The Cholesterol Dilemma and What to Do with all these Lovely Summer Tomatoes

On the food front, it's been a busy few weeks of shopping, harvesting, cooking, freezing, canning, and storing. On the health front, I saw my cardiologist last week and my blood work came back phenomenal!! My total cholesterol level is the lowest it has ever been, and my HDL/LDL ration is also the best it's ever been. My triglycerides and glucose are also at an all time low. The interesting part about all of this is that I have been eating more animal fat and dairy than I have in years. What I have cut out completely in my diet however, is sugar and all grains.

Now I'm still not convinced that cholesterol is the big evil culprit for heart disease. I sent a short letter to the New York Times a few years back stating my skepticism and I guess they felt it was relevant enough to publish it (read it here). It was based on an article about "C-reactive Protein," an indicator of inflammation in the system, that can be detected in a blood test. According to this article and two New England Journal of Medicine studies, nearly half of all people who suffer heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. Inflammation seemed to be a stronger risk factor than cholesterol. Since then, there have been numerous studies, reports, and articles on the "myth" of cholesterol. I became skeptical about cholesterol when Pfizer really started pushing their prized statin drug, "Lipitor," and following this huge marketing push, the national standards for acceptable cholesterol levels suddenly went down - meaning everyone who used to have an acceptable level of LDL at 130, was now at risk (level went down to 100) , and was subsequently put on statin drugs for prevention. Here are some links to some more about this subject:

What I’m Reading: The Great Cholesterol Con

The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

The Cholesterol Myths

Surprise, Cholesterol May Actually Pose Benefits, Study Shows
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Last week I had my good friend, Maria, over for dinner. We were both in the mood for something light and fresh and decided to whip up some gazpacho and have it on my roof to watch the sunset. Maria has her own garden and brought over some beautiful Italian arugula that she grew from seeds she smuggled over from Italy. This arugula was much stronger and spicier than the kind we get here in the US. We tossed the Arugula in a simple dressing of olive oil, a little lemon, and salt and pepper. Than we both grabbed a bowl of gazpacho, a hunk of manchego cheese, and some olives, and head for the roof.

When I lived in Spain, I had a hard time with the food. The majority of Spanish cuisine consists of meat - mostly ham and sausage. Everything else is heavily fried and served with some sort of mayonnaise concoction. I was never a big meat eater and back then I was convinced that the high fat diet of Spaniards was going to kill them (that and their chain smoking)! However, I've come to learn that the Spanish have a much higher life expectancy than we do and have lower rates of cancer and heart disease. Go figure.

Anyway, the one food I enjoyed on a daily basis was gazpacho. There is nothing better on a hot summer day than a cool bowl of this glorious soup. It doesn't resemble that chunky stuff they call gazpacho in most American restaurants (I think somewhere along the line, someone confused Spanish gazpacho with Mexican salsa or Pico de Gallo). It's smooth and creamy and slightly sweet. Here is the way the old woman I lived with in Spain made it. Note that there is no garlic in this recipe. She always said that it was "not nice for women to smell like raw garlic" and that "you would never find a boyfriend that way." Ha ha!! I believed her.

Anna's Gazpacho:

3 large beefsteak or heirloom tomatoes
1 italian or green pepper
3 small cucumbers (mideastern are the sweetest)
1/2 small onion
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil (preferably Spanish or California - one with a green color and grassy flavor
some stale bread soaked in tomatoes (optional)
2 tbsp red wine or balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Put everything in a blender except the olive oil. While blender is on, slowly pour the olive oil in last to achieve a nice thickness to the soup.

Pour into bowls and drizzle a little extra olive oil on top. Top with chopped vegetables. I like to use avocados and sometimes chopped eggs.
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Mark's sister, Sharon, also recently sent me this recipe for Tomato Sauce. She is the second person who told me to roast my tomatoes before canning them. I'm going to use this recipe (with some added fresh basil) for my next canning venture. It looks like you can also freeze this as well:

Roasted tomato sauce

(from Kitchen Comforts)

Begin with garden-fresh, sun-ripened tomatoes of any and every variety. I usually plant some plum tomatoes for this, but by the end of the summer, I'm throwing all varieties into the pan. Clean the tomatoes and core them and put them in an 11X17 inch pan. Peel an entire BULB of garlic and scatter the cloves throughout the tomatoes. Douse with extra-virgin olive oil. Roast at 450 degrees for about a half an hour, until the whole house smells like summertime and the tomatoes are blistered. Pull the pan from the oven and sprinkle with fresh, whole basil leaves. Cover with foil and allow to cool until you can handle it comfortably. Carefully transfer everything (including the juices) to the blender. You'll have to bend in two batches. Whirl it all together and pour it over hot pasta. This makes enough for 4 pounds of hearty pasta.

I usually cook two pounds to feed my family. So, the other half gets poured into a gallon size zippered freezer bag and then frozen flat on the freezer shelf. In the middle of winter, thaw, heat, pour and remember the summer!