I still love cooking, with a special fondness for baking and preserving. But I have to say that my stamina and attention span for long involved processes has diminished.
So my favorite tools of the season are the Instant Pot, immersion blender, and food mill.
I've made two batches of marinara by simply throwing everything in the pot. Well, not exactly throwing - there is some rough chopping involved, and the onion and carrot and garlic get a bit of saute in the olive oil first. Then when it's all done and cooled some, I blitz it in the pot.
I've been portioning this out, mostly as one cupfuls for one person's pasta, and freezing it.
But I've had an idea which I hope will turn out to be a bright one. I'm going to make the recipe one more time, subbing peppers, sweet and hot, for the carrot and some of the onion, and using vinegar (sherry?) as the liquid instead of the wine called for in the original recipe guideline. When it's whizzed "to the desired consistency," as the recipes say, I'll have salsa. With my handy pH strips I can see if it's then okay to can, and do that to save a little freezer room.
Oh - and meanwhile I have some roasted small tomatoes, given the immersion blender treatment to use in tomato-herb bread.
Here's the guideline I've been using for the marinara:
https://www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/instant-pot-marinara-fresh-tomato-sauce/
Except with paste tomatoes - I have San Marzanos - using just one 6 ounce can of organic tomato paste to give it a little more backbone.
And https://www.daringgourmet.com/fresh-roasted-tomato-and-herb-bread/
This impossibly long blog entry has a good recipe for the bread, which has never met a cheese it didn't like.
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