A Season for Everything

Hello! Hope you all are enjoying these blissful (dog) days of summer. The weeks have flown by and we have returned home to California after a clustercuss of events that made life somewhat unbearable, even as we summered on the Cape. I was, unfortunately, crippled by a certain gastric distress that rendered me unable to eat most things for weeks, I discovered that I have a shellfish allergy (so far only to lobster and mussels), my two-year-old laptop crashed and burned, and to top it off, we left our wonderful SLR camera on a taxi in New York.

Under these conditions it is very difficult to blog...so I thank you for your patience. As of this week, I have resumed normal digestion of my food (you have no idea), unpacked all our boxes of clothes shipped home, attended to our garden, and resurrected my old (but still mostly functional camera)..

We've also adopted a stray kitten (whom we've named Bandit...but that's a story for another time).

So thankfully, I'm back in business--as long as my husband doesn't mind me using his desktop once in a while.

About dinner...How are your tomatoes doing? Mine are so-so and admittedly the Early Girls and Better Boys are outperforming my heirlooms about 10-1. But the farmers' market was bursting with incredible variety, and we've been eating them up until our mouths blister.

I firmly believe that summer meals should be simple and require as little cooking as possible, so as to not heat up an already hot kitchen. Tonight's meal, angel hair alla checca, fit that bill perfectly as I only needed to boil a pot of water and cook the pasta for 3 minutes and dinner was served. The sauce, if you want to call it that, is simply chopped tomatoes, marinated in a bit of garlic, olive oil, basil and balsamic vinegar. It's summer served on a platter.

This pasta is a perfect showcase for the gorgeous heirloom tomatoes available right now. As a bonus, this meal is equally good warm, at room temperature or cold. (And the chopped tomato mixture makes a killer bruschetta too.)

Angel Hair alla Checca

Printable recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes

Total time: 40 minutes

Yield: serves 3-4

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped mixed tomatoes (heirloom is nice), cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, grated

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

5 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

1 ball of fresh mozzarella, cut into 1 inch cubes

salt and pepper to taste

1 pound angel hair pasta

Preparation:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

2. Meanwhile, mix all ingredients, except the pasta in a large bowl. Toss to coat. Set aside for 30 minutes at room temperature so the flavors will meld.

3. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Toss the pasta with the tomatoes in the bowl. Serve immediately, garnishing with additional basil leaves if desired.

At Market...Lemon Basil

I've learned the hard way that lemon basil doesn't sit around and wait for you to decide what to do with her...especially on a particularly hot and sunny day. She doesn't care if you give her a cool spritz of water, or trim her stems, or give her some nice water to drink in a pretty little vase. Here today, gone tomorrow...more like here this morning, gone by this afternoon. She's a pretty little thing, but fussy too. Kind of like my daughter. I know about the sensitive types, believe me. Rumor has it, I used to be one myself. We sensitive types need a plan of action implemented before we can put up a fight....before we even know what hits us. That way, it's done before we've had time to wilt, and usually, we discover it wasn't that bad after all.

That's why, just moments after arriving home from the farmers' market, this herb met with a what seems like a rather violent end, ground up by sharp blades in my blender. But truth be told, it was just the beginning of a beautiful marriage--a marriage of olive oil and garlic, of asiago cheese and pine nuts, and of course the princess herself, lemon basil.

If you've ever caught a whiff of her heady perfume, you'll understand why she's named after the citrus fruit. A scent as bright as her color, she has the ability to transform any dish calling for fresh basil from fantastic to fantabulous. So it's no surprise that she makes ordinary pesto extraordinary. Of course you could eat it over pasta, or drizzle it over roasted asparagus, but I like to blend it with a bit of mayo and use it to spread on toasted bread to make one heck of a BLT sandwich. Bliss!








Lemon Basil Pesto

Lemon basil is a variety of basil that can be found at your farmers' market. If you cannot find it, and want to add a lemon essence to your pesto, add the zest from one lemon, not the juice, as the acidity will destroy the bright green color. Enjoy with over pasta, roasted vegetables, as a dip or as a sandwich spread.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of lemon basil (about 2 loose cups)
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup asiago cheese
pinch of salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. Wash basil well to remove any grit and cut the leaves off the stems. Place in a blender or food processor along with the garlic.

2. Using the feed tube, slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whizzing the basil and garlic until you get a smooth puree.

3. Add the pine nuts and cheese and blitz until smooth.

4. Add the salt and pepper, taste for seasoning and serve immediately. If you have made this ahead, drizzle a thin layer of olive oil over the top to help maintain its bright green color, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Pesto also freezes well.

Twenty-two Pounds of Tomatoes

I bought a "lug" of tomatoes from Lombardi Ranch last week. According to Mrs. Lombardi, a lug is about 22 pounds of tomatoes. I understood why they call it a lug as I hobbled to my car carrying it, a spaghetti squash, a bag of peaches and an Italian cucumber. Whew. Being determined as ever to can my own tomatoes for the season, I donned surgeons gloves and began to skin, seed and chop (actually tear apart) 12 pounds for sauce, which took me the better part of an hour. Finally, with the sauce simmering away, and my giant water bath canner set to boil on the stove, I retreated to the couch to rest my back for a bit. Now I understand why professional cooks wear those ugly clogs and have cork floors. Yikes. When I cook, I usually embellish recipes, or forgo them altogether. But because I have read so much about the dangers of canning tomatoes due to botulism poisoning, that I decided at least for this one thing, I would be a stickler for precision. Even though I enjoy making food "to die for" I certainly don't mean literally!

From my hours of hard work, I managed to put up 7 pints of tomato sauce, which isn't all that much really. I might have another go at it if I can muster the energy before tomato season is over....or maybe I'll wait until next year. My oldest son, who adores Marinara Sauce gave it the thumbs up. I hope to use it over pasta, as a pizza sauce and for recipes that call for stewed tomatoes.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

When preserving ripe tomatoes, it's important to add bottled lemon juice to make sure the mixture is safe for canning. Bottled lemon juice is used instead of fresh because it has a consistent acidity. We prefer the flavor of organic; look for it at natural foods stores.
Makes about six 1-pint jars

Recipe by Jill Silverman Hough
October 2008

Ingredients

12 1/2 pounds red tomatoes, peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped (about 20 cups), divided
1 cup finely chopped shallots
1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed slightly
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Sugar (optional)
6 tablespoons bottled lemon juice (preferably organic)

Preparation

Combine 4 cups tomatoes and next 6 ingredients in large stockpot. Stir over medium-high heat until tomatoes begin to release juice, about 5 minutes. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer until mixture is thickened, stirring frequently, about 20 minutes. Add remaining tomatoes; increase heat to high and bring to rolling boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until mixture is reduced to 11 cups, stirring frequently, about 30 minutes. Season with more salt and pepper, and with sugar to taste, if desired.

Pour 1 tablespoon lemon juice into each of 6 hot clean 1-pint glass canning jars. Spoon sauce into jars, leaving 1/2-inch space at top. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar threads and rims with clean damp cloth. Cover with hot lids; apply screw bands. Process jars in pot of boiling water 35 minutes. Cool jars completely. Store in cool dark place up to 1 year.