Plantain in Marinara Sauce

Over the weekend, our local coop was offering sample tastes of a locally made marinara sauce by Thomas Gourmet Foods - it was tasty! Needless to say, we came home with a bottle.

I was in a bit of a rush to get to tonight's ADF show (a very nice one with Keigwin and Company -- Larry Keigwin really seems to enjoy performing in his whimsical yet sophisticated dances -- and Battleworks, which had a particularly strong last piece accompanied with heavily percussive music), so used several leftover dishes as a base (Bengal Lentils with Kale and Cauliflower and Limed Purslane-Tempeh).

To make our main course, I cut several small onions (equivalent to one medium) into 1/4" half moons and sliced a well ripened plantain (if you want sweetness, it's best to wait till the skin turns almost fully black, which I did; otherwise, it can almost be potato-like) into thick slices of maybe 1/2" thickness. I started sauteeing over medium heat the onions and just a minute or so later added the plantain. After 7-9 minutes when the plantain was gently browning, I added maybe a teaspoon of rosemary needles, cooked for another minute or so, and then reduced the heat to a simmer. I added maybe 2/3 cup of the marinara sauce, as well as maybe 8 leaves of basil, hand torn into maybe quarters, a little salt and pepper, and some crushed red pepper. I let it simmer for maybe 5-7 minutes to thicken the sauce a bit, then served. It came out well!

Yesterday, we had South Indian dosa at my parents' house again. Yum! By the way, while I was writing this post, the author of an article 57 Health Benefits of Going Vegan emailed me - check out this well-written article!