Week 14 CSA

Share contents: 3 pounds sauce tomatoes, 1 celery, 1 bunch parsley, 1 bunch purple basil, 2 garlic bulbs, 1 pound yellow onions, 1 pound sweet “Jimmy Nardello” frying peppers, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, 1 pound okra.

The pasta sauce that we most love is made by dicing into as small as possible chunks equal parts celery, yellow onion, and carrot and letting all this stew together in a generous amount of olive oil in a covered pot for 30 minutes to an hour. In the meantime I peel the tomatoes and chop crudely. I add the tomatoes, chopped parsley, and several basil leaves to the pot when the celery onion carrot mixture is well caramelized. I also add salt and black pepper to taste as well as some crushed red hot pepper. I let all this cook on medium-low heat so it is bubbling a little but not boiling.

The peppers in your box this week are sweet though I know they look hot. We have encountered one plant that has more spice so out of an abundance of caution, de-seed them if you don’t like hot peppers. Our favorite way to eat these is cut into slices and slowly sauteed with yellow onions and salt. It’s great with eggs, on bread, as a little side, over pasta.