Can you post your favourite recipe?

Choosing favorites is so hard! But here are a couple of things I really enjoy.

I've mentioned before that I'm largely a vegetarian at home, so it's not surprising that a favorite quick weeknight meal is pasta and sauce with a sprinkling of cheese. But I hate jarred pasta sauces. They tend to be both very acidic and overly sweet, and I just otherwise find them to be unpleasant. I tried for years to make a good marinara, but I was never happy with my results. And then, one day, while trolling through a favorite food blog, Smitten Kitchen (not to be confused with Smitten Kitten), I found my sauce. It's so easy that the delicious results defy belief. This is the recipe as posted there:

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onion

Adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking

(Notes from Smitten Kitchen) Another thing that blew my mind about this sauce: I, for one, am a grated parmesan junkie. I not only sprinkle it over my bowl of pasta, I like to have additional nearby, to apply a fresh coat to the layers of pasta that follow. So you can imagine my shock to find that I liked this dish even more without the parmesan. The flavor of the sauce is so delicate, fresh and sweet that it needed nothing at all.

Serves 4 as a main course; makes enough sauce to lightly coat most of a pound of spaghetti

28 ounces (800 grams) whole peeled tomatoes from a can (San Marzano, if you can find them)*
5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan (it fit just right in a 3-quart) over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste (you might find, as I did, that your tomatoes came salted and that you didn’t need to add more) and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.

Serve with spaghetti, with or without grated parmesan cheese to pass.

Another something I love, especially at this time of year, is peach cobbler. There are many ways to cobble fruit. Some involve dough and some involve batter. I have made both, and while I prefer a doughy crust, I've been known to make the batter version because it's really quick. But I'm giving you my favorite.

Peach Cobbler (adapted from a Cooking Light recipe, but don't let that fool you OR turn you off)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into 6 pieces
6 tablespoons ice water
Cooking spray
6 cups sliced peeled peaches (about 3 3/4 pounds)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar, divided
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg
1 teaspoon water
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly spoon 2 cups flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor; pulse 2 to 3 times. Add butter pieces; pulse 10 times or until the mixture resembles coarse meal. With processor on, slowly add ice water through food chute, processing just until combined (do not form a ball).

Gently press dough into a 4-inch circle. Slightly overlap 2 lengths of plastic wrap on a slightly damp surface. Place dough on plastic wrap; cover with 2 additional lengths of overlapping plastic wrap. Roll dough, still covered, into a 15 x 13-inch rectangle. Place in freezer 5 minutes or until plastic wrap can be easily removed; remove top sheets. Fit dough, uncovered side down, into a 2-quart baking dish coated with cooking spray, allowing dough to extend over edges; remove remaining plastic wrap. (NOTE: you don't have to do it this way, but it keeps you from adding extra flour in the rolling out process.)

Combine peaches, brown sugar, 2 1/2 tablespoons flour, vanilla extract, and cinnamon in a large bowl; toss gently. Spoon into prepared dish; fold edges of dough over peach mixture.

Combine egg and water in a small bowl. Brush egg mixture over dough; sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake at 375° for 45 minutes or until filling is bubbly and crust is lightly browned. Let stand 30 minutes before serving.

Try them. Let me know what you think. Peaches are just coming out, nice and sweet, but no freestone varieties yet. Might be a little bit while until the first peach cobbler of summer.