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Mush with Tomato Sauce
Instead of meat gravy or hash in the preceding recipe use a tomato sauce made as follows:
TOMATO SAUCE 3 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OR COOKING OIL 2 ONIONS, CHOPPED I GARLIC CLOVE, MINCED I SPRIG CELERY LEAVES 2 TOMATOES, FRESH OR TINNED I TEASPOON MINCED PARSLEY 1/8 TEASPOON THYME I BEEF CUBE SALT AND PEPPER Slowly fry onion and garlic in oil until golden; add tomato, parsley and thyme and fry until tomato thickens. Add beef cube dissolved in 1 cup boiling water, strain or not, season and simmer until sauce thickens.
SLICED MUSH Slice cold corn meal mush and lay in a baking dish, covering each slice with grated cheese, gravy, hash or tomato sauce. Build up in layers, cover with grated cheese and dots of butter, and brown in oven.
Two components: a quick stovetop tomato sauce and a layered bake of sliced cornmeal mush. The sauce is written to be poured over mush, but it stands on its own for polenta, eggs or pasta.
- The mush comes firstThe recipe assumes you already have cold set cornmeal mush on hand from an earlier page. Cook cornmeal in salted water until very thick, pour into a loaf pan or shallow dish, and chill several hours until firm enough to slice cleanly. Warm slices fall apart in the dish.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given. Assemble and bake at 375F for 25 to 30 minutes, until bubbling, then finish under the broiler if the cheese has not browned.
- Beef cubeOne bouillon cube dissolved in a cup of boiling water, as the recipe directs. Bouillon cubes are salty, so hold back the added salt until the sauce has reduced.
- Celery leavesThe sprig appears in the ingredient list but never in the method. Add it with the tomato and pull it out before serving, or chop it fine and leave it in.
- Two tomatoes is thinTwo fresh tomatoes plus a cup of stock reduces to a modest amount of sauce, enough for one layered dish for two or three. A 14 oz tin of chopped tomatoes, drained of some juice, is the practical equivalent.
- Strain or notStraining gives a smooth sauce that soaks into the mush slices; leaving it gives texture. For a layered bake the unstrained version holds together better.
- Reduce properlyThe sauce should be thick enough to sit on a slice rather than run off it. Simmer uncovered until it mounds slightly on the spoon, roughly 15 to 20 minutes.
- CheeseAny firm grating cheese works. A dry aged cheddar or a hard Italian grating cheese browns better than a young mild one, which tends to weep oil.