Tomato, To-mah-to

It’s tomato season!

We can’t seem to get enough of these beautiful tomatoes.  I can’t think of any other food that when it’s good, it’s very, very good, and when it’s bad, it’s horrid.  Right now, they are very, very good.  We have a friend who says that there are some days that are so hot that all he wants to eat is a tomato.  I’ve never been that hot.  But I have enjoyed some of these fresh tomato recipes.

First, Tomato Mozzarella and Basil (Barefoot Contessa Family Style).  This might be my favorite tomato recipe, and we used the fresh heirloom tomatoes from our CSA box for this.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made this salad, and this is probably the ugliest batch I’ve ever made.  But guess what?  Still awesome.

Next up:  Tomato Mozzarella and Pesto Panini (Barefoot Contessa at Home).  There’s a reason that this isn’t an actual panini.

My dad had a panini maker for his grocery store’s deli.  He sold the store, and kept the panini maker, and then generously gave it to me.  The catch?  It was an industrial-grade panini maker, which only plugged into an industrial-grade electrical outlet.  In other words, we’d have to unplug our dryer to plug in the panini maker.  Realizing how impractical that was, we sold the panini grill, and suffered through with an electric griddle for these sandwiches instead.  We didn’t even have any fancy crusty bread, so we used regular boring sandwich bread.  Even with all of those intervening forces, these sandwiches were amazing.

Finally (for now), Greek Panzanella (from Barefoot Contessa:  How Easy is That?).  This was simply amazing, and even though the leftovers were a little soggy a day or two later, I still gobbled them up, and happily.  I approached panzanella with some trepidation, since I’d never made or eaten it before.  I needn’t have worried – as it turns out, as weird as “bread salad” sounds, it tastes pretty good.  Think of a salad with more croutons and no lettuce, and there you go.  The oregano and red wine vinaigrette used in this recipe would make a great marinade for grilled chicken to top a green salad.  All of these vegetables came from our CSA box.

Bonus item:  This is not a Barefoot Contessa recipe, but maybe it should be.  I met my friend Amber during my first week of college, and we reconnected a few years ago.  Amber is one of the funniest, most delightful, interesting, and interested people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.  I love that we can keep in touch through her food blog, Awake at the Whisk.  I made her Roasted Heirloom Tomato Freezer Sauce last week, and it could not have been easier.  (If you’re keeping track of how many tomatoes we’ve eaten, add in some BLTs for four adults over the weekend, and yes, I had to go to the farmers’ market to buy more tomatoes.)  I used the marinara on Eggplant Parmesan, and we gobbled it all up.

Here are the tomatoes ready to be roasted.  We had a little extra excitement as I brought in the fresh basil from the back porch – a little green worm stowed away and tried to make it into our sauce!  Luckily I spotted it before I added extra protein to the recipe.  Yikes!  I must grow really good basil if even the worms want some.

I’d love to hear about your favorite tomato recipe.  During the summer that my husband and I first met, he told me “I just love a plain tomato.  With salt and pepper.  And white bread.  And mayonnaise.”  I had to break it to him that that wasn’t exactly a “plain” tomato.  What’s your favorite way to eat tomatoes?

Fennel Salad

Hey look, everybody!  I’m cooking something that’s not in Barefoot Contessa:  How Easy is That?

This recipe comes from Barefoot in Paris, and it probably wins the award for the least-bad fennel preparation.  (See this post for the least-bad cauliflower award.)  I don’t care for fennel.  It’s too bad, because we get it every so often in our CSA box, and there are SO MANY Barefoot recipes that call for it.  I thought I’d give this one a shot.  It calls for sauteing the fennel in a little olive oil before adding a vinaigrette.  It wasn’t quite as licorice-y as raw fennel and it didn’t have that sharp bite to it, but it was still had a strong anise taste.  Bummer.

 

 

 

 

Roasted Salmon with Green Herbs, Snap Peas with Pancetta and Pecorino

This was the perfect summer meal.  The salmon used lots of fresh herbs, and I didn’t mind turning on the oven to roast it because it was really only on for ten minutes or so.  The recipe calls for green onions, but we got red/purple scallions from our CSA that I used instead.  The Snap Peas were also from our CSA farm, and we really liked them this way.  Bonus:  the whole meal was cooked in about 20 minutes.  Both recipes came from Barefoot Contessa:  How Easy Is That?

 

Roasted Shrimp and Orzo

I tried this recipe (Barefoot Contessa at Home) for the first time several years ago, and it has become a favorite standby, especially in the spring and summer.  I’m sure it will make even more appearances at our table now that wild shrimp are easier to find (thanks, Trader Joe’s!).  I love that it’s easy, and that I can make it in advance.  It’s pictured here without the addition of the fresh herbs, feta and scallions, because we brought it to share at a party, and I didn’t know how our friends felt about the herbs in question.  The dill, especially, can get to be overwhelming if you’re not crazy about it.  So, they traveled separately, but I still made everything far enough in advance that the dressing had time to really combine with the orzo, shrimp, and cucumber.

Tuscan Lemon Chicken

This chicken (Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics) was supposed to be a whole chicken, cut up and grilled.  As I made it, it was chicken pieces (thank you, Trader Joe’s) made in the oven (thank you, Minnesota spring winds).  It was delicious.  Not pictured:  the chicken breasts that were still cooking in the oven, which were frozen after they cooked to be used in another recipe calling for cooked chicken.

Bay Scallops Gratin

Much like the Baked Shrimp Scampi, this recipe (Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics) worked just as well family style as it would have in individual servings.  The bay scallops were available from Trader Joe’s, even here in the far-from-the-bay Midwest.

Fingerling Potatoes

My parents picked up some of these from their winter farmers’ market, and they were delicious.

Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

And do you notice the natural light in this photo?  At dinner time, no less?  Thanks, Daylight Saving Time and spring!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

These are so incredibly good.  This may be hard to believe, but while I’m seldom tempted to polish off half of a cake or too many cookies, I’m often sorely tempted to eat an entire pan of roasted brussels sprouts.  I never had them as a child, which is also surprising, because we ate just about everything that could be grown locally in Wisconsin (including home-grown popcorn from my grandparents’ garden!).  If a nice coarse salt and a touch of olive oil is used, these come out smelling like (I swear to you) popcorn from the movie theater.

Creamy Rosemary Polenta

Consider this a dressed-up version of grits.  Yum.  I made a half-batch, and it only took half of the recommended time to cook, so this was a very quick side dish.  Next time, though, if I make a half-batch, I’ll be sure to saute the garlic first.  The cornmeal cooked so quickly that the garlic was still pretty crunchy by the time it was served.  Still, this was excellent.

Barefoot Contessa at Home

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette

This recipe (Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics) is the type of recipe that made me want to start this project.  It’s simple, it’s healthy, and it contains ingredients that we like.  But before this project, I would have admired the picture, taken note of the ingredients, thought, “I should really make that sometime,” and then the time would never come.  It’s not that we don’t eat salad, it’s just that I get into the routine of making the same kind of salad every time, so we get into ruts.  The challenge I’ve had lately is to really focus on these great winter vegetables without over-doing any one thing until we get tired of it.  Butternut squash, for example, plays a large role on the pages of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks.  We love it, but if we eat it more than once or twice a week, we’ll turn orange, and we’ll never want to see another squash again.  So, spacing things out has been key, while still putting a heavy emphasis on seasonal vegetables.  Because really, it would be kind of silly to be roasting a butternut squash in July.  I used apple juice instead of apple cider in the dressing (a substitution suggested in the recipe itself).  The parmesan was nice, but not necessary – there were enough other flavors going on without it.