First I prep all the produce to the cooking or eating stage. Lettuces and other greens should be thoroughly washed and spun dry. Wrap them in a tea towel or put into plastic bags with a small amount of ventilation and refrigerate them. It’s even better if you tear up salad greens and put them in a plastic bowl with a lid or a plastic bag so you can just take out a handful or two for salads.
Next pare all the vegetables that need it: carrots, cucumbers, zucchini; and cut them into edible sticks for relish snacks. Store them in a rigid plastic container with ice water in the refrigerator. You can add radishes, green onions and green, red and yellow pepper sticks as well. If you make a delicious dip, you have a healthy snack to pull out when the family gets the munchies; much better than chips! Don’t throw the parings away; rather pull out the ice cream pail (sans ice cream) from the freezer and put all the peelings and leaves and other vegetable scraps into it. When it’s full, you can make a delicious vegetable stock full of vitamins and ready to defrost in the microwave and use as a base for soup.
If you don’t use up the salad greens before they start to look sad, add them to the vegetable scraps container, too. The relish sticks usually do get munched at our house, but as soon as I start to worry they have been in there too long, I make a stir fry dish. Pour the water they have been sitting in into the freezer vegetable scrap stash.
If you can’t use up the other vegetables that you bought, you can blanch them in boiling water for 1-2 minutes (green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, onions, zucchini, patty pan squash, peppers—almost any vegetable). Drain them well and cool. Put them in freezer bags and push out as much air as possible. Freeze. Cook like any frozen vegetable.
Corn on the cob should be cooked before freezing. There are many methods of freezing corn on the cob, but none of them are satisfactory as far as I’m concerned. So cook your husked and de-silked ears in boiling water to which 1 Tbsp. of lemon juice and 1Tbsp. of sugar has been added. Bring back to the boil and turn off the heat, cover and let sit at least 10 minutes. Corn will hold for up to 30 minutes for eating. If you are going to store the corn, cut it off of the ears using a sharp knife and cutting down the cob. A really neat way to do this is to use an angel food cake pan. Stick the small end of the cob in the center stem and cut—the kernels will fall into the pan. This cut corn can be frozen in freezer bags.
Eggplant season is almost here and it is one of my favorite vegetables. There is too much moisture in eggplant and it is too porous for blanching and freezing. Eggplant cooked in stews like ratatouille or in casseroles like eggplant lasagna or eggplant parmesan freezes very well. If you are not going to grill your eggplant and eat it all at once, I suggest making one of the above-mentioned dishes.
Eggplant Lasagna
Prepare the eggplant: Slice un-pared eggplant vertically in 1/8 inch slices. Place in colander and sprinkle liberally with salt. Let drain for at least 30 minutes. Pat slices dry with paper towels. Dip slices into 2 beaten eggs and then in fine bread crumbs to which you have added a few dashes of basil, oregano and/or grated parmesan cheese. Fry in olive oil on each side until tender and brown. Drain. Set aside
Tomato Sauce (recipe follows)
2 cups ricotta cheese
2 beaten eggs
Salt and pepper
1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup grated parmesan or pecorino Romano
Mix together the ricotta cheese, eggs, salt and pepper; set aside. Spread ½ cup tomato sauce over 9x13” pan. Cover with a layer of eggplant slices prepared as above. Put dabs of ricotta mixture over eggplant using about ½ the recipe. Put 1/3 of the remaining sauce over ricotta. Scatter ½ the mozzarella over the sauce. Repeat the layers ending with remaining sauce and then sprinkle on the parmesan or pecorino. Bake 45 minutes at 375 covered; uncover for the last 15 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.
Tomato Sauce
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 cup chopped green pepper
2 tsp. basil
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp. salt
1 13-oz can tomato puree
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
2 Tbsp. dry red wine
1 cup diced tomatoes (fresh or canned)
Pepper
8-oz coarsely chopped mushrooms (optional)
Saute the onion, garlic, green pepper in olive oil in a large kettle. Add basil, oregano and salt. When onions are transparent add tomato puree, tomato paste, red wine, and diced tomatoes. Season with pepper and additional salt if necessary. If you use the optional chopped mushrooms, saute them with the onion, etc. in first step.
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