I love my little garden. Although it's had some tough times this year, there are still some good tomatoes out there. And my favorite thing to do with fresh tomatoes is to make marinara sauce. And with this I have to tell you that I am very much a "throw it in until it looks right" kind of cook. I add and taste until it suits my taste. So this receive is as close as I can come to writing it down.

marinara

4 cups of chopped tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
2 T rinsed capers
1/2 cup red wine - nothing too fruity
1 green pepper, diced
2 T mined fresh basil
1 T minced fresh oregano
salt & pepper

1/2 pound any pasta, cooked for 3 minutes less than the package recommends

In a large non stick frying pan on medium heat, add 2 T good olive oil. Add the peppers and the onions and cook for 1 minute. Add the garlic and cook for 2-3 more minutes until the peppers and onions start to become soft. Season with salt & pepper. Add the tomatoes (carefully) and stir. Cook for 5 minutes stirring several times so the tomatoes don't burn. Add the wine, capers and olives. Cook for 5 minutes. Immediately add the cooked pasta and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the fresh herbs and salt & pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Notes: I sometimes start the pan off with sliced hot italian sausage and fry that until it's cooked through. Then I take it out of the pan and start the sauce. When I add the wine, capers & olives I add the sausage back in. It also works well with chicken.

Garlic Bread

1 loaf italian bread
1 large head of garlic
1/2 cup soft butter
olive oil
1 T fresh italian parsley
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Done ahead of time: Heat oven to 375. Cut the top 1/2 inch off the whole head of garlic. Toss the top. Make a foil pouch to hold the head of garlic. Pour 1 T olive oil in the garlic. Season with salt & pepper and close the pouch. Bake for 1 hour. Pull it out and let it cook for 2 hours. Note: your whole house will smell like garlic, but it's good!

When ready to make the bread, slice the loaf at about 3/4 inch, somewhat on the diagonal to make the pieces bigger. Line up the sliced as one loaf on a sheet of foil big enough to go around the whole loaf. Take the cooled head of garlic and squeeze out the individual cloves. They will be soft & mushy and easy to get out of the head. Mash those in a bowl. Add the soft butter, herbs, salt & pepper and cheese. Spread the slices of bread with the mixture and wrap up the loaf well. Put back into the 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or until the bread is warmed through. YUM!