palo Alto and Alemany Farm in San Francisco. Farmer David Winsberg will take us on a tour of his greenhouse and shade houses that are home to hundreds of varieties of peppers. He’ll also walk us through his vegetable patch, introduce us to his flock of chickens, and treat us to a tasting of Happy Quail peppers.Next we’ll head to Alemany Farm, the largest farm in San Francisco. Manager Jason Mark will show us around this unique farm that provides fresh, organic food and creates jobs for residents of a nearby public housing development.

As a person who loves living in the city, and also loves fresh local produce, I had to sign up.Happy Quail Farms

We got off the bus onto a suburban street of 1950’s tract houses. David Winsberg — facing the group — noted that he grew up on a 300-acre vegetable farm in Florida and when he moved to the Bay Area in 1984, he harvested quail eggs and sold them to sushi restaurants in the area, hence the name. This area of East Palo Alto was planned to be self sustaining, the residents, primarily Japanese, living on the street and farming the “back yard” of the one-acre lot. Now, the individual farms are a thing of the past, and David and his wife Karen farm their back lot and lease or “use” others to make up their two-acre farm.

We entered the narrow passage between houses, not quite knowing what to expect.

We found a huge greenhouse — nearly one-acre — where they grow primarily peppers and cucumbers, getting an early start on the season.

Just outside the greenhouse entrance, peppers are dried and ground to make paprika.
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