Celery and tomato pasta sauce

Celery has never tasted so good as when it is harmoniously melded with tomatoes and butter in this easily prepared sauce.

Add the pasta to the sauce and stir with butter and cheese until the penne is fully coated with the sauce. Ready to serve!

If I had to choose my least favorite vegetable, I’d probably say celery. It used to be okra, but that gelatinous vegetable has slowly gained my admiration over the last few years.

Sure, I throw celery in the pot when I make vegetable stock and use it when making certain soups (not to mention “the trinity” for gumbo—my GF recipe is coming soon!), so it always is there, in the vegetable drawer of my fridge.

Know what else is always in my kitchen? Canned tomato puree, butter, cheese, olive oil, salt, pepper, and gluten-free pasta. It just so turns out that the blending of those ingredients bring out the best of celery—a sweet, nutty flavor that blends harmoniously with the acidity of the tomatoes and the smooth butteriness of the dairy fats.

When I’m busy and don’t have a lot of time to shop or prepare meals, I turn to simpler recipes. This is one of them (see note¹).

Ingredients:

1. 1 tablespoon olive oil

2. 3 tablespoons butter (see note²; you’ll be using part of the butter at the beginning, part at the end of the recipe)

3. 1/3 cup finely chopped onion

4. 2 cups chopped celery, including stalks and leaves (see note³)

5. 2 cups of canned tomato puree, diced tomatoes, or whole Italian plum tomatoes, chopped (see note⁴)

6. 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (see note⁵)

7. Salt

8. Freshly ground black pepper

9. 1 12-ounce package GF penne (see note⁶)

Some of the basic ingredients I always have around: celery, onion, tomato puree, butter and Parmesan cheese. You’ll also need olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Instructions:

1. Heat the olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat

2. When the butter has melted, add the onions and celery and stir until they’ve softened a bit (see video clip below, where they’re ready for the next step)

3. Add the tomato puree, about a teaspoon of salt, and a generous grinding of black pepper and simmer for 15–20 minutes

4. While the tomato sauce is simmering, cook the pasta in salted water to an al dente consistency

5. Drain the pasta and add to the pan containing the sauce, along with 1 tablespoon butter and the grated cheese

6. Stir the pasta until the sauce is evenly distributed throughout the pasta and serve

Cat update:

Seraphina surveying her domain from atop her scratching post.

It’s important to make an indoor cat feel at home—that your space belongs to her just as much as it belongs to you. To make a home cat-friendly, make sure she has plenty of scratching posts, which will also cut down on her desire to scratch furniture. Make sure she has a clean, easily accessible litter box, and give her toys to play with, especially ones that you can add catnip to! My small apartment has two scratching posts, one in each room, and Seraphina makes ample use of them every day to stretch and scratch. The top of the post also gives her a nice place to perch, so she can keep an eye on things from a high vantage point—or even sleep.

1. I have to acknowledge that this recipe is based on one included in Marcella Hazan’s wonderful Italian cookbook, Marcella Cucina. If you don’t have one of Marcella’s books, I’d highly recommend looking into them—she has many recipes that can be easily adapted to a GF diet. I’ve been making this particular recipe for years, so it almost feels like my own! I hope you’ll enjoy it for its simplicity and deliciousness as much as I have.

2. Regarding butter: I always use unsalted butter when cooking, primarily because I prefer to use my own salt, which is always sea salt. That gives me better control over the amount and quality of the salt going into the dish. If you prefer using salted butter, that’s fine—just be sure to adjust the amount of extra salt you add.

3. I’m not particularly picky about the form/shape of the canned tomatoes—I have tried different types, and they all taste good in this dish.

4. I’d recommend using about 1 cup chopped stalks and 1 cup chopped leaves. If you buy a big bunch of celery, you should find several stalks at the center of the bunch with leaves. The leaves have good flavor, so if you normally throw them away, please consider using them in your cooking instead! If you don’t have celery with leaves, it’s ok—just use the chopped stalks.

5. I highly recommend using freshly grated Parmesan cheese (use a micro-plane grater for the best results), not the stuff from the can. The canned cheese really doesn’t taste the same and can have some additives that you’re probably better off not consuming.

6. As in my other recipes for penne (such as carbonara), I recommend using an Italian brand of boxed pasta, such as Colavita or Barilla. The Trader Joe’s brand of GF penne is good too.