Spicy Sauce-ah, Itsa Italian (best Italian accent): Fruits and Veggies Monday

Fall is finally here in Los Angeles, California and I’m happy to report that we had our first rainy day. Sure, this was a few days ago and it only lasted about a full day and night but it rained and it counts.

My husband and I turned out all of our lights and watched the lightning bolts illuminate the sky and then our living room. It was really neat. Did you know that if you count (one one thousand, two one thousand, and so on) after each strike of lightning to when you hear thunder you have the amount of miles away the lightning bolt struck? It might be a myth but still a fun storm activity to partake in with someone. At least it kept us entertained 🤷🏼‍♀️

Because of all this fall-y-ness I decided to try and make my own sauce! Yes, the always coveted, traditional Sunday dinner, Italian sauce. Since it was my first time I didn’t have a clue as to how it would turn out, but with #fruitsandveggiesmonday around the corner I knew I had to document it. Thanks @lenasveganliving for keeping my menu inspired :)

Spicy Sauce w/Brown Rice Spaghetti & Garlic Foccacia Bread

Side note: this recipe is gluten free, dairy free and all yum.

First, I made a trip to ol’ TJs, for those of you who don’t know, that is code for Trader Joes, and grabbed about 12 organic vine tomatoes. This recipe will call for a lot of onion and garlic as well. Be prepared to have people telepathically ask you for an invite to dinner with this shopping list. It gets a few yearning looks.…

Ingredients:

3 Cups white onion (chopped)
10-12 cloves garlic (minced)
12-14 tomatoes (chopped)
1.5 Cups basil (chopped)
1.5 Tsp crushed red pepper or flakes
1-2 Tbsp thyme (fresh)
1/4 Cup olive oil
1-2 Tbsp oregano (dried)
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Optional: coconut sugar and cornstarch

Grab your goggles because these onions are hurtful. Why do onions always have to be so mean? They must have missed the day in class when we learned to “treat others as you’d want them to treat you”.

Fine! Two can play this game, I’ll just chop you into smithereens (if my autocorrect would stop trying to make it say ‘smother ones’).

Do the same to that garlic while you’re at it.

Your prep should look something like this with the chopped basil, thyme and minced garlic. Don’t be afraid to add a clove or two extra of garlic either. If you’re like me then everything can do with a little more garlique (that’s French for garlic 😉).

I also chopped my tomatoes and set them on a plate waiting to join the party. I think I ended up using 12 tomatoes but don’t hesitate to add a couple more if yours aren’t as juicy.

Starting with olive oil heated over medium heat throw in your garlic until nice and fragrant. If you don’t have a human fragrant detector (aka husband who yells “what cha cookin, that smells good”) then count on about 3-4 minutes. Careful not to burn anything.

Add your onion and let them sweat it out for a bit, until somewhat translucent. This should set off your fragrance alarm too. I like to sweat mine on lower heat for a longer time (about 10-12 minutes) because it creates more dimension, in my opinion.

Mix in your pepper flakes, thyme, oregano and black pepper.

Then add your big guns; chopped tomato.

Stir everything well making sure it’s all mixed up. Bring the pot to a simmer and let it cook for about an hour. Try to refrain from putting your lid back on the pot because the sauce won’t reduce if you do. I learned this the hard way, like a bozo 🤦🏼‍♀️.

While that’s metamorphosizing into sauce lets start on the Garlic Focaccia Bread.

Easy peasy, your start up will look like this. You won’t be sorry making this bread. It’s gluten free, yeast free, pretty easy and pretty yum, plus it sops up spaghetti sauce like no other.

Ingredients:

2 Cups GF flour
2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp sea salt
1.5 Cups sparkling water
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp maple syrup (pure)

Garlic Herb Oil

2 Tbsp olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves (minced)
1 Tsp oregano
1 Tsp basil
1/4 Tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 Tsp sea salt

Pre-heat oven to 450F and grease a casserole dish, cookie sheet or something similar.

Chop your garlic and mix it with olive oil, basil, oregano, salt and pepper flakes and set aside.

Mix your flour, baking powder and sea salt in a medium-large bowl. Add olive oil, maple syrup and sparkling water and whisk until just mixed together.

Now pour the dough into your freshly greased pan and don’t worry if it’s really watery. I imagine that when using different gluten free flours you’ll get different consistencies of dough.

Brush your Garlic Herbed Oil on top of your bread and don’t be afraid to mix it in a little. Then pop it in the oven for 22 minutes.

I’ve made this bread quite a few times now and have used a casserole dish to get a thicker bread, used different flours to play with the consistency of the dough, yet I still liked the first bread the best. It’s thinner than you may be expecting but doesn’t lack in flavor.

It kind of came out looking like an herbed garlic crisp-bread. Whatever, it was yum!

Half way through simmering your sauce, add the basil and mix it all together. This is about the time I realized my sauce wasn’t reducing because I had the lid on. No worries, I just gave it another 45 minutes. This let’s all of the flavors really come together.

When your sauce has been reducing for an hour check the flavor and the thickness making sure you’re getting what you want. Sometimes the tomatoes can get a bit acidic if reduced too quickly so you’ll want to add coconut sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until it tastes to your liking.

If your sauce is having a difficult time thickening up, mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water and add that to your sauce. Only do this right before taking the sauce off the heat though, you don’t want it to thin out again by over simmering the corn starch.

Taaadaaaa! Damn… that’s a lot of sauce. I know, I know, I got a little overzealous but freezing some for later has proven to be a genius move.

With only two pots I had to transfer the sauce into something else so I could cook the spaghetti noodles. No biggie, it made for a great photo.

In my smaller pot I whipped up some lentils to act as the meat to the dish.

When all was said and done, there was a sh**t ton of dishes and sauce plus flour everywhere but the meal was perfect! The perfect spaghetti for the perfect rainy day. @dandays thank you for getting the dishes 😘.

Thank you all for stopping by Italian night at the
dan-vida residence (that’s a hybrid of @puravidaville and @dandays in case you didn’t know). It’s always a pleasure hanging out on Monday’s.

Pura Vida ✌️