quite a lot of work in the kitchen tonight for not a whole lot of output, but we finally used up the last of our tomato harvest in this pasta sauce. It was a ton of fun refining it down, used only goodies from the garden on it too, which was a real major feelgood. Tomatoes, garlic, onion, thyme, oregano, basil. I guess I didn’t grow my own salt, noodles or oil so I am missing all there, but everything else was from the dirt! (Ah, and sausage from our local butcher)
Even early the next morning the house feels warm and alive, the smell of sweet, searing onions and garlic blended into a mellow echo of electric acidity that the tomato sauce whispers under hushed breaths. The air is almost buzzing when your nose picks up the savory spiced sausage, the brine-boiled pasta and freshly trimmed herbs, some now hanging from the walls to be dried and used again someday further down the cold autumn road.
It’s little dishes like this—simultaneously simple in terms of ingredients while being pushed to complexity to refine and define the flavors within, following the example of the old masters and Michelin aficionados—that really take what I normally use as delightful yet benign whole ingredients to a whole new level. I love a garden fresh tomato on a BLT, or onions cut from the ground for a salad, but putting in the extra effort to help these humble vegetables leap from ordinary to magnificent is one of the best feelings I have as a gardener and amateur chef.
Have you had any fun success with your gardens? How far can you push your backyard or patio to replacing a 21st century dependence on grocery stores? I hope that if you are, you’ve had a bountiful harvest this year and have even bigger plans for the next. Growing your own food is more than just gaining independence from the machine of societal monotony, it’s building a relationship with your food and the natural world around you that forges a bond much deeper than you can find in an organic aisle or farmers market. It brings life into your hands, and what you put out is what you get back. Do it right, do it well, and do it with love.
Cheers.🍻
Artwork, Design, & Photography of Paydn Augustine
