Canned Tomato

Here’s a soup that comes together in no time, yet tastes as if it has been simmered for hours.

This sauce can be refrigerated for up to one week or frozen for up to one month; let cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Thaw frozen sauce completely in the refrigerator.

Keep dough in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one day; before using, let it come to room temperature. If freezing, dough should be shaped and wrapped well in plastic first. Thaw completely in the refrigerator.

The fresh punch of tomatoes, cilantro, and lime makes this sauce a natural fit for Viva la México Balls (page 27), but try it as a dip with chips too. This sauce will keep for up to four days in the fridge.

Since everyone has his or her version of this sauce, we spent a lot of time getting this one right. No surprise, the best results came from using the best ingredients. When it comes to tomato sauce, using poor-quality canned tomatoes can leave an acidic or tinny taste in your mouth. So while it is a bit more expensive, we like to use Pomi brand chopped tomatoes (you know, the ones that come in the box). The sauce starts with a careful “sweating” of onions (cooking them slowly, until translucent but not brown, to extract as much flavor as possible), and the flavor continues to build from a nice, long, low-heat simmering after the tomatoes are added.

We hate to choose favorites—we love all our “children” equally—but this sauce is the one we go to again and again and again. It has the perfect amount of kick to it, but if you prefer it spicier, feel free to add more red pepper flakes. But please—this is a big tip coming—wait a minute or two after you’ve added the red pepper flakes before adding more. Give the peppers some time to hydrate and the spice to dissolve—a little chile goes a long way but takes time before it reaches its full potential. Of course we love this sauce over pasta and on a Smash (two balls on a brioche roll with sauce and cheese) too. Try tossing in a handful of arugula with the hot pasta and sauce and allowing it to wilt, adding a generous grating of parmesan cheese on top. Perfection!

Season: July to September. Slow-roasted tomatoes provide a rich, intense base for this, my all-time favorite ketchup. The spices and seasonings I have used are good old-fashioned ones–those our grandmothers would have kept in their kitchens. However, if you like, you can fire it up by adding a couple of teaspoonfuls of ground chiles. Don’t expect the ketchup to be the same color as a commercial variety; it will be a warm orangey red color.

A few years back, we were closed on Sunday. People kept turnin’ up anyway, so we gave in and opened with a limited menu. We created this soup just for that day. It has a good Sunday vibe.

Here’s a stew that comes and goes on our menu, rotating with a couple of other meat stews. It’s lighter than the others and is simmered with ten different vegetables. It’s healthy food for your meat-lovin’ soul.

Texans like meat, and in Texas, chili is all about meat and spices. We make ours with chunks of sirloin and season it with a blend of ancho chiles, which lend an earthy, sweet, raisin flavor, and pasilla chiles, which give a spicy, deep taste. Our Texas Red Chili is a “wanderin’ special” on our menu, showin’ up every now and then. During deer season in November, we may even make it with venison.

This is a good old Italian recipe that makes an appearance on our menu every once in a while. It’s brimmin’ with Old World flavors and looks damn good on the plate. It’ll keep your main courses from gettin’ boring.

This one-skillet dinner is loaded with flavor and easy to prepare. Serve over some steamin’ Perfect Rice or your favorite macaroni. You can also substitute boneless, skinless chicken thighs for some real concentrated chicken flavor—love that dark meat!

I guess because most of my recipes are southern, we’ll just have to say this one is way south of the border! This is a hearty side dish that can be used any time you serve rice. We serve this rice on the Fourth of July with Barbecued Pork Ribs (page 84).

I am allergic to canned spaghetti sauce! Well, maybe not really, but I just can’t eat spaghetti sauce out of a can or jar. This sauce is easy, and it is even better warmed over the next day, after the flavors have had a chance to settle in.

Everybody has a tried and true basic lasagne recipe, but occasionally it’s nice to try something different. Somewhere along the way, I decided to replace the meat with beans, and the result was a hit. This lasagne keeps well in the refrigerator, and if you have leftovers, they freeze well. When I was single and living in Nashville, I would cool this lasagne and freeze portions in individual freezer bags. It was perfect to pull one out of the freezer in the morning before I went to work in the studio, then microwave it for a minute or two when I got home in the evening.

I love homemade biscuits, and I love meatloaf, so it’s no surprise I’m pretty fond of this recipe. The sauce is so terrific, especially poured over that wonderful homemade biscuit dough with a little ground beef rolled inside. Yum!

What’s great about this salad is that it only involves opening a few cans and layering the veggies with shredded cheese. It’s simple, healthy, and looks pretty in a glass bowl to boot!

Some recipes in this book have been passed down from generation to generation, and some are newer recipes discovered in the past few years that have become family classics. This is one of the old-timers. My mom used to make this soup when I was a child, and I remember how much my dad loved it served over biscuits. For me, when a recipe has a great memory attached to it, it tastes even better. I make this soup at the first sign of cold weather every year and serve it poured over Buttermilk Cornbread (page 154).

My daddy was a great cook, and many of the recipes in this cookbook are his. If there was a fund-raiser in Monticello, people would always ask, “Is Jack making the Brunswick Stew?” or “Is Jack cooking the chickens?” before they bought their tickets. The food was usually prepared outside in very large quantities with the help of members of the sponsoring organization. Brunswick Stew is one of those classic southern dishes that varies from region to region, but I’ve never had Brunswick Stew that tasted like my dad’s. In his version, everything is ground through a food grinder, so it’s more like a wonderfully rich soup than a stew. His version also fed 160 people, so we’ve reduced our recipe to serve a cozy 16!

Hunters say that venison makes the best chili. If you don’t have a hunter in the family, farm-raised venison is another option. The controlled diet of farm-raised venison results in a rich, meaty flavor that is only mildly gamey. At Fallow Hollow, Martha Goodsell recommends this recipe for her tougher cuts of farm-raised venison.