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One of the delights of late tomato season in the south is fresh marinara sauce. Every batch has its own personality, varying with the type of tomatoes you use, their ripeness, how they are prepared.

Here are some things to know that will make cooking marinara simple. Boil some water and blanch whole tomatoes for 30 seconds or so, transfer to the sink and core with a paring knife. The peel will fall off. Then, squeeze out the seeds and the watery pulp. Don’t squeeze too hard, but do get rid of the extra water. After peeling, you can chop, puree or hand-squeeze the tomatoes into a bowl ready to go into the pot. I generally use a food processor, though it’s satisfying to hand-squeeze the tomatoes. It gives one a nice, visceral connection with the food, and the result is pulpy and rustic.

For most of my marinaras, I’ll saute one finely-chopped, medium-sized yellow or white onion in good olive oil, or use half a large onion.  Three or four cloves chopped garlic (also fine) goes in after the onions have started to soften. Grate a half a carrot and add to the onion-garlic mix. The carrot makes the sauce a touch sweeter – you won’t taste it.  Watch the heat and try not to let the mixture brown. When, very soft pour in the pureed/chopped/squeezed tomatoes. Add about 1/4 cup red wine. Let bubble until the mixture is reduced by about a third, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Add kosher salt, freshly-ground pepper and an herb. I believe it’s best to keep the marinara mono-herb and rarely mix them. Today, I used about two tablespoons of pureed fresh basil that I had in the refrigerator (intended originally for pesto). Dried oregano or thyme also make a great marinara, but I prefer using only one. Being a man who prefers richly-spiced sauces, I’m a bit heavy handed. You may want to start with less and add more to suit your taste. Understand that the herb taste will deepen over time.

The marinara is ready to eat once you get the seasoning right, but it will get better if you turn off the heat and let it rest for at least a half hour, and several hours is fine.

Simple marinara and pasta is delicious. Add a little Parmigiana and eat with toasted bread and some olive oil. Or cook a Japanese eggplant with some fresh herbs (chopped sage and thyme are nice) and top with marinara and a disk of goat cheese, as in our lunch Sunday afternoon (see photo). Or, add it to cauliflower along with pasta, or use it on eggplant stacks, or in hundreds of other dishes.

The key is don’t buy canned or jarred tomato sauce, factory food at its worst with all the preservatives, stabilizers and flavor enhancers that ruin the taste to  keep it shelf-ready for five or ten years. If you ever do a taste comparison, you’ll throw the store-bought stuff out. Fresh, lovely, wonderful marinara is only thirty minutes away.

Among the many virtues of the movie Julie & Julia is the reverence paid to great cookbooks in a cook’s life and development. Great chefs share their best work and we get to enjoy the benefits. Last weekend, my guide was the wonderful French chef Daniel Boulud with his gratin forestier – a potato gratin cooked with mushrooms. I have long been a fan of potato gratins, particularly the gratin dauphinois variety that is simply good sliced russets cooked in cream with, typically, gruyere cheese. These gratins fill the kitchen with rich, warm aromas, whetting the appetite with the foretaste of a well-filled belly and a satisfied palette.

Boulud’s version, though, is a wonder – he layers thinly-sliced potatoes with a layer of wild mushrooms, drenched in cream and baked until soft, custardy and saturated with cream. I used three varieties of mushrooms – dried Italian porcini and shittakes and fresh baby portobellos. After reconstituting, the porcini and shittake are cooked separately in butter with a little salt and pepper. Likewise the portobellos. All three are then tossed with finely-chopped garlic and fresh thyme.

With a mandolin, slicing the potatoes is easy. After preparation, they are soaked in cream with salt, pepper and nutmeg. After that, it’s a simple matter of layering the potatoes with the cream and potatoes, coating the top with a thin layer of grated parmigiano, and baking slowly until cooked and light brown.

The guests loved it and so will you. Many thanks to Daniel Boulud.

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What does eggplant have in common with tofu, polenta, rice and, to some extent, chicken? It’s a neutral canvas on which a cook can paint different flavors and tastes.

If you make eggplant stacks, for example, you can easily experiment with flavors and textures by combining whatever you have in the refrigerator that’s compatible. And, there’s a good chance it will be good.

To make stacks, slice a globe eggplant or two in rounds, about 1/2 inch thick or slightly less. Cover the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil or a neutral oil (canola or grapeseed) and heat over a high flame. Add the eggplant and top with a little more oil – eggplant absorbs oil like a sponge.  Sprinkle with fresh or dried herbs. I like to use chopped rosemary, sage, basil and thyme, though dried herbs are fine too. Use oregano, thyme or savory if using dried herbs. Turn the eggplant and add some freshly-ground pepper and a little kosher or sea salt. Cook until brown and soft – the edge of a spatula should easily penetrate the eggplant.

Remove to a plate.

Now assemble the ingredients to layer with the eggplant. Use two or three cheeses – sliced fresh mozzarella, feta, goat cheese, provolone, Pamigiano Reggiano are all nice. Slice a tomato and cook until in a little olive oil until slightly charred. Use some fresh basil pesto. Add some marinara sauce.

Make the stacks: add a slice of mozzarella to a large eggplant round and top it with some pesto. Add another eggplant round. Top with a cooked tomato slice and sprinkle with feta cheese. Add a third slice of eggplant and top with pesto or marinara. Garnish with some fresh basil. Serve each guest a stack.

For variations, substitute thinly-sliced fennel or onion for the sauteed tomato. Add good olives (seeds removed) like a Nicoise with a dab of hummus for a layer. Top with some shrimp that have been coated in Cajun rub or garnish a stack with a fresh fried oyster.

It’s hard to miss with stacks, and your guests will be very pleased.

When you have a refrigerator full of vegetables, a few eggs and some cheese, be nice to yourself and make a frittata. Or be even nicer and invites some friends for brunch.

Frittata is essentially an egg & cheese custard filled with sauteed vegetables, and, if you like, sausage, chicken or meat.  Think of it as a quiche without the crust. And, because it lacks the crust, you don’t have to make one, or (heaven forfend), use a packaged pie crust.

Here’s what you do. Heat the oven to 450 and assemble all your ingredients. Sunday morning, I used two medium onions, three garlic cloves, one red and one green bell pepper, one zucchini, three small yellow squash, and a handfull of cherry tomatoes, all chopped into quarter-inch dice – except for the tomatoes which were halved and the garlic – finely chopped.

Using an iron skillet over a medium high flame, I heated two tbs olive oil and added the onion and garlic, sweating them until soft. Then the bell peppers, stirring for a few minutes and finally the squash. When the squash was slightly soft, I added two tbs of my house rub (a combination of salt, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, oregano and thyme) and 3 tbs finely chopped basil.

While this was simmering, I whipped seven eggs with about 1/4 cup heavy cream and grated some Emmentaler Swiss and some parmigiana cheese. Use the cheese you have on hand, including cheddar, colby, provolone, muenster – cheeses with character but not too strong. If you use gorgonzola or blue cheese, be ready for the frittata to be overpowered. Good, but overpowered.

Now, stirring the eggs into the vegetable mixture, I folded in the Emmentaler , letting the mixture set for a minute while topping with the cut cherry tomatoes. Then into the hot oven for a 10 – 15 minutes until the center firms up and start to set. Turning on the broiler, I added the grated parmigiana, cooking until the cheese bubbled and started to brown. Removing the frittata, it should cool for a few minutes on the stove top. The sides will shrink a bit and you can cut the frittata like a pie in wedges and serve.

Frittata is lovely and filling as a main dish accompanied by some fruit, maybe cantaloupe or honeydew with blueberries.

It feeds eight brunch guests easily, or two for a couple of days.