Sunday, September 30, 2012

Glorious Red Glop

Italian-style Red Glop




I wanted to grill the last of the summer vegetables, but the weather didn't cooperate. Although I love my grill, I refuse to stand in the rain to cook on it. So I took my assorted veggies (eggplant, red bell pepper, sweet onion, mushrooms, tomatoes) and instead made one of my all-purpose Italian-style red dishes. I had one grilled Italian sausage left over from a cook-out, so I chopped this up as well.

I call this "glop" only because it doesn't really taste like a great Italian tomato sauce, and its texture is somewhere between a stew and a sauce. However, it does taste really good, which is why it's glorious. Basically, I sauteed everything but the eggplant (I oven-roasted that and then cut it up and threw it into the simmering sauce) in a bit of olive oil, added about 1/3 about half an hour.

When cool weather arrives, I make this type of dish frequently if I have odds and ends of full-flavored meaty vegetables, such as eggplant, zucchini, broccoli, or winter squash. The sauce is very tasty on a slice of toasted bread, in a baked potato, atop pasta or pizza, or baked into lasagna. And it freezes well, so you can eat some immediately and then put the rest away until the next chilly fall day.

If I have leftover meat instead of vegetables, I sometimes make a white glop (basically a cream sauce with half broth-half milk, splash of sherry, plus sauteed mushroom and onions--good with leftover chicken, turkey, or ham) or a brown glop, which is a bit like beef stroganoff (sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic, splash of red wine, throw in a heaping TBSP of sour cream or Greek yogurt right before serving--good with beef, liver, chicken). Like the red glop, this can be served over toast, pasta, noodles, or a baked potato.

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