A Salute To Summer with Fresh Tomatoes and Herbs

So being “foodies”, we no sooner finish one meal than we are anticipating the next.  Right after the last SNS posting, (we’re talking Tuesday following the meal on Saturday),  we were chatting after work on the phone, and the conversation ping ponged  from, “We should start thinking about the next posting.”, to “I really liked a lot of the recipes in that Italian cookbook you loaned me.”, to summer portable foods, and evolved into this meal.

We decided right away to make the tart with heirloom tomatoes and then decided on shrimp in baby Romaine leaves as a side.  Meg suggested making an aioli, and we started naming ingredients.  After a long list of options, Sue said, “Am I supposed to be writing this down?”  So since then, every time we start talking about recipes, Sue asks, “Am I supposed to be writing this down?”  It’s now our joke, which we are sharing.  (You had to be there.)

We are so loving the aromas of summer cooking.  We encourage you to stop and sniff the vine-ripened tomatoes, and the basil, and the Parmesan when you are preparing this meal.  When you start with such wonderful ingredients, enjoy the journey, not just the end result.  This was pretty from the beginning, and we couldn’t resist sharing the pictures.

Heirloom Tomatoes and Basil



The tart before adding the parmesan cheese.



Tomato and Basil Tart out of the oven

Tomato and Basil Tart

 Courtesy “The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Italian Cooking”, Carla Capalbo, Hermes House

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 ½  c unbleached flour
• ½ t salt, plus more to sprinkle
• ½ c butter , chilled
• 3 – 5 T cold water
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil

For the filling

• 1 c mozzarella cheese,  sliced as thinly as possible
• 4 – 5 medium tomatoes, cut into ¼ inch slices
• 4 T freshly grated Parmesan cheese 

Make the pastry by placing the flour and salt in a mixing bowl.  Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse meal.  Add 3 T of water , and combine with a fork until the dough holds together.  If it is too crumbly, mix in a little water.
Gather the dough into a ball and flatten it into a disc.  Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for at least 40 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 375’.

Roll the pastry out between two sheets of waxed paper to a thickness of ¼ inch.  Line and 11 inch tart or pie pan, trimming the edges evenly.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes.  Prick the bottom all over with a fork.

Line the pastry with a sheet of parchment paper.  Fill with dried beans.  Place the pie pan on a cookie sheet and bake about 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven.
Remove the weights and paper.  Brush the pastry with oil.  Line with the mozzarella.  Tear half of the basil into pieces, and sprinkle on top. 

Arrange the tomato slices over the cheese.  Dot with the remaining whole basil leaves.   Sprinkle with salt and pepper, Parmesan cheese and oil.  Bake for about 35 minutes.  If the cheese exudes a lot of liquid during the baking, tilt the pan and spoon it off to keep the pastry from becoming soggy.  Serve hot or at room temperature.

Weight Watchers   8 points for 8 servings, 10 points for 6 servings

Grilled Shrimp With Red Pepper Aioli

Roasted Red Pepper Aioli

 Recipe developed by Meg and Sue

For Saturday Night Specials 6/30/2012

Makes: 2 cups 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup  olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
• 1 egg
• 2 large cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 large red peppers, roasted, skins and seeds removed
• 1 Tsp.  Sriracha hot sauce
• zest of 1 small lemon
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 

Put all ingredients except the olive oil in a blender and blend on medium speed until well mixed.  Turn to highest speed and slowly drizzle the olive oil through the opening in the lid of the blender.  Refrigerate until ready to use.  This will help to thicken the sauce, also.

Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc

We had planned on a red wine for this meal, but Sue unilaterally decided on a white. Luckily, it worked out well. This wine complimented the basil in the tart.



Fresh Peaches with Rosemary-Honey Syrup

 

Peaches with Rosemary-Honey Syrup 

Recipe developed by Meg

For Saturday Night Specials 6/30/2012

Makes: ½ cup

Ingredients:

• 1 c water
• ¼ c honey
• 1 6 inch sprig rosemary
• ¼  c frozen cranberry-pomegranate juice
• 1 crushed whole cardamom pod
• 1 T balsamic vinegar 

Put all of the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Cook over low heat until it is reduced to a dark syrup.  If you can keep an eye on it, go ahead and use a higher heat.

Toast about ½ cup of sliced almonds in a skillet in 1 t butter until slightly browned.

Skin and slice about 1 ½ peaches per person into small bowls.  Drizzle with the syrup and sprinkle the toasted almonds over the top.

This syrup was made specifically for the wonderful fresh peaches, but could easily be used over almost any fresh fruit.  Adding the sliced, toasted almonds gives this summery dessert just the right amount of crunch.

   

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

The shrimp in the Romaine with aioli is very portable, if you take the aioli in a small squeeze bottle.  We would also not leave the tails on, although it made for a prettier picture.

The aioli makes about 2 cups but you can easily cut the ingredients in half. Leftovers can be used as a sauce over cooked chicken, on fish tacos, or as a dip for fresh vegetables.

We loved the tart, but it isn’t finger food.  Next time we would grate the mozzarella. We have some ideas, which we will share on another occasion, to make it more portable. The combination of fresh tomatoes, cheeses and basil is hard to beat, and the aromas while it was baking were tantalizing.

Fresh fragrant peaches are showing up in our markets now. They needed no enhancement, but we made a rosemary-honey syrup, just because we could. A topping of toasted sliced almonds added a nice crunch. Really, a perfect summer dessert.