Currently viewing the tag: "tomatoes"
An all-vegetable and grain stuffing makes this lighter than the usual version with ground beef stuffing. This is a great way to use up left-over grains such as farro, bulgur, rice, or quinoa.
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This dressing is about the tomato, so only do this when you have tomatoes with plenty of flavor. This is also a pretty dressing, especially when you have different colors of tomatoes. This dressing has a nice combination of fruitiness, acid, and sweetness, and is great on fish, grilled shrimp, chicken, or mixed with arugula and tossed onto grilled slabs of chewy bread. It is good on salads, too.
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This dish is so simple, there is nowhere for inferior ingredients to hide. The dressing goes really well with grilled or sautéed swordfish, halibut, tuna, or other meaty textured fish with a clean sea taste. This treatment works well with grilled shrimp, scallops, and with chicken breasts also.
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This could be eaten as a side dish, used to bed grilled steak or chicken, or serve on rafts of grilled toast as a tapa. As a tapa, have some olives, cubes of cheese, and chilled sherry, white wine, or beer handy. For this dish, use a milder Spanish for French style olive oil for best results.
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This version of pesto hails from Trapani in Sicily. It features almonds and, more unusual, tomatoes. There are many versions of this recipe-some use cherry tomatoes, some call for plum tomatoes, peeled, or not. Mortar and pestle versus food processor versus blender. 1 clove garlic versus 4. Cheese, or not. Well, here is another version- with regular sized tomatoes given a quick turn on the grill to add flavor and to ease peeling. If you don’t feel like heating the grill, see Chef’s Notes for an alternative to this. If you have nice sweet cherry tomatoes with tender skins, just use those instead, and skip the grilling, or blister them in a skillet filmed with a little oil. Use this pesto as you would with pasta, or try it on grilled vegetables such as peppers or with steamed or roasted cauliflower. Also great as a sandwich smear.
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A quick dish to put together once the pesto is made, and that goes pretty quickly as well. Be sure to save a couple cups of pasta cooking water for the sauce before draining the noodles. Try to find linguini rigati (ridged linguini) for this dish as the ridges help hold a little more sauce.
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This is a dish inspired by the flavors of Morocco. The nice thing about it is that most of the components are things that last a long time, and you might have them in the back of the refrigerator or the pantry. If you have fresh tomatoes use them, but there is no shame in using good quality canned for this. Using fresh tomatoes will make the dish brighter tasting, and they might take longer to cook down to a sauce consistency.
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This dish has both brightness and depth of flavor. Use this as a pasta sauce tossed with orecchiette pasta, to sauce fish or chicken, or just eat it as is. Although the tomato/basil water adds a lot of extra flavor and will reduce to add a bit of a glaze to the dish, the dish is fine without it if you don’t feel like taking the time. The tomato/basil water can be used in other dishes as well.
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This is a quick and easy sauce that is popular, even with those who do not usually care for sauces with tomatoes. The tomato and cream reduction give the sauce a sweetness, and the cream, butter, and garlic give it a nutty quality. I like this sauce for gnocchi, especially for those made with winter squash. For gnocchi, use the option where you add in some of the water from cooking the gnocchi. The starch in the water will add some viscosity, but it will thin out the cream enough so it will lightly nap the gnocchi and not mask the flavor of the squash.
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We have been offering Beefsteak and Early Girl tomatoes in our CSA boxes during the warmer months.
This is a fairly quick dish to assemble, especially if you have soffritto on hand. Since much of the flavor for this dish comes from the tomato and basil, be sure to use flavorful tomatoes and fresh basil. Having a spritzer/atomizer for oil makes this dish easier still to make, and I recommend one as it makes it so simple to get just the right amount of oil onto vegetables instead of soaking them. If you do not have one, use a small bowl or plate with some oil and use a brush. Although the instructions seem long, once you have done this it will be a snap the next time. I like basil for this recipe, but if you do not have any to hand, try it with something else such as a tablespoon of marjoram or oregano, or some sage, or whatever strikes your fancy.
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The longest part of the prep for this dish is cooking the onions for the base. Other than that, this dish comes together quickly. If you have soffritto in the freezer, it is a snap to put together, and it looks as if you fussed for quite a while. If you have different colored tomatoes and/or squashes the dish looks quite festive.
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With summer here, the time is perfect for gratins. Sure, everyone is firing up the grill, but let’s face it-grilled vegetables only hold their appeal for a while, and then you want something with a little more depth of character. All those vegetables that are great on the grill are also great in a gratin. Easy to make, gratins can be made in advance and will keep overnight, and are good hot from the oven, or at room temperature. What’s not to like?
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The fresh rich flavor of the cooked down tomatoes is a nice counterpoint to the smokey, earthy flavor of the broccoli, and the sweetness of the tomato plays well with the sweetness the broccoli develops in the oven. This makes a nice side dish, but also can be used as a pasta sauce, pizza topping, or mixed with grains.
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Sometimes you just have to peel and seed your tomatoes. There are times the dish just calls for them this way, or sometimes the peels are just plain tough and you don’t feel like eating them. Peeling tomatoes is great for when you are making a sauce where you want to cook the tomatoes all the way down to a puree and do not want to strain the sauce for skins, or you want a softer texture.
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This is called a salad in the Moroccan sense of the word. In Moroccan cuisine, salads are dishes of vegetables that are prepared, cooked or raw, and eaten at the beginning and throughout a meal. You are not likely to be served a leafy green salad there. So, that is why this is a “salad”. It could be a side-dish, condiment, or even a topping for something like grilled fish or chicken.
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This salad is based on a salad I used to get 30 or more years ago at Courtney’s Bistro in Manhattan Beach. I think it was the first time I had a real tomato, and I loved it. This recipe is about good ingredients simply presented so they show off their best. The mushrooms are done ahead of time, so this recipe is a snap to assemble last minute, and looks elegant on a plate making it a good one for company. Prep the lettuce ahead of time and store in a box wrapped in toweling in the refrigerator to make things easier. The mushrooms need to be started ahead of time-in the morning, the day before, or at least 2 hours ahead of serving.
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This is a variation of Haricot Vert Salad that has a little more “pop” to it due to the lemon and yogurt in the dressing. Combined with the aromatic dill, this salad has plenty of presence. If you get tomatoes in your box, add some dice tomatoes to the mix, or see suggestions in Chef’s Tips. If you wish, you can substitute potatoes for the filet beans. If you get tomatoes in your box, go ahead and seed one or two (to yield a cup) and cut them into ¼ inch cubes and fold into the salad after everything else has been finished.
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This is a more delicate salsa than standard Pico de Gallo. The garlic is blanched to mellow it, and the amount of chili is pretty light. And instead of straight cilantro, cilantro oil is used. Use this as a topping for grilled or poached fish or chicken, or on slices of barely wilted summer squash.
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There are many versions of this salad, but the universal constant seems to be old bread and tomatoes and onions. I figure this salad grew out of the “cucina povera” canon, where waste, want not was the theme. Before Columbus, tomatoes were not part of this dish, but they certainly are now. This is a great way to use up older bread, but if you can’t wait, just rip up the bread early in the day and let it sit out a few hours, or throw it in the oven on low. I have also grilled or fried the bread for variation. Again, this is where a fixed-blade slicer can speed things up.
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This recipe is for a salad that is used as a topping for breaded chops. The contrast between the hot crisp chop and the cool salad with its peppery bite and slight acid from tomatoes and vinaigrette makes for a wonderful dish. This salad is also excellent on its own, or as a topping for bruschetta.
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Okay, let’s face it. Insalata Caprese is a wonderful thing, but it has become a “classic”. So, in the spirit of keeping things new and fresh (heh), here is a twist. At the Aptos Farmer’s Market, I tasted an Amethyst Basil jelly from Fogline Farm, and immediately thought of this, especially since I had just gotten some heirloom tomatoes. There are a ton of recipes for basil and purple basil jelly/jam out there, and I think it is a great “secret ingredient” to have on hand for many things. This one is a nice amethyst color with a light body and just right scent. It is perfect for this salad.
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