Adrift in a Sea of Tomatoes

Garden season really got off to a bang here with a cucumber crop which was the stuff of legends.  Apparently cucumber plants like hot weather, because it had been hotter than the pits of Hades around here, and they were thriving.  I'm glad someone likes it.  I've made pickles and relish twice already, neither of which I eat, but there were just too many fresh cucumbers to keep up with.  Then came the squash bugs.  Those jerks have nearly killed my zucchini plant after only getting 3 zucchinis from it, and you know that's some quick devastation since a mature plant will grow 3 zucchinis in about 5 minutes.  (Or, at least it seems that way.)  Then they started going after the cucumbers.  We're fighting back as best we can, but those little bastards are pretty proficient, so our cucumber days may be winding down prematurely. 

Luckily the tomato harvest is really picking up steam.  I have MANY tomato plants this year, because a lot of little volunteer plants came up and I was too much of a softy to rip them all out.  Eating a fresh tomato plain, all by itself, does not interest me in the least.  (It's a texture thing.)  But cooking and preserving tomatoes is my jam.  Salsa, seasoned tomato sauce, roasted tomato slices, etc....the sky is the limit.  Today, tomatoes were taking over my kitchen counter.  I needed to take action, and I decided on tomato soup.

The way I've made cream of tomato soup for years (on my other blog here) is labor intensive.  It makes an amazing soup; a rich, complex, bisque-like bowl of hearty goodness.  But, as I've mentioned before, many things in my life have had to get quicker and easier as the chaos has increased with the addition of 2 young children who hate sleep.  And now I have a job, too.  I am much more enthusiastic about "chuck it in the pot and press start" recipes than I ever was before.  So that's what I really wanted to create here.  I used some proportions from my other recipe, but relied on the Instant Pot to do the work for me.  I took another 3 tomatoes or so and sliced them really thick, drizzled on olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt and Penzey's frozen pizza seasoning, and roasted them to put on grilled cheese and peppered bacon sandwiches.  So it was like a sophisticated, grown up (but still easy) version of tomato soup and grilled cheese, which is still one of my most favorite meals, hands down. 

Much to my amazement, my almost-5 year old tried the homemade soup.  "Mommy, I do like it," she said.  "Wonderful, honey!  I'm so glad you tried it!" I answered.  "Can I have my regular tomato soup now?  The stuff in the can?" she asked.  So, yeah.  One bite.  I got her to take one bite of the good stuff.  Sigh.

Easy Pressure Cooker Tomato Soup

I used my 8 quart cooker and made a lot because I had tomatoes coming out of my ears.  I see no reason why you couldn't use a 6 quart cooker and cut the recipe in half.  As written, I fed 4 adults and had a decent amount of leftovers.

4 lbs. tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 large onion, rough chopped
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 bay leaf
1 Tbs. tomato paste
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 to 2 Tbs. fresh chopped basil
salt and pepper to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion, garlic, veggie broth, salt, bay leaf, tomato paste, and brown sugar in the pressure cooker.  Cook on manual, high pressure, for 15 minutes and then do a quick pressure release.  Blend the soup with an immersion blender until it's pretty smooth.  You could also stop at this point, chill the mixture and blend it in a blender once it's cooled.  Then heat it back up on the stove top to finish it.  Or, if you're doing the immersion blender method, blend until smooth and see how you feel about the consistency.  You may want to turn your pot to saute and cook off a little bit of the water if it looks too watery.  This will depend on your tastes and your tomatoes.  I let mine simmer another 5 minutes or so to thicken up a bit.  Turn off the heat and stir in the cream, and chopped basil.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

 

If a Lasagna Falls Into a Pressure Cooker and No One is There to Put it in Layers, is it Still a Lasagna?

You would never know it if you walked into my house now, but I like things to be very neat and tidy.  I hate clutter.  And messes.  I like everything in its place, and I love organization.  Then I became a mother to 2 young children who hate to sleep.  Now my house, and my person, perpetually look as though they have just been ransacked.  I'm too tired to try to tame the shitstorm that develops every day, so I just try to ride it out and make sure my kids are still alive at the end of the day.  I've had to reach a place where I can at least tolerate, if not appreciate, a little chaos and messiness.

This is even evident in my cooking.  Back in the days of entertaining friends as a young, childless wife, if I had been asked to make a lasagna, I would've made a long simmered Bolognese sauce and lovingly layered it with a béchamel sauce and perfectly par-cooked lasagna noodles.  It would've been a thing of beauty.  But a lot of things in my life are a lot less beautiful now.  (Not my kids though; they're flipping adorable.)  So have I come to tolerate enough chaos and clutter that I can abide by a pile of lasagna components in a big sloppy mess on my plate?  Heck yeah, I can.  Well rested people can boil lasagna noodles and patiently layer them into a masterpiece while sipping a fine Chianti.  The rest of us can break uncooked noodles into pieces and chuck them into a pressure cooker while we refill a plastic cup of boxed wine from Target.  When your life is messy, I think it's totally cool if your food is, too.

Deconstructed Pressure Cooker Lasagna

I used my 8 quart Instant Pot and made a lot of this because I was feeding 4 adults plus wanting leftovers for lunches.  So this makes a lot, as written.  To use a 6 quart cooker, cut the ingredients in half (including the water) but keep the cooking time the same.  If you use Italian sausage, expect that you may need to drain the grease after you cook the meat.  That can be slightly annoying, so if that step bothers you, just use a very lean ground beef and you shouldn't need to drain it, but the flavor is obviously a bit more interesting with the sausage in there.  FYI, I think this would be great with a bunch of curly leaf spinach thrown in after cooking and wilted down briefly.  Definitely going to try that next time.

1 Tbs. oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 lb. lean ground beef  (or 2 lbs. if you're not using Italian sausage)
1 lb. Italian sausage  (optional)
28 oz. diced tomatoes seasoned with basil, oregano, and garlic (do not drain)
24 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce of your choosing
4 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 lb. lasagna noodles, uncooked and broken into approx. 1" to 2" pieces
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese

Turn the pressure cooker on saute mode and add the oil.  Once the oil is very hot, add the onion and bell peppers and cook about 5 minutes until the onions are softened.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add the meat and cook until no longer pink.  Drain away the grease, if needed.  Add in the diced tomatoes and their juice, spaghetti sauce, water, salt, and uncooked lasagna noodles.  Give it a good stir so that all the noodles aren't sitting in a big pile on top of each other or they may stick together.  I like to try to get them as submerged in the liquid as possible.  Lock on the lid and change from saute mode to manual and cook on high pressure for 4 minutes, then do a quick pressure release.

Stir in the Parmesan and mozzarella cheese until well distributed and melted.  Add salt to taste, dollop spoonfuls of the ricotta on top, and serve.