This week, we enjoyed a little rain, a little sun, and definite hints of autumn in the air, including one quite chilly night where it dipped into the 50s. My crabapples are falling, and there is the lightest touch of color coming on the leaves around here. Colder areas and the hills and mountains of the state are showing more color, but along the Champlain Valley, we are often late to start. Rest assured, it will happen.

Let’s make sauce

The tomatoes are still coming on strong. Faced with a rather large basket of both cherry and regular tomatoes, and freezer space getting tight, I thought sauce might be in order. Just a simple sauce, I sautéed some onions with a little garlic, added the tomatoes, unpeeled, chopped, some salt and pepper, oregano and thyme, and let it bubble away for an hour. Then, I tossed in a glass of red wine and a Parmesan rind I had stashed in the freezer, and let it simmer very slowly another couple of hours, probably longer as I wasn’t really paying that much attention it. The hand immersion blender made quick work of smoothing out the sauce, and then I realized I had forgotten to take out the rind! Oh well, it’s just dried cheese after all and the sauce tasted really good, even better when I added some fresh basil (also in abundance) from the garden and let it simmer another half hour. 

We’ll have to freeze some

Sauce for several meals, some to give away, plus six jars I managed to squeeze into the freezer. Meal number one – Pasta with Mushroom and Nut Balls.

Time to enjoy the process

Making homemade pasta is a great rainy-day project, especially if you have some young ones about. My granddaughter and friend were here recently and decided to put their own spin on cutting out the pasta shapes after discovering my mother’s set of vintage cookie cutters. They are in the shape of playing card suits – heart, diamond, club, and spade – plus a star and a circle. I remember her using these for sugar cookies and we loved them almost as much as her spritz cookies she made at the holidays. Those we liked a bit better because there were so many shapes that went to her cookie press. Yes, I still have it and make those cookies most years.

Cribbage anyone?

The playing card cutters jog many memories for me because my parents loved their card games. Growing up, there was always a cribbage board on the table, and when they had a few spare minutes, one of them would deal the cards and away they went “fifteen-two, fifteen-four…” it seems like their words are always hanging in the air somewhere. I had several older cousins who made a habit of stopping by on Sunday mornings for breakfast and a quick hand of crib. My dad loved the game so much, we buried a perfect cribbage hand with his ashes. We also buried a bottle of his favorite beer as well, but that’s another story.

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.” ~ Jack London

Semolina flour

Playing cards, what good memories. The girls just thought the cutters were fun, so they dutifully each made a batch of dough using the fun method of making a little well of flour and beating the eggs in, waited patiently for it all to rest, then rolled it out by hand, just as though they were making cookies. Instead of making my usual pasta dough with regular or whole wheat flour, we used semolina flour and followed the Bob’s Red Mill directions on the bag. The pasta made this way was a bit firmer and took a bit longer to cook as well, but in hindsight we should have rolled it thinner to begin with. But it was really tasty and that is what counts. Absolutely no complaints, and although not part of the card suits, the stars were the first shapes to be consumed.

For the pasta:

Make a mound of 1 ½ cups Bob’s Red Mill semolina pasta flour and ½ tsp. salt. Make a well in the middle and add 2 beaten eggs, 2 tbsp. water, and 2 tbsp. olive oil. Begin mixing with a fork, scraping around the crater, until you have a large sticky mass of dough, then use your hands to bring the rest together. Knead for about ten minutes, then cover with an inverted bowl and let rest for a half hour. You can also make this in a food processor in seconds, but it’s a lot more fun using the traditional method. Once the dough is rested and ready, roll it out on a floured surface and either run it through a pasta maker, slice into strands, or cut into shapes. They chose the shapes and had a ball cutting them out. 

All the components

Thus, we had pasta, some delicious sauce, and while the pasta making was going on I tossed together a batch of my mushroom and nut balls, a perfect addition to the meal. 

Now, what to do with today’s tomato harvest dutifully gathered by my other granddaughter Jaina and her friend Abby. 

Mushroom and Nut Balls

Makes 40 balls

• 2 slices of whole wheat bread, regular or gluten free
• 2/3 cup tomato or vegetable juice
• 1 can unsalted black beans, drained
• 8 oz. button or crimini mushrooms, chopped
• 1 cup pecans or other nut
• 1 onion 
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ tsp. Bell’s seasoning
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1 cup old fashioned oatmeal
• Salt and pepper to taste

This is quick work and easiest done in a food processor. If you do not have a food processor, you can use a good sharp cook’s knife to finely chop everything. It takes a little longer, but still works fine.

Pulse the bread in the food processor until coarse crumbs. Add to a large bowl, and stir in the juice. Let sit while processing the rest of the ingredients.

To the processor, add the black beans and pulse until the texture you would like, usually with some bits of bean still showing. Add to the bowl. 

Process the mushrooms until fine, then add the nuts and pulse until they are coarsely ground. Add to bowl. Process the onion and garlic to a mince and add to the bowl with the seasonings and oatmeal.

Mix everything well, and shape into balls using a cookie scoop, onto a greased or lined baking sheet. Mine is an eighth of a cup and this recipe made a whopping 40 meatballs. Technically, they are really hemispheres because I don’t further roll them, but no one cares. If you don’t have a scoop, you can use a coffee scoop or large tablespoon, but you will probably need to keep your fingers moistened as you roll. Spray lightly with olive oil before popping in the oven.

Bake at 425 F. (220 C.) or 400 F. (200C.) convection, for about 35 minutes or until nicely browned and firm. Serve up, or freeze for another day.

“All the months are crude experiments, out of which the perfect September is made.”  ~ Virginia Woolf

We start them young making pasta in this house! Leola wasn’t even four yet, and did a great job.

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