Cooking With Maddie Newsletter #56
Tomato Sauce, Tomato Orzo with Chicken Thighs and a Peach Cobbler
Hi friends!
I hope you’re enjoying the ‘wow-I-love-these-long-days-but-damn-it’s-too-hot’ phase of summer that we’re currently living in. I know I am.
If you know me, you know I love me some summer. The 8:30 sunsets. Grilling some big, juicy brats. That feeling when the sun evaporates all the pool water off your skin. No work on Fridays, if you’re lucky enough to have Summer Fridays. And of course, my favorite part of summer— the produce. Peach season has finally arrived, tomatoes are as good as they’ll ever be and the corn… the corn is just… chef’s kiss.
Here at this house, we’re lucky enough to have been gifted enough peaches, tomatoes and corn to feed the entire LoHi neighborhood. Thank you Jim & Cathi!
And because we have an abundance— I mean, seriously, what are we supposed to do with all this food?!— of our favorite summer produce, this week’s newsletter features not one - not two - but three recipes using summer’s finest offspring. Also, I know I promised a recipe once a month, and well, I’m behind on 2, so this is me making up for it.
Let’s start with the simplest (and maybe my favorite?) recipe of the bunch — Tomato Sauce.
Again, we were trying to think of ways we could use up our tomatoes before they went bad, and what better way than to make some good ol’ fashion sauce. And let me just say, this sauce was so good that after making the first batch, I decided to whip up another one. For good measure, of course.
Here’s what you’ll need—
2 - 2 ½ pounds tomatoes, quartered — We used beefsteak tomatoes, but you can use any big, juicy tomato you’d like
¼ cup of olive oil
3 garlic cloves, smashed
4-5 stems fresh oregano
Salt and pepper
Heat your oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large dutch oven, add the quartered tomatoes, olive oil, smashed garlic, oregano stems and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Gently stir so the tomatoes are coated with oil.
With the lid on, bake for 60-75 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft enough to be smashed with a wooden spoon.
Remove from the oven and let cool. Remove the oregano stems.
Using an immersion blender, blend the saucy tomato mixture until smooth. No tomato chunks should be left. If you prefer, you can also transfer everything to a blender and blend to combine.
Taste your sauce. What does it need? More salt? More pep? Add that now. Blend again. Transfer sauce to a jar or container.
My favorite thing about this sauce is that it’s so simple that you can use it for pretty much anything. Boil your favorite pasta and toss it in the sauce. Use it to make homemade pizzas. Or you can use it to make my next recipe for you— Tomato Orzo with Chicken Thighs.
The ingredients are—
4-5 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
Salt and pep
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
Pinch of red pepper flakes — optional
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup dry orzo
1 ½ cups tomato sauce
1 cup water
Top with basil, grated Parm and more chili flake
Start by heating your oven to 400 degrees F.
Pat the chicken thighs dry with a paper towel. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a cast iron skillet, over medium heat. When the skillet is hot, add the chicken thighs skin-side down. Cook until the skin is brown and crispy, about 10 minutes.
Remove the thighs from the skillet and transfer to a plate. Make sure they stay skin-side up, to not sog the crispy skin you just worked so hard for.
Reduce heat to medium-low. Add your onion and garlic to the skillet. Cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Stir to scrape up any of the developed fond at the bottom of your pan. If you like spicy, add a pinch of red pepper flakes here.
Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste to the skillet. Stir to coat the onions and garlic. Cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Add 1 cup of uncooked orzo to the skillet. Stir everything to combine, and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Add your sauce and water to the skillet. Stir to combine.
Remove from heat. Nestle the chicken thighs back into the skillet, skin-side up. Transfer to the oven, cooking for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken’s internal temp is 165 and the orzo is fully cooked-through.
Top with a glug of olive oil, basil, grated Parm and more chili flake.
And because I know this newsletter is already too long, we’ll just jump right into recipe number three — Peach Cobbler.
Here’s what you’ll need —
12-14 peaches, pits removed and sliced
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup turbinado sugar
Top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream — I like to make my own whipped cream. Follow this simple recipe here.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lather a 9x13 baking dish with butter.
Add sliced peaches, ½ cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon to a large glass bowl. Stir to coat. Set aside.
In another mixing bowl, add ¾ cup sugar, vanilla, flour, baking powder and melted butter. Mix to combine, or until it looks like wet sand. Set aside.
Transfer the peach-mixture to your buttered baking dish. Top the peaches with your sugar-flour mixture. Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle turbinado sugar on top. Return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let cool. Top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
For what’s been giving me life recently, it’s been getting plenty of quality time with my dearest friends and fam. We celebrated our friends Audra and Connor as they said ‘I do’ in Austin, TX. Yeehaw! It was taking my mom and Aunt Julie to my favorite spots in Denver (shout-out Wildflower). It’s been many mornings spent walking along the water in Golden. It was seeing Jake Owen and Chris Lane in Colorado Springs with Care, Anna and Mullet.
It was watching the Avs bring home the Stanley Cup, even though, don’t get it twisted — my loyalty still lies with the STL Blues. It was spending Father’s Day weekend in Moab with my mom and brother. We glamped (lol), hiked and chowed like there was no tomorrow. And most recently, it was spending 4th of July weekend back in St. Louis, where we shot off fireworks, cannonballed into the pool and had the best brunch at Grace Meat + Three.
Last, but not least, what’s bringing me the most joy right now is our garden. I don’t mean to brag but it’s thriving right now. We have kale, fennel, beets, celery, shallots, radishes, cucumbers, peppers and obviously tomatoes. We have pretty much every herb imaginable — rosemary, thyme, oregano, dill, parsley, tarragon and basil. We even have pumpkins! Seeing each plant grow, bit-by-bit, makes me feel like a proud mama.
Wish I was with you,
Maddie
I also can’t send out a newsletter without acknowledging the devastating decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Words can’t describe the anger and heartache so many of us feel. So instead of going on about how fucked up it is, I’ll leave you all with a list of resources. To find an abortion clinic, go to abortionfinder.org or ineedana.com. For abortion pills, visit plancpills.org or heyjane.co. For financial assistance, go to abortionfunds.org or call the NAF hotline at 800-772-9100. For legal assistance, visit reprolegalhelpline.org or aidaccess.org.