Zucchini is at its lowest price of the year: time to get out your spiralizer and make zoodles (zucchini noodles, a.k.a. zucchini spaghetti).

If you don’t have a spiralizer and don’t want to buy one, you can find ready-to-cook zoodles in most supermarkets.

DeLallo created this zoodles recipe using their passata rustica tomato puree, briny olives, and lots of fresh basil and parmesan (photo #2). Try this lighter take on spaghetti and tomato sauce for your next pasta night!
 
 
RECIPE: ZUCCHINI NOODLES & OLIVES

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. HEAT 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a high-rimmed skillet over medium heat. Add the entire onion half and sauté on one side for 2 minutes. Flip and sauté on other side for 2 more minutes.

2. ADD the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomato purée and basil leaves, then cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes. Meanwhile…

3. TRIM the zucchini ends and use a spiralizer to create noodles. If you don’t have a spiralizer, use a vegetable peeler to create long ribbons. Place noodles in a bowl and cover with cold water until ready to cook. When you’re ready to cook…

4. DRAIN the noodles and pat them dry. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the zucchini and sauté while stirring for 2-3 minutes.

[1] Guilt-free “pasta”: It’s made with zucchini noodles (both photos © DeLallo).

[2] Mix it up and enjoy a quick, flavorful dinner.

How does passata differ from tomato paste and tomato sauce?

Passata is the Italian term for an uncooked tomato purée that has been strained to remove seeds and skins. It is also spelled passato and referred to by its full name, passata di pomodoro, and it can also be labeled “strained tomatoes.”

It has a thicker consistency and a deeper flavor than tomato sauce.

If you need passata for a recipe but can’t find it, buy plain canned tomatoes and process them through a food mill or food processor.

In the U.S. and elsewhere, tomato purée is usually cooked briefly to soften the tomatoes before processing (puréeing) them. Because it is minimally cooked, tomato purée has a mild, fresh tomato taste and a thinner consistency.

Tomato paste is the thickest and most concentrated of the three. It is made by simmering tomatoes for several hours, cooking them down to a thick, rich paste that has a sweet, intense tomato flavor (some find it similar to sundried tomatoes).

Tomato sauce is made with tomato paste, tomato purée, or both (it can also be made from scratch with fresh tomatoes). It often has other ingredients such as carrots, garlic, herbs and onions. You would not want to substitute either product if passata is called for in your recipe.

[1] Use a kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients (photo © GreaterGoods).

[2] Read the directions carefully before you chop nuts, for example (photo © Good Eggs).

If you pay close attention to recipe ingredients, especially for baked goods, you’ve noted that some recipes give measurements in both ounces/teaspoons and grams/milliliters.

While Americans have grown up with the former (and attempts to convert us to the metric system have failed), if you’re a baker, consider going metric.

That’s because baking is a exact science: mixing reactive ingredients creates a chemical reaction. Hence, the cake rises—or doesn’t.

If your butter is hard versus softened, or vice versa, don’t expect the cookies or pie crust to be perfect.

Unlike stove top cooking, where some extra cream or tomato doesn’t matter much, in baking, the balance between fats, flour, leaveners and liquids is critical.
 
 
GET A KITCHEN SCALE

Over the last decade or so, American bakers have found that measurements by weight are more precise than measuring cups and spoons.

The solution is simple: Get a kitchen scale (photo #1).

They’re not expensive, and they don’t take up much room.

If you don’t want a scale but still want to convert measurements, it’s easy to find a conversion app online. Just type your needs into the browser bar, e.g.

 
 
A TIP ABOUT NUTS

If you took high school chemistry lab, you know that the order in which ingredients are mixed is crucial.

It’s the same in cooking: Pay careful attention to how ingredients are listed in a recipe.

 
You’ll get different measurements depending which sequence you use.

While a bit more or fewer nuts won’t really impact your recipe, discipline yourself so that when it counts, your count will be correct.

If you’ve never had a chocolate tequila cocktail, today’s the day: July 24th is National Tequila Day.

Since the Margarita cocktail has its own holiday (National Margarita Day is February 22nd), celebrate with a different tequila cocktail.

Beyond the Margarita, some of the most popular tequila cocktails are:

 
And now, the Mint Chocolate Black Barrel.
 
 
RECIPE: MINT CHOCOLATE BLACK BARREL COCKTAIL

The Mint Chocolate Black Barrel, developed by Hornitos Tequila, uses Hornitos Black Barrel tequila, a premium aged añejo (here are the different expressions of tequila).

First, the tequila is aged in traditional American Oak barrels for 12 months. Then, it spends four months in deep charred oak barrels (the “black barrels”).

Finally, it spends two more months in specially toasted barrels, which engender more depth and complexity.

All this aging produces a rich, smoky flavor and a golden amber color.

It’s Easy to drink and unforgettably smooth, it is an elegant sipping tequila. So if you don’t feel like chocolate today, just pour the tequila over ice.
 
Ingredients Per Cocktail

 
Preparation

1. LIGHTLY MUDDLE 3-5 mint leaves in a shaker. Add the remaining ingredients except the garnish, and shake vigorously.

2. STRAIN into a martini glass and garnish with a strawberry.

[1] Better for dessert than a pre-dinner drink (photo © Hornitos Tequila).

[2] Hornitos Black Barrel is an elegant sipping tequila (both photos © Beam Suntory).

[3] How about some chocolate-covered strawberries to serve with the cocktail (photo © Balducci’s).

A chocolate cocktail is too sweet to serve as an apéritif. We prefer it as an after-dinner drink.

If you want to pair it with dessert, keep the dessert simple. You don’t want flavors that compete with the cocktail, but flavors that complement it.

If you’re a chocoholic, you can serve it with a simple chocolate dessert, like a bundt. Otherwise, consider:

 
How about a plate with three small bites of different desserts?
 
 
>THE HISTORY OF TEQUILA

>THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEQUILA

[1] Framboise and raspberry club soda with fresh raspberries.

[2] Lemonade and limoncello with fresh lemon and mint (both photos © RawPixel.com | Pexels).

We were trying to clear out a pantry closet filled with alcohol, which included bottles and bottles of things we rarely use.

 
So what do do with half-filled bottles of scotch, unopened bottles of bourbon, and a dozen bottles of never-used liqueurs?

Give them away. Nobody we offered them to turned them down, even when there were just two inches left in the bottle.

But we did hold back a few bottles of liqueur to try out today’s tip: liqueur spritzers.

We had a mix-your-own cocktail party where the ingredients were:

 
We provided rocks glasses, even though these normally would be tall drinks. But in order to see if you like what you’ve mixed, smaller is better.
 
 
THE RESULTS

A good time was had by all.

 
And a party bonus: Everyone went home with one or more bottles of liqueurs and spirits.

Do you have bottles that are sitting around, gathering dust?

Now you have a plan, perfect for idling on the patio or around the pool.

Over the weekend, we made batches of these cocktail recipes from bartender Wells Adams of Bachelor in Paradise.

Wells partnered with Tropicana to craft two juicy cocktails: Tropicana’s Tequila Sunset and Wells’ Watermelon Spritz.

Both of our pitchers were emptied within an hour!

You can turn either cocktail into a mocktail by substituting ginger ale for the alcohol.
 
 
RECIPE #1: TROPICANA TEQUILA SUNSET

This cocktail is a riff on the Tequila Sunrise, a cocktail made of tequila, orange juice and grenadine and served unmixed in a tall glass. Unmixed, the gradations of orange and red resemble a sunrise.

The original was created in the 1930s at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in the 1930s. It contained tequila, creme de cassis, lime juice and soda water. The recipe was revised and popularized in Sausalito in the early 1970s [source].

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the juice and tequila in a Collins glass over ice. Stir well to combine.

2. TOP with grenadine and garnish with a fresh orange wedge.
 
 
RECIPE #2: WELLS’ WATERMELON SPRITZ WITH CUCUMBERS

Cucumbers and watermelons are first cousins. Both are from the binomial order Cucurbitales and family Cucurbitaceae, differing only at the genus level: Cucumis for cucumber (the common cucumber genus/species is C. sativus) and Citrullus for watermelon (C. lanatus).

That’s why you can eat the white portion of watermelon rind—it tastes just like cucumber—or turn it into pickled watermelon rind, a.k.a. watermelon pickles.

Kirby cucumbers, specified in this recipe, were once a particular species. Now, kirby has become a generic term for any small cucumber.

[1] A riff on the classic Tequila Sunrise, this recipe uses Pineapple Mango juice instead of orange juice (both photos © Tropicana).

[2] Watermelon Spritz. “Spritz” means that carbonated water (club soda, seltzer, etc.) has been added.

Kirby skins are not skins, which mean that the skin can be eaten. It also enables the cucumbers to be pickled, skin on.

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. ADD the cucumber wheels to a Collins glass. Add the vodka and the ice.

2. ADD the club soda and top with the watermelon drink. Garnish with the cucumber wheel.