Love in this pantryMy pantry could use a bouncer. “Not tonight,” he’d tell me as I return home with yet another goody that caught my eye at the store. He’d give me a single — and very final — shake of the head, the universal sign for “at capacity.” A crumpled $20 gets me nowhere. Towers of canned goods have begun to bend at the waist, and there is simply not an inch of dance floor left for another jarred paste. To make my kitchen the hardest door in New York, I must enact a one-in, one-out policy. Surely you’ve got a few staples to use up, too. In fact, I know you do:
A six-ounce can contains roughly 10 to 12 tablespoons. Time for tomato paste math. Let’s start things strong: Use four tablespoons in Ali Slagle’s cheesy, spicy black bean bake, a five-star wonder with more than 10,000 reviews. With so few ingredients, caramelized tomato paste works overtime to provide both color and umami, suspending the beans in a deeply savory, brick-red sauce. You could work three tablespoons of either standard or double-concentrated tomato paste (more on that below) into Zaynab Issa’s spiced tomato and eggplant pasta, which also conveniently uses up an entire 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes and a box of rigatoni. Then scrape out two tablespoons for Nargisse Benkabbou’s ras el hanout chickpea and spinach stew, a warming braise that tastes as if it took a lot longer than 30 minutes to cook. It’ll clear you out of three cans of chickpeas, too, an added bonus. Ras el Hanout Chickpea and Spinach StewWith one tablespoon of tomato paste remaining, you’ll be on your way to making Melissa Clark’s three-bean soup (and to being two cans of beans lighter). Just imagine the classic picnic salad — white beans, kidney beans, fresh green beans — dressed in its cozy wintertime best. If you still see a tablespoon or two left at the bottom, use it in some other five-star, bean-based Melissa brilliance, like her make ahead-friendly stuffed peppers with chickpeas and cheese or Naz Deravian’s fried eggs and potatoes. Breakfast for dinner! And finally, a tip: A six-ounce can usually holds standard-concentrate tomato paste, whereas a 4.5-ounce tube often carries stronger double-concentrate tomato paste. If you’re making a recipe that calls for double-concentrate, you can go ahead and use twice the amount of canned. I often buy the tubes, because they’re easily resealable and won’t disappoint you in the fridge as often as a can will. Not that my tubes last that long. Behold, the whole-tube recipe, like Ella Quittner’s genius vodka sauce tomato soup, which layers flavor with paste, crushed tomatoes (yes, the whole can!) and fresh cherry tomatoes. Score, indeed!
Spiced Tomato and Eggplant Pasta
Stuffed Peppers With Chickpeas and Cheese
Vodka Sauce Tomato SoupOne More Thing!
That’s enough about the pantry. What about the fridge? Kristen Miglore has the definitive guide to storing 33 kinds of produce and, critically, avoiding food waste. Here’s what to look for, how to store them and how to make the most of them. Thanks for reading, and see you next week! Email us at theveggie@nytimes.com. Newsletters are archived here. Reach out to my colleagues at cookingcare@nytimes.com if you have questions about your account.
|
