Black Cherry & Blue Cheese Salad with Basil & Almond Gremolata - Salad Days # 6

Today's salad is my take on this Goat's Cheese and Macerated Cherry Salad recipe from Diana Henry.

As Diana says, there's nothing new about the combination of goat's cheese and cherries, but she goes on to say that this takes it to a whole new level.  And she's right - it seriously does.  Actually I didn't have any goat's cheese, but I did have some blue cheese which I subbed in instead, and which made for an equally sensational combination.  The cherries and the cheese don't just marry together nicely, they actually really enhance each other, so that somehow each ingredient seems to taste even better in the company of the other than on its own.  Between these two fabulous ingredients, and the flavour packed almond and basil gremolata sprinkled over the top, this has just become a summer favourite that I fully intend to repeat as many times as I can before fresh cherries are gone for another year.

I had this flavour packed salad with a simple piece of pan-fried fish, but I think it would also be great with some barbequed lamb chops or a classic roast chicken.  Whatever it's served with, I urge you to try this - you won't be disappointed.

And come back tomorrow for a sensational seafood salad with tomatoes, avocado and roasted lemons.  You won't want to miss that one!

This is salad number 6 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project.   What's that you ask?  Well,  I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads.  A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year.  Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you.  I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too.  Have a favourite salad you'd like to share?  Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.  The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like.  Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to.  There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one.  Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link.  Thanks for sharing your favourite salad with us.

Saffron Roasted Tomatoes with Labneh and Triple Tomato Quinoa Risotto with Black Olives & Feta

For the first time since I started this blog, some five and a half years ago, I'm experiencing some serious writer's block.  I've been trying to write this post for the last week, and every time I sit down at the desk to write I allow myself to be distracted by just about anything else - that great "crack house" that is Pinterest (who of us can't get lost in that for hours), a little bit of filing (even though filing is my least favourite thing to do), a couple of scraps of paper, a magazine, I've even developed an uncommon interest in the tiniest speck of dust.  Pretty much anything to distract me from the admission that perhaps I have nothing to say!

Right now it's a glorious Sunday morning, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the cicadas are chirping, and it is taking every shred of willpower I possess to resist the siren call of the sea and sand.  But I've vowed not to hit the beach until this post is done, so perhaps I better get on with it.

I fully intended to bring you these glorious saffron-roasted tomatoes last week, when my friends and I at I Heart Cook Clubs were exploring the theme Along the Spice Trail with our current chef, Diana Henry.  For reasons already disclosed, that just didn't happen.  Which is sad, because withholding these from you is nothing short of a travesty. On a positive note though, this is Pot Luck week at IHCC, so I still get to share this plate of deliciousness with you.  When I brought you these Maple Roasted Tomatoes, way back when my blog was in its infancy, I thought I was really onto something, and I've been making them that way ever since.  Taking inspiration however from Diana's book A Change of Appetite, and adding harissa and saffron into the mix elevates these tomatoes to something positively sublime.  The kick of heat from the harissa, and the earthiness of the saffron, lend perfect balance to the sweet tomatoes, and some cooling tang from garlicky, herby labneh on top is the perfect accompaniment.

I didn't depart too much from Diana's recipe, though I pretty much ignored quantities and just used what suited me. This is the kind of dish where you really don't need to adhere to things too closely, which is something I always like in a recipe.  You need to begin by making your labneh ... Set a sieve over a bowl and line it with a paper towel or piece of clean muslin.  Add a few good dollops of natural yoghurt to the sieve, and place in the fridge for several hours until all the liquid has drained away, and you are left with something the consistency of thick cream cheese.  I use lovely thick Greek yoghurt that really only takes a couple of hours, but depending on the yoghurt you start with it may take up to 24 hours.  Once yoghurt has reached it's desired consistency, remove from sieve to a small bowl and mix in a clove of crushed garlic, some chopped herbs of your liking, and season with salt and pepper.  Now onto the tomatoes ... Choose several of your favourite tomatoes - I used a variety of tomatoes picked straight from the garden.  Cut them in half and lay them in a single layer in an ovenproof dish.  In a small bowl mix together a generous slosh or two of olive oil, two or three tablespoons of harissa, and a good pinch of saffron threads.  Pour the mixture over the tomatoes, and turn them to make sure they are well coated all over.  Set the tomatoes cut side up, drizzle liberally with maple syrup, and season generously.  Roast them in a preheated oven, 190 degrees C (375 degrees F) for around 45 minutes, remove from oven, and leave to cool slightly.  Arrange the roasted tomatoes on a platter and top with good dollops of the labneh.  Drizzle with any of the cooking juices, and strew a few toasted almonds and coriander leaves over the top to finish.

These are sensational served warm or at room temperature.  I tossed some of them with a few peppery rocket leaves and served them with this harissa marinated fish.

As is frequently the case in my house, however, I did end up with quite a lot of leftovers, which I decided to turn into risotto.  Since I'm on a bit of a "health-kick" at the moment, I experimented with using quinoa for my risotto instead of the traditional arborio rice, and I have to say I was pretty pleased with the results.  The quinoa had a really pleasant nutty flavour and slight chew to it, but the best thing of all was that I wasn't left with that heavy, weighed down kind of feeling afterwards.  This delivered all the comforting satisfaction that you expect from a risotto, with none of the "heft".  I love bringing layers of flavour and texture to a dish, and I achieved that here by using tomatoes three ways - the leftover saffron roasted tomatoes, a few sun-dried tomatoes, and finished off with a few fresh tomatoes.  The other great thing I discovered about using the quinoa in this risotto, is that it reheated really well the next day, which cannot generally be said for a risotto made with arborio rice.  Making risotto with quinoa is definitely set to become a regular feature in my kitchen now, and I can't wait to experiment with a few different flavours.  In the meantime, I hope you'll give this one a try.

On that note, I'm off to the beach now.  Enjoy what's left of your weekend xo

Triple Tomato Quinoa Risotto with Black Olives & Feta Recipe
a Couscous & Consciousness original

olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 small leek, finely sliced

1 cup quinoa

juice of 1/2 lemon

2 to 3 cups of vegetable stock, hot

3x saffron-roasted tomatoes (= 6x halves), roughly chopped (see above)

3 or 4 sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped

half a dozen fresh cherry tomatoes, halved

generous handful of black olives

chunks of crumbled goat feta - as much or as little as you like

flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

fresh basil leaves, roughly torn, to finish

Heat a good slosh of olive oil in a heavy based pan over medium heat.  Add the leek and garlic to the pan - cooking until they just begin to soften - take care not to burn the garlic.  Almost as soon as you can smell the garlic it is time to add the quinoa to the pan.  Continue cooking the quinoa with the leek and garlic, stirring constantly, until every single grain is coated with the oil and it begins to appear a little "toasted".

Now is the time to add the lemon juice, and continue stirring until virtually all the liquid has been absorbed by the quinoa.  Then reduce the heat a little, and begin to add the stock, one ladleful at a time - stirring constantly until each ladleful has been absorbed before adding the next.

Keep stirring and adding stock until the quinoa has plumped up and is tender (but not mushy) to the bite - this will probably take around 20 minutes.  Round about the 10 minute mark, stir in the chopped roasted tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes.

Once the quinoa is cooked, remove from the heat, stir in the fresh tomatoes, olives, feta and basil.  Taste, then season to your liking with flaky sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Stir to combine, then cover and leave to rest for 5 minutes to enable all the flavours to infuse.

Serve immediately, with some extra fresh basil on top.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

Mushroom, Basil & Lemon Salad

Who doesn't love a picnic?  Ok, so maybe just as there are a few Scrooges out there who don't love Christmas, I'm sure there are also a few ne'er sayers when it comes to picnicing, but for the most part a good picnic seems to be universally popular.  Whether you're six or sixty, whether you'd rather hike for several hours to some remote destination or simply throw a rug on the living room floor, there's something about the informality of a picnic which transports most of us to that "happy place".  Of course, like all good things, timing is everything.  Unless you're planning your feast on a rug in front of a blazing fire, winter time when the wind is howling and the snow is six inches deep is probably not ideal.  Likewise, I personally think that summer is not great for a picnic either - it can generally be too hot, all the ideal spots are usually completely overcrowded, and here in New Zealand at least you will spend the whole time fighting with the ants who want to eat your food and the sandflies who want to have a feast on you.  Spring and autumn though always seem to me like the perfect time to pack up the basket and head outdoors for a little alfresco dining.

In my part of the world, right now is absolutely perfect picnic time.  The weather is glorious.  It's still plenty warm enough to be outside in something sleeveless, but without the harsh intensity of summer's heat.  There's scarcely a breath of wind, and the light has that beautiful golden quality that is unique to autumn.  Doesn't hurt also that here in New Zealand we can experience breathtaking scenery at just about every turn - sounds braggy I know, but it's actually true.  I only have to look out my front windows for a vista which sweeps from the sea to The Grampians.  Everything is so lushly green, after last week's heavy rain, punctuated by a blaze of gold and russet as leaves turn and trees begin to shed their autumn cloaks.  If ever there was a siren call to the great outdoors, this is it, and so it couldn't be better timing that this week our I Heart Cooking Clubs' theme is "What's in your picnic basket?".

We continue to cook with Nigel Slater, and I found that he had loads of great dishes which were either suitable for, or easily adaptable to, picnic fare.  I happened to have a pile of mushrooms on hand, so when I stumbled upon his recipe for "Mushrooms with Basil and Lemon" in a Marie Claire cookbook written by Nigel I knew I'd found just the thing.  I love a raw mushroom salad - it's the kind of thing that doesn't need to be refrigerated, and only gets better the longer it sits around, which makes it positively ideal for taking to a picnic.  Layer it up in a big Agee jar, as I have done, and you have something which transports well and looks like you've done something really special.  If you want to be even more fancy schmancy, you could actually put this into several smaller jars for individual servings - just remember though that, whilst that might look cool, all that extra glass weighs something and, unless you have a party of Sherpas available to help out, you are probably going to be the one who has to carry it!

This salad gets plenty of flavour from loads of basil, parsley, and lemon, a nice bit of extra texture from crunchy coriander seeds, and a good kick of heat from some chilli.  I used a small, hot chilli with the seeds left in, but if you prefer just a whisper of heat choose a milder chilli and remove the seeds - it's totally up to you.  This would be a great salad alongside some cold chicken or smoked salmon, or something as simple as a crusty baguette to mop up all the salad juices.  It would also be great to take along to a barbeque - it won't mind sitting around, and would be delicious with grilled meats, vegetables or fish.

Mushroom, Basil & Lemon Salad Recipe
Adapted from recipe by Nigel Slater
from Marie Claire Cookbook
Serves 2-4 depending on what else you have to go with it
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

250g (9 oz) mushrooms
1x lemon
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
large handful of basil leaves
large handful of flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 red chilli, finely chopped
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Grate the zest of the lemon into a small bowl and set aside.

Wipe the mushrooms clean with a barely damp paper towel (do not wash them) and cut into quarters, or wedges if they are large.  Place mushrooms in a medium sized bowl, add the red wine vinegar and juice of the lemon.  Mix gently together and leave aside for about an hour to marinate.

Roughly chop the herbs and add to the bowl containing the lemon zest, adding also the coriander seeds, chilli, salt, pepper and olive oil.  Mix together well.

Spoon alternating layers of mushrooms and herb mixture into a clean preserving jar, pour over any vinegar or oil remaining in your bowls, seal the jar and head for the great outdoors.

If you would like to get to know Nigel Slater a little better, and to see what everyone else has in their picnic basket this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links ...

... or check out Marie Claire Cookbook by Nigel Slater and Nigel's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the delightful Michelle at Ms. enPlace, at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by my lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, at Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads, at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollum, and at Cook Your Books hosted by the lovely Joyce at Kitchen Flavours.

               

Lastly, I'm also sharing this post at a new to me event - Cooking with Herbs hosted by the very lovely Karen at Lavender and Lovage.  Thanks, Karen, for the invitation to participate.  Check out the links below to see all the other lovely "herby" dishes.

An InLinkz Link-up

Burnt Aubergine & Mograbieh Soup

A "new to me" blog I discovered recently is Blue Kale Road.  I was lured in when I came across this post for a Persian spice blend called Advieh and a Kidney Bean and Barberry Kuku, an adaptation of an Ottolenghi dish.  By the time I'd read to the end, I was hooked - after all, any woman who cooks Ottolenghi is a woman after my own heart.  I've continued to enjoy Hannah's posts ever since, and when she recently stopped by my blog and suggested that I join the Tasting Jerusalem group (a group dedicated to cooking their way through Ottolenghi's book, Jerusalem:A Cookbook), I was in.

The challenge this month is couscous, and we had the option of making Couscous with Tomato & Onion or Burnt Aubergine & Mograbieh (Israeli couscous) Soup.  I had all good intentions of making the couscous with tomato and onion, but as it happened I had a pile of aubergines in the veggie bin which needed using up, so soup it was.  Besides, I'd had this one bookmarked for a while, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make it.

This week is also Potluck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, where we continue our journey with Yotam Ottolenghi, so this post is doing double duty.

Now I did take quite a few liberties with the recipe, and what follows is my adaptation.  If you want the original recipe you'll find it on page 141 of the book.

Firstly - "burning" the aubergines.  Ottolenghi offers a method for doing this of lining the base of a gas hob with tin foil and then blackening the aubergines directly in the flame. This smacks to me of "mess" and also having to stand over the flame and keep moving the aubergines around.  His alternative suggestion is doing them in the oven under a hot grill. My method of choice is doing them on the barbeque - altogether less mess and less fuss, and works perfectly.  You do want to make sure first of all that you make a few long slashes through the skin in each one - helps to prevent any possibility that they might explode!!

Secondly, the recipe calls for slicing onions, chopping tomatoes and mincing garlic.  As it turns out I have on hand several batches of homemade sauce, which contains all of those ingredients, inspired by this sauce from the lovely Nicola at Homegrown Kitchen.  Although I love making things from scratch, I can also be incredibly lazy, so it made no sense to me to go through all that chopping and slicing again, when I could just bust out a cup of that sauce.

Thirdly, in addition to the burnt aubergine which gets blitzed into the soup base, Ottolenghi fries additional aubergine which serves as a garnish to the finished soup.  Fried aubergine, I have to say, just doesn't happen in my world - although it is undeniably delicious, I don't have the patience for standing over pans of frying aubergine, not to mention the amount of oil that it uses.  Much easier, less messy (and no doubt healthier) to toss with a little olive oil and bake in the oven.

The final dish exceeded all my expectations.  The flavour is deep, smoky and intense, and the mograbieh (also known as Israeli couscous) along with the chunks of roasted aubergine add great textural interest.  Now I know that there are those amongst you who could eat soup every night of the week - I am not one of those people.  Soup is something I do on occasion, but it's definitely not a "go-to" dish for me.  Well let me tell you that this is the soup that could potentially change all that - this is so good that I feel like I want to eat this every night for the rest of my life ... or at least until the next great Ottolenghi dish comes along.

Burnt Aubergine & Mograbieh Soup Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi

from Jerusalem:  A Cookbook

Makes 4 generous servings

Vegetarian

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

3x large aubergine

olive oil

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 cup roasted vegetable sauce (see above)

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

zest & juice of 1x lemon

100g (3-1/2 oz) mograbieh (Israeli couscous)

2 tablespoons freshly chopped basil leaves

flaky sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F).

Cut one aubergine into large dice, toss generously with olive oil, and spread in a single layer in a shallow, parchment-lined baking dish.  Season liberally with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Put into the hot oven and bake until the aubergine pieces are golden brown and cooked through.  Remove from the oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, cut a few long slashes through the skin of the remaining two aubergine, and put onto the grill of a hot barbeque.  Turn regularly and cook until the skin is black and flaky and the flesh is soft - about 15-20 minutes.

Remove the aubergines from the heat and leave until cool enough to handle.  Cut in half lengthwise, scoop out the soft flesh in long strips and discard the blackened skin.  Put the flesh into a sieve set over a bowl for any water to drain out of the flesh while you continue with the rest of the dish.

Now heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add the cumin seeds and as soon as they are fragrant and sizzling, add the tomato paste.  Cook for a moment or two, stirring constantly, until the tomato paste is "caramelised".  Add the roasted vegetable sauce, chicken stock, water, lemon juice (reserve the zest), salt and pepper.  Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, set a small pan of water over high heat and bring to the boil.  Salt the water liberally, and add the couscous to the boiling water.  Cook exactly as you would any pasta, until al dente.  Drain and refresh under cold water.

Now add the burnt aubergine flesh which has been draining to the soup.  Remove from the heat and, using a stick blender, puree till smooth.  Reserve some of the oven-baked aubergine and couscous for garnishing and add the rest to the soup.

Simmer for another few minutes to heat everything through.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Serve immediately in warm bowls, with a sprinkling of the reserved aubergine and couscous on top.  Garnish with a little lemon zest and basil, and finish with a generous swirl of your very best extra virgin olive oil.

Lip-smacking, drooling and orgasmic sighs as you devour this are all totally permissible.

If you would like to get to know Yotam Ottolenghi a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

... or check out Jerusalem and Ottolenghi's other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Fishpond NZ.

           

I'm also sharing this post this week at Tasting Jerusalem (Tasting Jerusalem is a virtual cooking community exploring the vibrant flavors and cuisine of the Middle East through the lens of “Jerusalem: A Cookbook” by Ottolenghi and Tamimi published by Ten Speed Press. You can follow along and cook with us by subscribing to omgyummy.com, following the hashtag #TastingJrslm on Twitter and Instagram, and liking our Facebook page), at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely, and often hilarious, Michelle at Ms. enPlace, and at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by my friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.

          

Tomato Basil Jam & Tomato, Feta & Basil Tarts

The wet and blustery, autumnal start to the day this morning notwithstanding, we are still blessed with glorious, sunny weather and tomato season continues unabated.  Sure, the great tomato harvest of 2013 in my own garden has now finished, other than now gathering the mass of green tomatoes which I know are not going to ripen - more of this amazing Green Tomato Cake coming up this weekend I think, and probably some pickled green tomatoes, which I will no doubt share with you.  In the meantime, I wanted to share with you this Tomato Basil Jam I made a few weeks ago using my own tomatoes, but tomatoes are still plentiful and cheap at the farmers market for those of you who want to try this before the season finishes.

This is another recipe I adapted from the book A Passion for Preserves by Frederica Langeland, which I told you about a couple of weeks ago.

Tomato Basil Jam

Adapted from recipe by Frederica Langeland from

A Passion for Preserves

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

 

3 kilos (6 pounds) tomatoes

3x lemons

2x generous handfuls of basil leaves

3 cups sugar

Remove skins from the tomatoes - cut a small cross in the base of each tomato, put into a large bowl and cover with boiling water for 30-60 seconds.  Remove and plunge into cold water.  The skins will slip off easily.

Cut the tomatoes into quarters.  Set a strainer over a bowl and then, working over the strainer, scoop the seeds and juice out of the tomatoes into the strainer.  Put the tomato flesh directly into a large pot or preserving pan.  Using a wooden spoon press any of the pulp through the strainer, extracting as much juice and pulp as you can.  Discard the seeds that are left behind in the strainer, and add the extracted juice and pulp to the tomatoes in the pan.

Slowly bring the contents of the pan to the boil.  Then reduce the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes or until the volume has been reduced to about half.

Add the sugar to the pan, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved, then increase heat and boil fairly rapidly for about 10 minutes, until thick and "jam like".

Meanwhile, cut the lemons into quarters and flick out any pips.  Put the lemon quarters into a food processor, skins and all, along with the basil leaves, and blitz to a puree.

Now add half of the lemon-basil puree to the pan, stir to combine well, and then taste.  Then add more of the remaining lemon-basil puree, a little at a time, according to your own taste.

Spoon the hot jam into sterilised jars, until filled to about 3mm (1/8 in) from the top.  Seal with a sterilised screw lid.  Once opened, store in the fridge.

This makes a delicious accompaniment to an antipasto platter, to cold or grilled meats, slathered in a sandwich, wrap or burger, or anywhere that you might otherwise use something like chilli jam or sweet chilli sauce.  You could also use this on a pizza as an alternative to a traditional tomato sauce.

I love it on these simple tomato tarts.  Now, much as I love to make things from scratch, I did not make my own pastry and, in the immortal words of Jamie Oliver, I can think of no circumstance in which I would make my own flaky pastry.  That said, if you feel up to the challenge - then knock yourself out.  You can find a great recipe for making flaky pastry on this post from the lovely Alli at Pease Pudding, which post incidentally inspired these tarts.

Tomato, Feta & Basil Tart

Vegetarian

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

Quantities are not critical here - this is really more of a method than a precise recipe

For each person, you will need:

1x square ready-made flaky pastry

generous dollop or two of Tomato Basil Jam (recipe above)

or substitute with a tomato pasta sauce or similar

fresh tomatoes, thickly sliced

feta cheese, approx 75g (2-3 oz)

fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

olive oil

flaky sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Use a bowl or plate to cut a circle from the square of flaky pastry.  Place pastry circle on a sheet of non-stick baking paper, and set on a baking sheet.  Without cutting all the way through, lightly score a second circle in the pastry, approximately 1cm (1/2 inch) in from the edge.  Using a fork prick the inner circle of the pastry all over.

Smear a generous dollop or two of the tomato basil jam all over the inner circle of pastry.  Now arrange tomato slices decoratively on top of the jam.  Crumble the feta and sprinkle over the top, and strew with torn up basil leaves.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for approximately 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden and puffed up around the edges.

Of course this is delicious straight out of the oven, but personally I like it served at room temperature.  If not serving immediately, slide the pastry off the baking paper and cool on a wire rack.

I'm also sharing this post at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace.

Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella Salad

We're all well acquainted with that old line, "When life gives you lemons ....", etc.  Well, right now, life is giving me tomatoes - lots and lots and lots of them.  This is not a complaint, mind.  Having just grown my first ever successful tomato crop, I still get a huge thrill out of harvesting a big bowl of these beauties every day.

Many of them end up in pasta dishes;  roasted with potatoes, black olives, and a piece of snapper;  grilled on the barbeque;  or thickly sliced and sauteed in butter with lots of freshly ground black pepper, then tipped over hot toast and topped with a poached egg.  In the weeks ahead, many will end up as pasta sauce or slow-roasted and stashed in the freezer for use during the winter months to come.

But if you are lucky enough to be able to pick tomatoes, straight from the garden, at the absolutely perfect moment of ripeness and still warm from the sun, then there is no doubt that the best way to enjoy them is very simply - teaming them up with the best quality ingredients you can lay your hands on.  To me that means basil, also picked straight from the garden;  the best extra virgin olive oil you can afford - I used Moon Over Martinborough's Crescent Moon Blend;  and mozzarella, buffalo would be ideal if you can find it and your budget will run to it - if not, have a go at making your own, as I did.

Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella Salad Recipe

(This is really more of a method rather than a recipe - quantities are not critical)

Vegetarian

tomatoes, as many as you like

(use an assortment of colours & sizes, even including green ones)

mozzarella, one large ball

fresh basil leaves, generous handful

flaky sea salt

extra virgin olive oil

Cut tomatoes - some into thick slices, some into wedges, some roughly chopped.  Smaller cherry tomatoes can be just halved or even left whole if they are tiny.  The point is to avoid "uniformity".  Spread tomatoes over a large flat platter.

Cut mozzarella into rough slices, or tear into pieces, as you like, and distribute amongst the tomatoes.

Sprinkle liberally with sea salt.

Roughly tear basil leaves into pieces and strew over the salad.

Lastly, drizzle everything liberally with extra virgin olive oil.

Allow to stand at room temperature for around 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavours to mingle.

Of course you can serve this as an accompaniment to just about anything - simple oven-roasted chicken, steak or fish straight off the barbeque - the possibilities are really limitless.  Personally, I like it best on its own (I can easily make a meal of this), with some good, crusty bread on the side to mop up the juices.

Eating a dish like this always puts a smile on my face.  But so much more than that, it makes my heart smile, and it humbles me.  It reminds me that, no matter how clever we think we can get in the kitchen, we can never improve on nature's simple packaging - the best food of all is that which hasn't been messed with, but which has just been paired with a few other "like-minded" ingredients.  Like a good marriage, they don't compete with each other, they simply bring out the best in each other, and make us feel better for having been in their company.

I'm sharing this post at Gallery of Favourites, hosted by my friend April at The 21st Century Housewife;  at See Ya In the Gumbo, hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace;  at Foodie Friday, hosted by Designs by Gollum; and at My Meatless Mondays hosted by Chaya at My Sweet and Savory.

                    

Panzanella & Cookbook Sundays # 12

Those of you who have been visiting here for a while, know that I regularly cook along with my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs, and that for the last five months we have been cooking the food of the lovely Tessa Kiros.  As we choose a different chef to inspire us every six months, we only have one more month to spend with Tessa.  I have been loving delving into her books, and would love to add more of them to my collection;  sadly, budget constraints means an embargo on cookbook buying right now.  Nevertheless, without buying another book I still have more recipes bookmarked in my existing collection than I will be able to cook in the remaining month.  I could happily spend another six months with Tessa.

Anyways, our theme this week is "Lighten Up!"  All my friends in the northern hemisphere, approaching the tail end of a long winter of carb-loading and casseroles, are getting in the mood for spring and some lighter fare.  Being at the fag end of summer, as we are here in the southern hemisphere, we have salad produce not just in abundance, but at their very best, so this week's theme was right up my alley (which is not always the case).

With tomatoes and peppers in great supply right now, and reasonably priced to boot, I decided to go with an adaptation of Tessa's Panzanella from her book Twelve: A Tuscan Cook Book, and as this is a book I haven't used before this will also be my contribution this week to Cookbook Sundays.  If you've been delving into your cookbooks lately, I'd love you to share your post with me and my friends who are trying to get those cookbooks down off the bookshelves and onto the kitchen bench.  Keep reading for full details on how to participate.

As I so often do, I used Tessa's recipe as inspiration, but made a few tweeks and changes to make it my own.  Now, there are probably panzanella rules, with a strict list of ingredients that are allowed to be included, and I have most likely broken every panzanella rule known to the Tuscan housewife.  Maybe Alessandra can help me out here.  Alessandra is Italian, and is also a fellow Kiwi blogger, and she is the one who calls us on it and keeps us honest when we take liberties with traditional Italian fare - we learn a lot from her and I, for one, am always grateful for her advice - so maybe she can tell me a thing or two about panzanella.  Perhaps to play it safe I will call my version a panzanella-inspired salad.

This is a rustic salad, the basic premise of which is to use up stale, leftover bread - I love dishes which come about in this way.  The bread is soaked to soften it, then it is crumbled through the salad.  In Tessa's recipe she begins by cutting up tomatoes, putting them in a colander, sprinkling with salt, and standing for a while to allow the juice to drain away.  She then goes on to soak the bread in water.  Why, I thought, soak bread in water when you are draining off all that beautiful, flavourful juice from the tomatoes.  "Two birds, one stone" - I drained my tomatoes in a colander set over a bowl containing the bread cubes.  Tessa includes celery in her recipe which I omitted, and I added in a few extras - roasted red peppers (wish I'd used yellow actually, just because the colour contrast would have looked prettier), garlic, capers and black olives.  I'm sure there are plenty of other things you could put in this, though I would say that bread, tomatoes and basil are the critical ingredients and most importantly, do not even contemplate making this with anything less than tomatoes picked at the height of the season - out of season, hothouse tomatoes will absolutely not do for this.

Panzanella Recipe

Inspired by a recipe by Tessa Kiros

from Twelve: A Tuscan Cook Book

Serves 6

Vegetarian

Note:  Quantities are not critical here - simply use this recipe as a guide and adjust quantities and ingredients to suit what you have on hand

day-old bread - I used 2/3 of a loaf of ciabatta bread

perfectly ripe tomatoes - I used 4 large tomatoes

red or yellow peppers - I used 3 red peppers

1/2 red onion, finely sliced

white wine vinegar

salt

clove of garlic, finely chopped

capers - a small handful

black olives - a large handful

flat-leaf parsley - generous handful, roughly chopped

basil leaves - generous handful, roughly torn

extra virgin olive oil

balsamic vinegar

flaky sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).  Place peppers in a shallow baking dish, and roast in the preheated oven, turning from time to time, until the skin has blackened in places on all sides, and the peppers are slightly soft.  Remove from the oven and put the peppers into a plastic bag.  Set aside for about 10 minutes to sweat - this will enable the skins to slide off easily.  When cool enough to handle, peel the skins off the peppers and discard, at the same time removing and discarding the seeds and core.  Tear or chop the flesh of the peppers up into largish pieces and set aside.

Cut the bread into largish cubes and put into a large bowl.

Set a strainer over the bowl, cut the tomatoes into quarters and scoop the seeds out into the strainer.  Using the back of a spoon, press as much juice as you can through the strainer and toss the bread well in the juice.  Discard the seeds from the strainer, set the strainer back over the bowl, and put the tomato quarters into the strainer.  Sprinkle with a little flaky sea salt, to draw out a little more juice, and allowing it to drain into the bread.  Leave to stand for about 10 minutes.

Put the onion slices into a small bowl, cover with cold water, sprinkle with a little salt and add a splash of white wine vinegar.  Leave to stand for 10 minutes.

Remove the tomato quarters from the strainer, tear or roughly chop into pieces and add to the bread in the bowl.  Add the chopped garlic, peppers and drained onions, along with the capers, olives, and chopped and torn herbs.  Drizzle liberally with the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and season with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Toss well, taste and adjust seasonings as necessary, and serve. 

If you would like to get to know Tessa a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

... or check out Falling Cloudberries and many of Tessa's other great titles available from Amazon or Fishpond NZ.

         

Now read on to learn more about Cookbook Sundays.

 

If you're anything like me you have dozens of cookbooks gathering dust on your bookshelves, some of which have never even been cooked from.  Sure I spent hours browsing through them when I first bought them, marking all the recipes I was going to make with little post-it notes, and yet still those books languish in the bookcase and never make it to the kitchen.  There are others from which I have made but one recipe which was such a resounding success that I've made it over and over again, and yet somehow I've never made anything else from that book.  Sound a bit familiar?!

Take comfort - you are not alone, and now Cookbook Sundays is your opportunity to change that.  Every Sunday I'm going to share with you a recipe that I haven't made before from one of my ever expanding collection of cookbooks.  And, because I know that if you have read this far then you are guilty of this too, I'm inviting you to join in with me.  Each week my Cookbook Sundays post will have a linky for you to share something you've cooked from one of your cookbooks.

The rules for joining in are simple:

1. Your post must state the author and the title of the book your recipe has come from.
2. Your post must mention Cookbook Sundays and link back to this post.  Including the Cookbook Sundays badge is optional, but always appreciated.
3. You may submit as many entries as you like, and you may use the same cookbook as many times as you like.  Old posts are also welcome.
4. Lastly,  remember that what goes around, comes around - one of the reasons you are participating in this is because you want people to read your posts, so do the right thing and go and visit a few of the other participants - you can even "Like" your favourites. 

Now, go and dust off those cookbooks and get cooking!  Use the linky tool at the end of this post to submit your entry/entries - simply scroll down to where it says "You are next ... Click here to enter", and then follow the instructions.  The linky will be open for one week.

Lastly, if you would like to use the Cookbook Sundays badge in your post, simply copy the code in the box beside the badge below and paste it into your post.  Feel free to also use it in your sidebar if you wish.

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