A flurry of throwing things in the car and Dan and I head out for the beach. It’s Saturday, July 21st just after Dan’s improv workshop. (Dan has instigated a weekly coming together of performers from various disciplines and points of view to explore new ideas and ways of performing, not necessarily ways to be funny but ways to explore relationships and develop character. It’s pretty cool stuff and he didn’t want to miss it.) We managed to forego a BBQ stop and ended up at John’s beach house shortly after every one else and in plenty of time for dinner.
Cold Pasta Sauce! My Favorite. It’s one of Dan’s family recipes and a major staple for us when tomatoes are in season. I was going to say that you could just ask if you wanted a copy but why not just share the love? It’s super easy and very tasty. Travels well, keeps forever in the fridge. Pretty healthy too.
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Sipp Cold Pasta Sauce
3 Tbls Fresh Basil, diced
3 Tbls Fresh Parsley, diced
3 whole Green Onions, chopped
¾ tsp Oregano, dried okay
4 cloves Garlic, minced
4 large Tomatoes, small chunks
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp Pepper
3 Tbls Balsamic Vinegar
3 Tbls Red Wine
½ cup Olive Oil
Fresh Mozzarella (which I like to add when serving so it doesn’t get hard in the sauce)
Feel free to play with this as you wish. Lots of people add Hot Peppers!
Heat olive oil slightly and remove from heat. Put in minced garlic to infuse. Make sure the oil does not brown the garlic but that the garlic just nicely bubbles a bit. I usually just heat up the oil and drop in a few test pieces to test the temperature. Set aside to infuse and cool while you chop up the herbs and tomatoes. Dan says you can do the chopping in a food processor but I always do it by hand. I also always do a double batch And it always takes me hours… Maybe I need to become friends with the food processor!
Next chop up the tomatoes and get them marinating with the vinegar and wine while you mince herbs. You will end up putting all the ingredients together in a nonreactive container and the order is not particularly important except for the following note: Alcohol in the wine activates flavors in the tomatoes and putting tomatoes in the fridge turns Off certain flavor potential in tomatoes. Therefore, I recommend letting the tomatoes and at least the wine marinate at room temperature for a while. Thence the order suggestion.
Once you have everything together you should marinate for at least 4 hours before serving (if you can wait that long! But I promise it gets better and better.). Then just serve over hot pasta with some fresh mozzarella.
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This beach trip was a little different as Dan’s brother Jerry had his daughter Sabrina with him. It’s always fun to spend time with Sabrina as she is an amusing, sweet and beautiful girl who hasn't quite yet decided to be mopey and unresponsive. She does have a tendency to wear one out though! Fortunately, the neighbor’s granddaughter is her age and the two girls come to the beach at the same time so they can exhaust each other instead of us creaky adults.
Sabrina and I had a great time putting together a huge dollhouse we found in pieces and her uncle Dan teased her mercilessly when we went swimming, much to her delight.Jerry’s best friend Dave and Dave’s mother “Dumplin” were also there and I was quite happy to meet them as I had heard so much about them over the years. Despite enjoying each other’s company, unsurprisingly very little of note happened. We played a lot of Yahtzee, went to the beach and sat around on the deck talking. We ate a lot of yummy food as always. Dumplin introduced us to Shrimp/Tofu Alexander Sunday night and Dave took us out for Calabash style seafood Monday night before we left. Sadly Dan and I had to leave much earlier than we would have liked to as we had to get back to get ready to fly out Wednesday. So with hugs all round, we said goodbye at the restaurant Monday night and continued on home.
Stay tuned for the next exciting installment. Travel Journal Part 2 - Westward Ho!
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