Favorite tomato sauce, eggplant and wild greens lasagne and rhubarb crumble

Since entering this vast blogging world, I have been ever so inspired by some of 

the recipes I have found here ( as well as obviously an abundance of craft projects ). Therefor I thought I would share some of the things cooking in our kitchen.

The other day, there was a great sale on organic tomatoes, although not quite in season here yet, they had not travelled too far, so I got about 4 pounds and set out to make our favorite tomato sauce.

When tomatoes are in season here I will usually get a lot more (besides what I grow) and make enough to freeze. I use this sauce for many things, on pasta, in lasagna, in curries, in beans, on pizza and whatever else I can think of. Like is often the case I do not use a recipe.

In this sauce I used; 

olive oil

1 large onion

7-8 cloves of garlic (love garlic)

about 4 pounds of tomatoes

splash or two balsamic vinegar

3T or so rapadura (sugar)

good handful of fresh herbs on hand; basil, oregano and parsley

1 small glass jar tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

First I fry up the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent, then I add the balsamic vinegar and rapadura, and let this simmer for a few minutes, I think that this is the secret to this lovely sauce, then again perhaps everyone does it like this:)

Then I cut up all the tomatoes and add them, unlike most I do not skin the tomatoes first, one of these days I will take the time to do this, but as of yet I have not done it.

I add the tomato paste and the fresh herbs, and leave to simmer for quite a while with the lid on. A couple of hours at least. If I had my hand blender I would blend part or all of it. But mine broke and I have not gotten another, and I like it just as well without the blending, the children like it blended though.

Kaleena has been asking for lasagna, so part of the sauce was used for that.

I used eggplant to layer instead of pasta this time. And used lambs quarters, a wild weedy green rich in vitamins, and kale instead of spinach. I skinned a large eggplant (for the children mostly) and cut it into thins slices, put it on a baking sheet, drizzled with olive oil and set in the oven on 375 until soft, I turned them after about 15 minutes. Mean while I steamed my greens and in a bowl mixed them with a tub of ricotta cheese, and added a bit of salt.

Then in a large pyrex pan, I layered first tomato sauce, then the eggplant, then the cheese mixture, then another layer of eggplant and another layer of tomato sauce, topped it with mozzarella cheese, and cooked in the oven till bubbly and brown on top. Lovely, one of our favorites for sure.

And lastly I would like to share this rhubarb crumble delight. It is a recipe from my sister, with a few additions. It is sweet and sour and crunchy. And served warm with vanilla ice cream yum!!!

It goes; (please excuse the metric measurements, this is a danish recipe)

1kilo fresh rhubarb

150g gram sugar (rapadura)

3T flour

Topping;

100grams of soft butter (almost one stick)

125grams of brown sugar

2T sugar (rapadura)

150grams of flour

1/4t cinnamon

50grams of walnuts.

To this i also added raspberries and an apple.

Cut up the rhubarb in little pieces, mix with sugar and flour (plus apple pieces and raspberries)

Put them in a greased pan.

In a bowl cream butter, brown sugar and sugar, and stir in flour and cinnamon.

Chop the walnuts and add them to the mixture. Now crumble this over the rhubarb mixture.

Put the dish in the oven at 350 for about 35 minutes, or until brown and crunchy on top.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, yum!!! So delicious.

That is some of what we have been cooking and enjoying this past week.

I hope you enjoy!

~happy eating~