The Art of Simplicity

Post by Olivia Martino, Registered Dietitian and Co-Owner, Nourish Northwest

This post is  inspired by my long-time quest to find the perfect recipe for tomato sauce.  I am Italian and I have always felt like I should have an incredible sauce recipe in my repertoire.  But my grandma was an amazing baker, not the best cook and never passed a sauce recipe down to me.  I have tried many different sauces, stewing them for hours and adding tons of different herbs.  I have pureed them, left them chunky and used a food mill to achieve my desired texture.  I have added varied amounts of garlic, onions, salt, sugar and oil, and an occasional splash of vinegar.  I have never been satisfied with my result.

Recently, I was given the The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.  I had heard about her famous Tomato Sauce III and wanted to give it a try.  To quote an article in the New Yorker about Marcella: “She begins the recipe by saying, “This is the simplest of all sauces to make, and none has a purer, more irresistibly tomato taste. I have known people to skip the pasta and eat the sauce directly out of the pot with a spoon.” All you do is put the tomatoes in the pan, add a medium-sized onion cut in half and the butter, and simmer for forty-five minutes.”  Butter, a half an onion and tomatoes. That’s it.  But what about the garlic? No oregano or basil? Only 45 minutes? This just seemed to simple to be good.  

 

Once I tasted my first bite of this I leaned a very important lesson, which was that cooking does not have to be complicated to be delicious.  This was the best sauce I had ever tasted.  This is such an important reminder to me, as a cooking teacher.  Learning new techniques and ingredients is so fun and exciting to me, that my recipes often end up being very involved or have a long list of hard to find ingredients.  Complicated recipes are great, but they have their time and place and what we find most clients asking for is simple weeknight recipes.  Paula and I always struggle with this when creating menus, fearful that we will be sacrificing flavor for simplicity.  This sauce is a reminder that that doesn’t have to be so. Keeping simplicity and flavor in mind, here are some of my favorite weeknight go-to’s:

Eggs

Eggs are easy, so versatile and very nutritious.  I could even expand this category to be breakfast for dinner.  Breakfasts are usually quick and simple and there is nothing wrong with eating a bowl of oatmeal, whole grain pancakes or scrambled eggs in the evening.

 

Lentils

Lentils are a quick, hearty source of protein and fiber, making them very satisfying.  Unlike many legumes, lentils cook up in just 20 minutes.  I like a big bowl of lentils with some avocado, feta cheese and a squeeze of lemon.

Soy curls

These are one of my favorite sources of protein.  Minimally processed and easy to rehydrate, soy curls take on any flavor and have a nice, chewy texture.   I always keep a jar of these on the counter.  They last a long time and are ready to use after soaking them in water for about 10 minutes.  I like to sautee them with coconut oil, tamari and mirin and serve over a bed of sauteed kale.  Yum!

Polenta

Polenta is so simple and so delicious.  I like to keep whole ground cornmeal polenta as well as a couple of tubes of polenta in my cabinet at all times.  If you want the creamy version, just cook with water, stirring often for twenty minutes or so.  You can add cheese and/or butter in at the end if you like.  The polenta in tubes is ready to slice and bake for a crispier version of the grain.

Soup

There are so many flavor and styles of soup I love that are very simple but there is one go-to soup I make when I really have bare bones ingredients.  1 quart of chicken broth, 1/2 bunch kale, fresh ginger and garlic and a source of protein (beans, soy curls, chicken).  You can of course spruce this up quite a bit if you like, but these are all ingredients that I usually have on hand.

Roasted Veggies

All you need for this one is some vegetables, salt and oil.  Roast winter veggies for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees.  So delicious, so simple and hands down my favorite way to eat a vegetable.

Sandwiches

Yes, you can eat a PB&J for dinner.  Or a grilled cheese, or a BLT.  Sandwiches tend to be pretty balanced, containing a source of protein, carbohydrates and healthy fat.  Assembling a sandwich certainly counts as cooking in my book.

 

I hope this makes cooking a little less intimidating to the beginner or busy cook!