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The Sauce of September

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Biggest Domestic Threat Is Lone Attackers Self-Radicalized Online: FBI Director

FBI Director Christopher Wray told a House panel on national security threats that no single organization or ideological affiliation represents the biggest risk but, instead, it is individuals who self-radicalize online and carry out attacks that pose the most serious threat to the homeland. At Thursday’s hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, Wray was asked by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) whether the greatest domestic threat to homeland security was posed by right-wing or left-wing extremism. Wray responded by saying the biggest danger comes from people who become radicalized online and then carry out lone-wolf attacks against poorly defended targets. “We assess that the greatest threat to the homeland, to us here domestically, is not one organization, certainly not one ideology, but rather lone actors largely self-radicalized online who pursue…

The Sauce of September

When August hits, I make a point to enjoy summer like it鈥檚 going out of season. Some of my favorite ways of doing so involve tomatoes, and I treat it like my job to eat a year鈥檚 worth of the ripest, juiciest, most delicious tomatoes I can get my face on.

I also make time to stash away those glorious fruits for year-round enjoyment, in the form of a simple oven-roasted tomato sauce. At the end of every summer, I freeze this universal ingredient鈥攕hooting for quantities that will stretch through the winter.

The Sauce of September This oven tomato sauce is a blank red canvas, ready to be customized as a sauce, or incorporated as an ingredient into something else. (HandmadePictures/Shutterstock)

If my soup needs a little more tang, my sauce is just the thing. If it鈥檚 eggplant parmesan, tomato sauce is in the equation. It’s good on top of spaghetti, or snuck into deer curry; I make a whole pizza to feed the family, or toast my sauce on bread with cheese when I鈥檓 feeling lazy. With frozen sauce on hand, I鈥檓 a culinary man.

Toward the end of tomato season, the glorious red spheroids that are best for sauce are at their very cheapest. Anyone with a garden鈥攐r anyone with a neighbor with a garden鈥攈as tomatoes of their own right now, even as farmers are bringing more boxes than ever to market.

I don鈥檛 often go for deals at the farmers market. I usually don鈥檛 like bargaining with farmers, because they work too hard. But this time of year, they don鈥檛 want to bring home any boxes of tomatoes any more than you want a sauce-free winter. Wait until the tail end and see if you and your favorite farmer can find a confluence of interests. They get some freedom from a box of tomatoes, and cash, and you get a project, and sauce.

For every four pounds of tomatoes, you鈥檒l need an onion, three cloves of garlic, and a half-cup each of grated carrots and zucchini, so pick up those items while you鈥檙e there.

Don鈥檛 mess around with heirlooms because they have too much water and not enough acid. The shiny round orbs the color of sports cars that get more speeding tickets鈥攁lso known as tomatoes that look like tomatoes鈥攁re the tomatoes that make the best sauce. Big red tomatoes, small red tomatoes, red paste tomatoes.

This sauce is the ripe bounty of the harvest, and the cool mornings, lazy afternoons, and dwindling evenings, stashed away before the frosty breath of fall stops the music.

The Sauce of September

Oven-Roasted September Sauce

This oven tomato sauce is a blank red canvas, ready to be customized as a sauce, or incorporated as an ingredient into something else.

Makes 1 quart of sauce

  • 4 pounds small red tomatoes, cut in half; or larger tomatoes cut into quarters
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
  • 1 cup minced onion (from 1 medium onion)
  • 1/2 cup shredded carrot
  • 1/2 cup shredded zucchini
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, with a rack in the middle.

Lay the tomatoes on a baking sheet, cut sides down. Sprinkle with the salt, drizzle with the olive oil, and bake in the center of the oven at 400 until the peels start to shrivel and shine, about 40 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the tomatoes to cool to the point where you can pick off the skins. Add the veggies and herbs and stir it all together, and return the sheet to the oven. Bake another 30 minutes, stirring once or twice more as the sauce cooks down.

When all of the tomatoes have completely left behind their former shapes, and the mixture approaches a homogeneous consistency, turn off the heat and allow the sauce to cool to room temperature in the oven, ideally overnight.

In the cool morning, puree the sauce in a blender for a smoother, prettier look that I believe freezes better than chunky sauce.

Transfer the sauce to freezerware or bags, filling each container to leave as little air as possible. Freeze great quantities. Roast and repeat. Thaw early, thaw often, all the way through the winter.

Ari LeVaux writes about food in Missoula, Mont.

Focus News: The Sauce of September

Barr Defends His Power to Overrule Decisions Made by Lower-Ranking Prosecutors

Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday defended his authority to overrule prosecutorial decisions made by career prosecutors at the Justice Department (DOJ), while describing some of those lawyers as “headhunters” who are too consumed with taking down high-profile targets. “The notion that line prosecutors should make the final decisions within the Department of Justice is completely wrong and it is antithetical to the basic values underlying our system,” Barr said, according to prepared remarks for a speech delivered at Hillsdale College’s annual Constitution Day Celebration on Wednesday night. “Name one successful organization or institution where the lowest level employees’ decisions are deemed sacrosanct. There aren’t any,” he added. Barr has been criticized for decisions to intervene in politically sensitive high-profile cases involving associates of President Donald Trump, such as former…