Salsa de tomate (pasta sauce)

Ingredients

• la carne (beef ribs, chicken, Italian sausage, etc) whatever you have or like
  
• 1 large can of tomato sauce
  
• 1 large can of whole peeled tomatoes
  
• 2 cans of stewed tomatoes
• 2 onions
  
• 2 heads of garlic
  
• 2 large carrots
  
• 1 large green pepper
  
• wine for deglazing the pot (any leftover wine will work here)

Heat a bit of olive oil in a large pot or french oven
Season the meat with salt and pepper and then brown the meat in your pot
Remove the meat from the pot and set it aside

In a blender, put in 1/2 of the onions, carrots, peppers, and garlic with stewed tomatoes, whole peeled tomatoes, and tomato sauce.

In the pot, brown the remaining onions, carrots, garlic, green peppers.

Add wine and deglaze the pot.
Once the alcohol burns off, add the tomato sauce from the blender.
Add your seasonings (bay leaves,oregano, basil,pepper, sugar, and salt as needed).

Add back the meat and let it simmer. Make sure to stir it occasionally (gently) while it is simmering and use the opportunity to taste and see if it needs additional seasoning. Let it simmer for about an hour. Let it continue to simmer until you see the oil rise to the top (the picture below shows my mom's sauce today when the oil rose to the top).

At this point you can use the sauce or continue to let sauce thicken by letting it continue to simmer.

Prior to using remove the meat and set it aside for serving separately

Tip from mom:

• Let the sauce cool completely before dividing it up for freezing for individual uses or before putting it in the refrigerator. If it isn't completely cooled the sauce will taste sour and be ruined.

Next time we are going to try making it in an electric pressure cooker which should speed things up..

Today the sauce accompanied ravioli's and the meat.

Alfajores w dulce de leche and coconut

Ingredients
200 grams of butter (at room temperature)
150 grams of sugar
1 egg + 2 yolks
1 tablespoon of cognac (or any other liquor)
300 grams of corn starch
200 grams of AP Flour (sifted)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda or Royal
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla
zest of 1 orange & zest of 1 lemon
dulce de leche
coconut shavings
preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit

Preparation
Mix together the corn starch, flour, baking powder, baking soda and set it aside.


In a mixer on low setting put in butter
gradually add in sugar until fully combined
add in one yolk at a time before adding in the egg
once combined, add in the cognac, vanilla, orange and lemon zest.

Put on the mixer's dough hook, add in the flour mixture and mix until a dough ball forms.

Remove the dough and place it on a surface coated lightly with flour
Sprinkle flour on top of the dough ball
Roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 thick
Sprinkle powder of corn starch over the rolled out dough
Cut into ~1.5 in diameter circles
Continue this process of rolling out and cutting into circles with the unused portions until all the dough is used.

Put the cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and put in the oven for 15 minutes (make sure they do not burn).

Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool

Once they are cold, cover the bottom side of a cookie with dulce de leche and put another cookie on top of the dulce the leche.  Roll the sides into the coconut shavings.  Now you have an alfajor!

Finally, another recipe: Chimichurri

Saturday I finally got around to making chimichurri. It coincided with my month-long craving for meat after giving it up for several months...

Ingredients

2 bunches of parsley

1 head of garlic

crushed red pepper

pepper

extra virgin olive oil

red wine vinegar

salt

oregano

Remove the large stems from the parsley.  The smaller stems that are attached to the leaf are more tender and okay to use.  Finely chop the parsley and garlic. Season to taste with oregano, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. Add the olive oil and after it has rested a while, add the vinegar.

Put it in the refrigerator for a few hours or until you are ready to serve it. I left mine in over night and then took it to my parents house for a delicious Sunday asado (Argentine BBQ) made by my dad. My parents enjoyed it. Success!

It is delicious with meat, excellent on a choripan, or add it to a sandwich.

It stores in the refrigerator well for a week or two.

Enjoy!