Roasted Tomato Salad with Basil and Balsamic Reduction

We're pretty sure, having tasted this, that anyone currently in possession of cherry tomatoes is morally obligated to roast them.

Seriously. A raw cherry tomato is delightful. Roasting makes it...I don't know how to put this. Profound. World-changing. I now strongly suspect that the key to world peace will ultimately be found inside the roasted cherry tomato. You say I'm exaggerating. I can see where you'd get that intuition. But I say, try these. Then tell me what you think.

Ingredients

1 basket cherry tomatoes

Olive oil

Kosher salt

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

A few basil leaves, chopped or chiffonade
(or fino verde, separated into individual leaves)

Black pepper

Preheat oven to 300° F.

Halve the cherry tomatoes (crosswise if round, lengthwise if oblong). Toss gently in a bowl with a little extra virgin olive oil and a pinch or two of salt. Pour onto a nonstick baking sheet, spread into a single layer, and turn face up. Roast in the oven for 30-35 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the balsamic vinegar in a small pan or pot over medium heat. When it begins to simmer, turn heat down to medium low, and simmer gently until the volume reduces by half. Remove from heat.

When the tomatoes are done, serve in a bowl, sprinkle with a little basil and black pepper, and top with a spoonful of balsamic reduction.

Serves 2, but you'll want more, so why not go ahead and double the recipe?

Orzotto with Ripe Tomatoes and Sweet Basil

Have I mentioned that the fall quarter started? The fall quarter started. Inevitably, this means we run completely out of groceries without noticing, and then act shocked when it happens, as though we vaguely remembered there being small and assiduous grocery gnomes who did this sort of thing for us last time. (There have never been grocery gnomes, just in case you were suddenly perking up, wondering where to get some. Maybe at Costco. I will check).

Anyway, a few nights ago, after a fruitless 8pm run to our beloved Co-op for some quick-and-easy dinner ingredients, which happened to all be completely sold out, we begrudgingly started rooting around in our cupboards and fridge and garden for something remotely palatable to cook. Except that this turned out to be wonderful -- an Italianish, risotto-esque dinner that cooks in a fraction of the time thanks to the orzo pasta substituting for rice. So next time you have perfectly ripe tomatoes and fresh basil, try throwing this together. You can use white orzo instead of whole wheat if the latter proves difficult to track down (we found ours at Market of Choice in Oregon, but surely there must be other places that carry it), and either way, the whole dish takes less than 20 minutes.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 cup dried whole wheat orzo pasta

1 small clove garlic, pressed

3 medium-sized ripe, fragrant tomatoes, cut into what I'm going to call hunks (1-inch pieces or so) and sprinkled with 2 pinches salt (let sit for up to 30 minutes to bring out flavor)

30 leaves fresh sweet and/or purple basil, chiffonade

1/2 cup grated Parmiggiano Reggiano

3 tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted (heat in a pan over medium heat, shaking frequently, till lightly brown)

Bring the broth to a boil in a medium-sized pot and add the orzo. Turn the heat down to low, cover, and simmer for 8-10 minutes until just barely al dente. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds more, then add the tomatoes and basil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are warmed through. Turn off the heat, throw in the parmesan, stir to combine, and spoon into bowls. Sprinkle with pine nuts and garnish with a small sprig of basil.

Serves 2, and pairs very well with Cline's Ancient Vine Zin.

Warmed Tomatoes and Basil over Garlicky Greens

This was a let's-cook-whatever's-in-the-fridge dish, and yet the flavors turned out to be perfectly balanced and wonderfully complex. You could use just regular sweet basil if you didn't have both kinds (and maybe try adding just a bit more sherry vinegar to compensate for losing the hint of lemon).

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 slice multigrain bread, chopped into small croutons
1 cup cooked and well-drained chickpeas and/or cannellini beans
1 clove garlic, sliced
2-3 large handfuls fava greens, amaranth greens, or spinach
1 tsp sherry vinegar, divided
Salt and black pepper
Ñora pepper
6-10 fresh sweet basil leaves
2-3 medium heirloom tomatoes, cut into large chunks
1 rounded tsp chopped lemon basil

Heat a large, nonstick frying pan over medium heat. When hot, add a generous glug of olive oil and swirl around the pan. Add the bread and toss to coat lightly, then shift to the side of the pan and scatter the beans on the other side (everything should be just one layer thick). Toast, shaking or stirring occasionally, until everything begins to turn golden brown.

Turn the heat down slightly, add the garlic and a bit more olive oil, and toss to combine. Saute for about a minute, then add the greens and saute until they begin to wilt. Season to taste with salt and pepper, add a few dashes of ñora pepper if you have it, drizzle with 1/2 tsp sherry vinegar, and throw in the basil leaves. Stir a few times, then serve into bowls.

Replace the pan on the heat, add about 1 tbsp olive oil, then slide the tomatoes in and sprinkle with salt. Saute for about a minute, stirring occasionally (you basically just want to warm them up without really cooking them). Add the lemon basil, a little black pepper, and a half tsp (or just a little more) of sherry vinegar. Saute for about another minute or until the tomatoes are just barely warmed through, then serve over the beans.

Garnish with basil, and serve hot.

Serves 2 for lunch, or pair with a salad and bread for dinner.

Baby Lettuces with Trombocino and Tomato

It may be September, but summertime ain't over till the fat lady sings about tomatoes not being in season anymore.

Ingredients
2-3 handfuls mixed baby lettuces
2 cups grated trombocino squash (if you can't find this, zucchini might work in its place), squeezed gently to remove a bit of the excess water if it's very juicy
1-2 cups sliced tomatoes (if large, halve or quarter before slicing)
Several sprigs cinnamon basil, chopped (can sub any other basil)
Olive oil
Sherry vinegar
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper

Whisk about 3 parts olive oil to 1 part sherry vinegar in a small bowl to form an emulsion. Add a pinch or two of salt and a liberal dusting of white pepper.

Toss the lettuce in a salad bowl with enough vinaigrette to lightly coat. Add the grated trombocino and drizzle with a little more vinaigrette, then top with the tomatoes and a sprinkling of basil (note that cinnamon basil and fino verde are both stronger than sweet basil, so adjust the amount down or up accordingly). Drizzle with another spoonful or two of vinaigrette, and serve.

Serves 2 as part of a light summer dinner. Toss gently before serving onto plates.

Sauteed Green Beans with Balsamic Reduction

I may have cast some texture-related aspersions in the general direction of green beans awhile back, and feel compelled to clarify.

Ahem.


I have always loved green beans (since at least three or four days ago). Their texture is not squeaky (when made as follows) and they are completely addictive (when tossed with a balsamic reduction) and I love them (when they are not squeaky and when they are tossed with a balsamic reduction).

There. Now I can heap a good six servings of these on my plate without feeling quite so hypocritical.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 clove garlic, slivered
2 big handfuls green beans*
Salt
Chicken broth
Balsamic vinegar
8-10 basil leaves, chiffonade
Freshly ground black pepper

 

Heat a glug of olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for a minute or so until it softens a bit, then add the green beans and a pinch of salt and toss to combine. Let the beans sit in the pan for a minute or two, then toss and let them sit again until they start to brown a little on at least one side.

Add a slosh of broth (start with a couple tablespoons or so -- just enough to create some steam) and cover the pan immediately. Let the beans steam for a couple of minute, then check them for tenderness and repeat if necessary.

When the beans are al dente, uncover the pan and boil off any remaining broth. Add about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar to the side of the pan and allow it to simmer for a few seconds until it starts to thicken, then turn off the heat and toss the beans to coat. About half the volume of the vinegar will steam off, leaving just the sweet reduction.

Add the basil and a little black pepper, toss to coat evenly, and serve.

Serves 2 as an easy side dish, and works well for broccoli, too (with or without the basil). You can also substitute white wine for the broth, which will give the dish just a hint of tartness instead of being sweet.

*Unless your hands are unreasonably large, in which case you should ask someone with reasonably-sized hands to measure for you. This is primarily directed at a certain oversized husband who tends to unintentionally double all my hand-based measurement approximations when left to his own devices.

Quick Lunch: Tuscan White Beans and Chard

A perfect summertime recipe for leftover home-cooked cannellini beans, and fits the bill when you're in the mood for a weekendy backyard picnic with a glass of wine and something Italian, but can't really muster up the patience to wait for pasta water to boil.

You can substitute canned beans if you don't mind them clumping and mushing a bit (which affects looks more than taste) -- just be sure to rinse and dry them well first, and handle them a bit more gingerly than their less-overcooked homegrown cousins. 

Ingredients
Olive oil
2 cups cooked cannellini beans, very well drained (pat dry with a paper towel if necessary)
1 clove garlic, slivered
A big bunch of chard, sliced crosswise
4 small (2" round), ripe, fragrant tomatoes, cored and cut into large bite-sized pieces
Fresh basil leaves, sliced into thin ribbons (about 2 tbsp)
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat a wide saute pan over medium to medium-high heat. When hot enough that a drop of water evaporates immediately, add a generous glug of olive oil. Wait about 15 more seconds to let the oil heat, then add the cannellini beans. Shake the pan so that the beans spread out in a single layer. Toast for 2-3 minutes until they turn lightly golden, then shake the pan again to turn them. Continue for another couple minutes until the beans are golden on multiple sides.

Add the garlic and a bit more olive oil and stir once or twice. After about 20 seconds, add the chard and a pinch of salt (as always, go easy on the salt if your beans are already salted). Saute, stirring occasionally, until the greens wilt and the stems are just cooked through, about 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and stir gently to combine. Cook for only about a minute more (you basically just want to warm the tomatoes), add the basil, and turn off the heat. Sprinkle in the parmesan and a generous grinding of black pepper, stir well, and serve.

Serves 2.

 

Pasta with Pea Pesto and Bacon

There are approximately ten billion varieties of basil now growing in our garden. Or four, if you like precision, but you know what I say? I say precision is for bakers. Bakers can have four varieties of basil. I have ten billion. Ten billion basils basking in the sun, reminding me incessantly of pesto. I'm like the greedy cartoon characters with dollar signs in their eyes, only mine are full of pasta.

The thing is, though, they are small, fledgling basils. Not yet fully grown. And when you have only ten billion (four) fledgling basils, you can't really make pesto. You need, by my hyperbolic calculations, approximately six gazillion fledgling basils to make pesto. What's a slightly unhinged, grant-deadline-racing, pesto-obsessed cook to do?

Answer: Peas. (Other possible acceptable answers include: 42, and get some sleep for goodness sakes.)

Seriously, make this. It's delightful. If you have fresh peas, use them, and I'm thinking that some asparagus thinly sliced at an angle would make it even better.

Ingredients
Fresh linguine or tagliolini for two
1 1/2 cups frozen peas, blanched and drained
1/3 cup packed fresh basil leaves
(use a bit more if it's regular sweet basil, or a bit less if it's a stronger variety like fino verde)
2-3 tbsp lightly toasted pine nuts
2 large cloves garlic, one whole and one slivered
Olive oil
2 slices Niman Ranch applewood smoked bacon, sliced crosswise into thin strips*
Dry white cooking wine
Several handfuls baby arugula and/or coarsely chopped amaranth greens (1/3 lb or a bit less)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus a few shavings for garnish
Freshly ground white pepper

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta.

Combine the peas, basil, whole clove of garlic, and pine nuts in a Cuisinart and blend until smooth.

Heat a wide saute pan over medium heat. When very hot, add just a bit of olive oil, followed by the bacon. Cook until it starts to turn golden (you can remove some of the bacon grease at this point, if you want, and add a bit more olive oil in its place), then lower the heat and toss in the slivered garlic. Cook for another minute or so until the garlic is tender.

Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until al dente.

Meanwhile, add the pesto to the bacon and stir to combine. Allow it to warm through, then add a slosh of wine to help thin. Turn off the heat, and add the greens.

Reserve a ladleful or two of pasta water, then drain the pasta and add it to the pan with the sauce. Toss to combine, adding pasta water as needed to thin the sauce (add just a little bit more than you think you need if the pasta is homemade, since it will soak up a bit more liquid on the way to the table). Stir in the grated parmesan.

Serve hot, with a little freshly ground white pepper and some shaved Parmesan over the top.

Serves 2.

*If you double the recipe, you only need three strips of bacon (rather than four).

The Pasta Chronicles, Continued: Pappardelle with Leeks and Applewood Smoked Bacon

Closer, ever closer...we chucked the fava flour and tried quinoa flour in its place, to good effect. Still not perfect enough to post, though, so we clearly have to keep trying. Possibly for weeks, if not months. Possibly twice a day, for weeks, if not months. (Okay, we may be getting slightly addicted. This homemade pasta thing is kind of amazing.)

In the meantime, here's another good sauce -- this one for pappardelle, or fettuccine would probably work too....




Ingredients:
1 medium leek, halved lengthwise, cleaned, and sliced (white and light green parts)
2 slices Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked Bacon, sliced crosswise into strips
1/2 bunch Russian kale, sliced crosswise
10-12 leaves fresh basil, chiffonade
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pinch or two Meyer lemon zest (optional)
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 poached eggs

Cook bacon over medium-high heat in a wide pan with deep sides until it starts to brown lightly. Add the leeks and turn the heat down to medium. Fold in the kale and a pinch of salt, and saute for a few minutes until the kale wilts. Add the basil, stir for another moment or two, and season with salt and black pepper to taste. Add lemon zest if desired, and turn off the heat.

Fold in cooked pappardelle or linguini, toss to coat evenly, and serve hot, sprinkled lightly with Parmesan, with an egg on top.

Serves 2.

Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Basil

I never realized spaghetti squash was actually like spaghetti until we cooked one last night. I still don't quite understand how the noodly goodness that emerged could have possibly come from a squash, and I'm pretty sure we need to make this at least five or ten more times before I'm convinced that the transformation has nothing to do with oven leprechauns switching the squash innards out for noodles when I'm not looking.

Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash
Olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, pressed
A basket of grape tomatoes, halved
1 regular tomato, diced
A big handful of basil leaves, chiffonade
A small handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
A handful of savoyed green mustard (or substitute regular mustard greens or arugula), chopped
Grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Halve the spaghetti squash and gently remove the seeds (if they're hard to get, you can also wait until after it's cooked, which can make it a bit easier). Brush cut surface with olive oil and place face down on a baking sheet. Bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on size, until a fork inserts with little resistance (you want it to be tender but not mushy, or the noodles won't retain their shape). Let cool for a few minutes.


Meanwhile, saute the onion in some olive oil over medium heat. When soft, add the garlic, cook for another minute or so, then add the tomatoes, herbs, a pinch of salt, and a liberal dousing of pepper. After about a minute, add the greens and saute till just wilted.

Gently scoop the squash out of its rind with a large spoon, and toss with the tomato mixture (either in the pan or in a bowl if the pan's not big enough), gently pulling apart the strands of spaghetti squash. Grate some parmesan over the top, toss once or twice, and serve.

Lemon Pappardelle with Tomatoes, Basil, and Smoked Bacon

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This post, though, is about pasta. Trader Joe's has this lemon pepper pappardelle that has relatively few ingredients (all recognizable), despite being processed enough that it can't really count as a whole food. But it's really, really good. And not every night can be a cook-everything-from-scratch night.

Serve this recipe with something green on the side. It's fairly easy, and (did I mention?) really, really good.

Ingredients
Lemon pepper pappardelle (or you could probably use egg pappardelle, and add a little lemon zest or lemon basil to the sauce)
Olive oil
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, pressed
1 1/2 slices Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked Bacon (or other good-quality, pastured bacon or pancetta)
A bunch of fragrant tomatoes, cut into chunks
A big handful of fresh basil, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper 
Splash white wine
A little Parmesan

Cook the pappardelle according to package directions, then drain.

Meanwhile, saute the onion in some olive oil over medium heat till soft, then remove and set aside. Add the bacon to the pan and cook for a few minutes until it starts to brown a little, then add the onion back in and also the garlic. Cook for a minute more, then stir in the tomatoes, half the basil, a pinch of salt, and some pepper. After a minute or two, add a small splash of wine, cook for another minute, and then turn off the heat.

Add the rest of the basil and the cooked pasta to the pan, toss, and serve with a little parmesan grated over the top.

Serves 2.

Grated Trombocino with Tomato and Basil

Trombocino again, but Italian this time, and uncooked. As if this squash wasn't unique enough already, it has an entirely different character when raw, and tastes surprisingly like honeydew melon.

Ingredients
1/2 trombocino squash, coarsely grated (about 2 cups)
3-4 ripe and fragrant tomatoes, sliced and quartered
A handful of fresh basil, chiffonade (if it happens to be blooming, save the flowers for garnish)
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper

Drain the grated squash by pressing or squeezing it gently to remove some of the excess water. Combine in a bowl with the tomato and basil, drizzle with olive oil and a couple spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar, and add some black pepper. Toss, serve, and garnish with basil flowers.

Serves 2.

In Search of the Perfect Pizza

For the last few weeks, I have been slowly but surely gearing myself up to take on The Pizza. The thing is...well actually, there are several things. First, I do not bake. Or rather, I bake occasionally, when the moon is a nice bright shade of blue, but it is not my thing. I do not have an intuition for what proportions will make bread rise, or what combination of whatnot belongs in the cake batter. I bake with teaspoons at the ready and a close eye on the recipe, and a healthy amount of skepticism about what will happen to the thing once I put it in the oven.

Second, pizza is so often a fast food, if not in the Domino's sort of way, then in the (no doubt light-years healthier but still highly processed) Trader Joe's pop-something-gourmet-in-the-oven sort of way. And, even if it's homemade, it seems difficult to avoid the highly processed thing, given that the base is made of white flour. Nothing whole-grain about it. Even if you made it out of whole wheat flour. Unless...unless you made it out of stone-ground whole wheat flour.

Unless that.

Here then was the tripartite mission that began to form in the shadowy culinary corners of my brain: Learn how to (a) make pizza using (b) stone-ground whole wheat flour for the crust in a way that is (c) delicious. Right then.

Step 1: Find stone-ground whole wheat bread flour. This part was actually easy -- Bob's Red Mill makes stone-ground everything (not to mention lovely steel cut oats) and was well-stocked at our coop.

Step 2: Find a whole wheat pizza crust recipe. Also easy: The New York Times has one here.

Step 3: Make a pizza.

Have I mentioned that I don't bake?

Okay, here goes:


First, I made the dough for the crust from the NYTimes recipe. This picture is meant not so much to showcase my nonexistent kneading skills, as to record for all time the fact that I was in remarkably close proximity to bread dough and it did not burst into flames.



After flattening the dough on a cornmeal-dusted surface, I brushed it with 1-2 cloves pressed garlic mixed with a little olive oil, then topped with some grated Parmesan and pastured jack cheese (enough to lightly cover the crust up to about an inch from the outside), then sliced ripe tomatoes, Genovese basil chiffonade, and a little crumbled local goat cheese.

Then, I baked it for about 15 minutes at 450 until the crust was golden brown. I may or may not have spent a large portion of that time staring through the oven door at it as the crust started to look like an actual pizza crust, and I am sure I did not hoot with glee when the first pizza crust bubble formed. I mean, that would be ridiculous.


And the finished product?

Decidedly gorgeous, and pretty darn tasty. The toppings were amazing, thanks in large part to our produce box (which supplied the incredible tomatoes and fresh Genovese basil), and the crust was definitely decent.

Nonetheless, Step 4: Achieve Pizza Crust Perfection is still a work in progress. Stay tuned.

Beluga Lentils with Mushrooms and Paprika

I came across this recipe and blog today, searching for something (probably lentil recipes, go figure), and thought it looked delicious enough to try. Plus, it calls for cherry tomatoes, and I had a basket sitting on the counter getting perilously close to going all mushy. Plus #2, he uses "glug" as a unit of measurement (as in, "saute with a good glug of olive oil") and I felt instantly that we must be kindred measuring spirits. Or maybe this is more common practice than I thought. But most (pre-blog) recipes I've written down have the words "glug," "handful," "liberal dousing" and "more than you would think" in place of more, um, traditional (read: normal) measurement terms, and given that apparently legitimate people do this too, I am seriously considering dropping all this tablespoon business in favor of my typical haphazard approximations. Feel free to lodge a complaint if you like the safe precision of quarter teaspoons. I get all excited when people leave comments.

Back to lentils: I suspect the original version is delicious, but I didn't have smoked paprika and did have some other things, so an adapted version is below. 

Ingredients
Olive oil*
Small yellow onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, pressed
Scant 2 cups beluga lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 cup organic vegetable broth
Sherry vinegar 
Spanish sweet paprika
Aleppo pepper
Ground cumin
About a pound of mushrooms, half crimini and half shiitake, brushed and halved or quartered (depending on the size)
2-3 large handfuls amaranth greens, coarsely chopped (could substitute 2 handfuls spinach)
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
2/3 basket cherry tomatoes, halved
Basil chiffonade (6-7 leaves, rolled & thinly sliced)

Saute the onions in a pot over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until slightly softened, add garlic, and cook for an addition minute or two. Add the lentils and stir to coat with the onion-garlic mixture, then add the broth and 2 cups water. Cover, bring to a boil, and turn heat down to low. Simmer for 25-30 minutes or until just tender, stirring every ten minutes or so. (If you don't want to stir, add an additional cup of water at the beginning and then drain the lentils after they're done. I don't like having to drain them, so I often use less liquid, but this does mean you have to stir more frequently and it probably takes a little longer to cook.)

Turn off heat and add 1 1/2 tsp sherry vinegar, 1 tsp paprika, a spoonful of Aleppo (or adjust spiciness to taste), and a pinch or two of salt. Liberally dust with cumin, stir, and taste. Adjust seasonings if you'd like it to have more tang or more spice.

Meanwhile, heat a pan over high heat until very hot. Add a generous metric glug of olive oil and let that heat up too, then add the crimini mushrooms. Turn the heat down to medium-high and brown the criminis on each side. When they're about halfway done, add the shiitakes as well (these will cook more quickly). When the mushrooms are browned and just tender, add the amaranth greens and stir-fry for about a minute or until just wilted. Turn off the heat and season with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, combine the cherry tomatoes, basil, about 2 tsp sherry vinegar, a slosh of good-quality extra virgin olive oil, and some black pepper.

Serve (lentils first, then the mushrooms, with a couple spoonfuls of the tomato-basil mixture on the top).

To round off the meal, add a crusty loaf of fresh bread (get something whole wheat and/or seeded if you want to make a complete protein, and skip the twenty-billion-ingredient variety in favor of something straightforward if you're going the Pollan route) and a glass of Spanish wine (pairs well with a 2007 Juan Gil Jumilla, currently on sale at Costco for a crazy low $11/bottle).

Serves 4, or 2 for dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day.


 *Incidentally, a ridiculous number of major brand olive oils are not actually extra-virgin as claimed...see p. 10 of the report from UC Davis to see whether yours is.