The Ricco Kitchen » Tips

Peeling Tomatoes for Sauce

Jessie — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:46:53 +0000

If you like to use fresh tomatoes for pasta sauce, you should be sure to remove the skins. To easily remove skins, simply boil the tomatoes until the skin cracks.

Once the skin cracks, remove the tomatoes from the boiling water straight into an ice water bath. Once they are cool enough, peel the skin off.

Stay tuned for some sauce recipes using fresh tomatoes!

Roasted Garlic

Jessie — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:40:19 +0000

Preheat the oven to bake at 400ºF.

Alright, you need a sharp knife. If your knife is dull, even a little bit, TAKE THE TIME TO SHARPEN IT! Alright, take your garlic head, rotate it on its side, and cut it ALMOST in half. You want to be able to open it all the way, but have a sort of paper hinge.

Baste on some olive oil to cover the exposed garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

Close the bulb back up and wrap it up in foil.

Place it in the heated oven for 1 hour.

Take it out, unwrap the foil (careful, it is hot).

Once it has cooled, you can just squirt out the garlic…it’s that easy!

mmmm Roasted Garlic…

Wax Paper and a Baking Pan

Jessie — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:47:23 +0000

Trace the bottom of the pan on some wax paper. Cut it out.

Take some Crisco shortening (or butter works fine too) and cover the bottom and sides of the pan.

Place the wax paper on the buttered bottom of the pan. Pour your batter on top of the wax paper and cook normally. When you take the cake/bread/whatever out of the oven, it pops right out and the wax paper peels right off the bottom.

No more white flour edges or cakes stuck in the pan!

Check out the recipe for this Jack and Jill Cake (shown above).