Failed Cured Tomato

RGreeeetings,

Sunday again! Your Halloween adventures looked like so much fun. Very impressive jack-o-lantern. And actually back in high school I was a part of a Rocky Horror Picture Show costume group for Halloween. That’s like a strange little inverse of your experience becoming a playboy bunny.

I’m listening to the lovely song you left me as I write this post.

I have been meaning to try your breakfast recipe! I will probably pick up the ingredients when I run to the grocery store later today. I think I’ll definitely be able to handle your recipe, though my cooking morale has recently taken a hit when I failed at a cured tomato recipe. Looking back the reasons that I failed are abundantly clear, but I still can’t say that I am any closer to making a real cured tomato. Here’s the tale.

I scoured the internet and decided to try and follow this recipe for a cured tomato pasta from Heather, the NYC Expeditionist. Heather had great success with her recipe, which is a recreation of a dish from Stella that she had while visiting Boston.

I started out trying to cure the tomatoes in the oven at a low heat. I somehow ended up just making them mushy and pale.

The next step was to combined the “cured” tomatoes with some chicken sausage. I think I managed to do this part pretty well because I can mix stuff with a spoon.

Then you are supposed to put all of this together with pasta. I was able to do this as well. Again, spoon. However, since the cured tomato is really supposed to be the star of this show, my version of the show starred a pale, flavorless mush. Nonetheless I fed the resulting concoction to my captive guest (who kindly insisted that the thing tasted pretty good).

Compare my final creation with Heather’s. There are many differences.

http://nycexpeditionist.com/2012/05/17/restaurant-recipe-recreation-stellas-orecchiette-with-cured-tomatoes-and-sausage/

So in the end I am still on my journey towards a cured tomato. I may try again soon when my ego heals from its bruises.

(Ahhh, I am cutting it close–and 11:57pm EST posting!)

Emily