Red Onion and Cherry Tomato Pizza

Dear Devon,

There are some combinations of flavors that should be repeated, and repeated often. For me, red onion and fresh cherry tomatoes with roasted garlic is one of those unbeatable combinations. About two weeks ago, I walked past an artisanal pizza shop. A fresh tray of hot pizza topped with red onions and cherry tomatoes had just been set in the display window. The clean white tiled interior and chalkboard menu drew me into the shop. It was dangerously close to dinnertime, but I bought a slice, anyway, and walked home munching on warm pizza.

Fingers barely wiped clean of grease, I thought to myself: I can do this, and I can do it better. I set a frozen ball of pizza dough out to defrost and made a mental list of ingredients: cherry tomatoes, red onion, garlic, and basil.

Don’t expect to get the most scrumptious results without using the best quality ingredients. Lately, I have been getting some delicious red cherry tomatoes from the local market. Sweet and bright, these tomatoes are great in salads, sauces, or as a refreshing snack. I have taken to eating them cold, straight out of the fridge. My other recent luxury is fresh basil– I was planning to make a big batch of pesto– so a few big leaves made it onto my pizza, as well. A few slices from a wedge of raclette cheese added that last touch to the rich flavors fo the pizza. Requests for a second round have already been recorded!

Red Onion and Cherry Tomato Pizza

Pizza dough
1 red onion
5 cherry tomatoes, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, smashed and sliced
¼ to ½ cup tomato sauce
cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface, forming a large disk. Sprinkle a bit of cornmeal on the pizza board and set the prepared dough on top. Spread a generous spoonful of tomato sauce over the dough. Top with thinly sliced red onions and garlic. Next, top with cheese and tomatoes.

Bake in the oven until golden brown and the cheese is nicely melted, about 15 minutes.

Tomato Confit

Dear Michelle,

There are few pleasures as simple or as anticipated as the first ripe, sun-warmed tomato of Summer. Cut into thick slices, sprinkled with salt, and drizzled with olive oil, the first juicy, melting, dripping bite of fruit signifies to me the end of Spring more than heat, ice cream, or sandals. It is something I look forward to every year.

But, then, there comes a time when one is ready to turn those tomatoes into something else; after all, they are very versatile, and even the best tomato salads get old when eaten every day. And, of course, there are some people who don’t like raw tomatoes. Who knows what’s wrong with them, but I suppose we must account for all tastes.



Here is a recipe to satisfy those people, and others who didn’t even know they were ready to move beyond the perfection of a good vine-fresh tomato. This is not a roasted tomato, but one that is gently melted, the flavor condensed and intensified. The slices or halves (depending on what kind of tomato is used) are cooked at a very low heat with herbs, oil, salt and pepper, garlic if you wish, until they slump into a flavorful concentrate that you’ll want to eat right off of the baking sheet.

Wells uses plum tomatoes in her recipe, but I’ve used all sorts. It is too difficult to peel smaller tomatoes, and I don’t always bother to seed them either, though my (spoiled) father will complain when I skip this step. Regular, large tomatoes should be cut in ½-3/4 inch slices. The peel will come off after cooking. I rarely bother with the garlic, unless I’m using larger tomatoes, and instead of thyme I’ll often use herbes du provence. These, especially the smaller tomatoes, can be cooked further for a chewier texture, but if you go too far you will end up with something closer to sundried tomatoes. Not the worst problem to have, for sure.

You’ll find many uses for these, not the least as a way to store extra tomatoes if you have a surplus. My parents freeze the confit to enjoy in the colder months. Tomatoes prepared this way have many uses. You can:

Puree them for a pasta sauce; mix with equal parts finely chopped artichoke hearts and olives, adding oil and vinegar to taste, as a tapenade (I made sandwiches with this and goat’s cheese one night for dinner); pizza, where they are much better than fresh tomatoes; added to omelets; tossed into a pasta salad; you get the idea.

Patricia Wells’ Tomato Confit (recipe copied verbatim)

2 lbs plum tomatoes, peeled, cored, seeded, and quartered lengthwise

Fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

A pinch of confectioner’s sugar

2 sprigs of fresh thyme

4 plump, fresh garlic cloves, peeled and slivered

2 Tb extra-virgin olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to the lowest possible setting, about 200F (90C; gas mark 1).

2. Arrange tomato quarters side by side on a baking sheet. Sprinkle each side lightly with salt, pepper, and confectioner’s sugar. Scatter the thyme leaves over the tomatoes and place a garlic sliver on top of each quarter. Drizzle with olive oil. Place in the oven and cook until the tomatoes are very soft, about 1 hour. Turn the tomatoes, baste with the juices, and cook until meltingly tender and reduced to about half their size, about 2 hours total. Check the tomatoes from time to time. They should remain moist and soft. Remove from the oven and allow to cool thoroughly.

3. Transfer the tomatoes to a jar along with the cooking juices and oil. Cover securely and refrigerate up to 1 week. Use in salads, on sandwiches, for pasta, or anywhere you want a rich, pure, tomato flavor.

Gazpacho Soup in Ciabatta Bread Bowls

Dear Devon,

Everywhere you turn in France, you will find good baguettes, so it seems almost unnecessary to single out any particular baker. But the baguettes at Eric Kayser's bakery are phenomenal. The crust is crunchy and thick, splintering into large shards with every bite. The inside is soft, pillowy and wonderfully salted. How can a loaf of bread embody heaven in crust and crumb? A fourth generation Parisian baker, Eric Kayser has absolutely, resolutely perfected the baguette...and all of Paris seems to know.

Exhausted from a morning fighting crowds at the Louvre, we decided to reinvigorate our drained spirits with a light snack at Eric Kayser. Unbeknownst to us, we stumbled across one of the most popular lunchtime spots in central Paris. French people are obviously crazy about le dejeuner. Everything stops in celebration of the midday repast. It's funny to note that even the bakery in Dijon closed. Picture this: A throng of elegantly coiffed men and women in business suits scrambling over one another in their quest for a baguette sandwich. The scene was like a desperate game of musical chairs, only with stuffed baguettes. Tuna salad, grilled chicken, ham and cheese, or roasted vegetable. When the music stops, the loser is left without a sandwich, and must walk dejected down the street to the competing bakery. If words fail to capture the essence of this lunchtime struggle, the Kandinsky painting below, which hangs in the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou, may help convey the wildness of the scene. Lesson learned: Don't get between a Frenchman and his lunch.

I had been given a copy of Eric Kayser's Sweet and Savory Tarts as a birthday present a few years back. Though the book was much appreciated, I had some difficulty relating to the recipes. Nonetheless, my curiosity was peaked. I had to try some of his delectable creations before leaving France. The experience has left me with nothing but admiration. I had to pack his 2007 release Autour Des Pains into my suitcase on the way back to New York.

I've had a few weeks to study Autour Des Pains. I found the text and images appealing and inventive. Kayser takes bread beyond a platform for cheese and salted meats, transforming this staple into a versatile superstar, comfortable on a coarse wooden table or effortlessly tucked into decadent dessert of roasted persimmons. One of his ideas that struck me was to use hollowed out loaves of bread as soup bowls. I love the idea of drinking soup, and then eating the bowl. It adds a bit of whimsy to your lunch and simplifies the clean up. I had to give it a try. In France the multitude of shapes and sizes of bread makes this soup bowl idea a bit easier to pull off. After much searching, I settled on a medium sized ciabatta. My biggest concern was the integrity of the crust. How long before the soup soaks through the thin walls of the bread bowl? It turns out toasted bread is impermeable to soup, but not to metal spoons.

Kayser gives a recipe for gazpacho. It was definitely hot out, so gazpacho seemed appropriate. I used a recipe that I perfected last summer. My friends have a penchant for gazpacho. After much encouragement, I began to experiment with the soup. I had not been a huge fan of gazpacho, mainly because it tasted too raw and a bit sour. I found that grilling the tomatoes softened many of those harsher flavors. While it's not a true gazpacho and doesn't spare you the hassle of turning on the stove, I think it's a good compromise.

Gazpacho Soup in Ciabatta Bread Bowls
inspired by Kayser, Eric Autour Des Pains Eric Kayser p. 52

2 vine ripe tomatoes
3 plum tomatoes
1/2 yellow onion
1 orange pepper
1 bunch parsley
1/2 cucumber
1/4 cup pecans, toasted
1/4 - 1/2 cup water
1/3 - 1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp ketchup
2 cloves garlic

1 Ciabatta Loaf

Halve the plum tomatoes lengthwise. Grill cut side down for about 10 minutes, until nice dark grill marks appear. Set aside to cool.

Roughly chop remaining tomatoes, yellow onion, orange pepper, and cucumber. Place all chopped veggies in the food processor or a blender along with garlic, parsley, toasted pecans, ketchup and salt. Add the cooled grilled tomatoes. With the machine running, pour in olive oil in a steady gentle stream. The amount of water and olive oil depends on the juiciness of your tomatoes. For richer soup, add more olive oil. Process or blend until smooth.

Set a mesh sieve over a large bowl. Working in batches, gently push the pureed liquid through the sieve. You want to strain about 2/3 of the soup. Straining the soup will eliminate a lot of the pulp and seeds while creating an overall soup with a smoother consistency. Whisk in the remaining 1/3 of the soup (unstrained). Combining the two mixtures creates a nice texture and heartiness to the soup. Place in the fridge to cool for about an hour.

Cut off both ends of the ciabatta loaf, so that you have two pieces, each about 4 inches long. The heal of the bread will be the bottom of your soup bowl. Hollow out the bread leaving a 1/4 inch of bread around the crust. Be careful not to pierce the crust. Sprinkle with a bit of olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes until the bread is toasty and golden. Set aside and cool.

To prepare, cut two thin slice of bread. Rest the bread bowls on the sliced bread. The flat slices help to stabilize the pointed ends of the ciabatta. Pour the chilled soup into the cooled bread bowls. Serve with basil or a bit of parmesan cheese.

Jeff's Pasta with Sausage-Tomato-Pepper Sauce

Dear Michelle,

I think Spring might be my favorite time of year. All of the seasons have their upsides, though I imagine the recent warm weather is only reason I can say that of Winter right now. While Winter does mean cashmere and boots, fires and stews, it is easily my least favorite season. So I am thrilled by the first day that I open the windows because it is too warm in the house, and I can feel the outside air and hear the birds in the backyard. Spring brings with it the promise of sandals and skirts, and fresh, fresh, plentiful produce.

With the returning warmth, my appetite always starts to change. I begin to crave salads again, and other lighter fare, but the occasional cold day sends me back to the comfort food of Winter. Jeff made this warm, rich pasta dish for dinner on such an evening, and we ate it curled up on the couch while watching a movie.

For many years after we'd moved in together, it was understood that I'd be cooking dinner. This wasn't something we decided, but rather one of those things that just ends up that way. Then, slowly he started to cook more and more. He started off with the simple things, like hot dogs, then graduated to fried perogies with caramelized onion and fresh chopped tomato, and then one night he surprised me with this truly incredible spicy pasta sauce. I'd called to tell him to take care of dinner, as I was going to be home late, and I showed up to Jeff hovering over a pot of spaghetti sauce, which tasted AMAZING. He'd roasted hot Italian peppers, then combined them with sauteed onion, garlic, canned tomatoes, olive oil and butter, some herbs de Provence, and a dash of vinegar to pick it all up.


In this version of the sauce, Jeff first pan-cooks some sausage. He has a particular method for this, which he claims is the best; the links are pan fried, whole, until they brown, then split down the middle with a spatula and flipped to cook and crisp the inside. Once cooked through and browned sufficiently, the sausage is pulled from the pan and chopped. While that is cooling, the onions and garlic cook in the sausage fat, then everything else is added and the whole thing simmers for a while. The resulting sauce is perfect. It is rich with sausage, tangy and sweet from tomatoes and vinegar, spicy from the peppers, and softened by the butter. He usually tries to save a little extra for me, since I like to oven-cook eggs in the leftovers the next day.





I don't know what Jeff will master next, but I'm looking forward to it.


Spicy Tomato, Pepper, and Sausage Pasta Sauce

I'd bet that this will work with almost all pastas but angel hair and tiny pastas like orzo. We've had it with spagetti, fettuccini, orrechiette, and penne, and also used it as pizza sauce before. If you do not use sausage, saute the onion in several tablespoons of olive oil. Fresh basil is a great addition in the summer, as are rosemary, thyme, and oregano or marjoram. If you use a sweet pepper instead of a hot one, add some pepper flakes or hot sauce (Jeff uses Sriracha) for a kick.



about 1lb garlic sausage
1 sweet or hot pepper, deseeded
1/2 large or one small onion, diced (Jeff used a Vadalia for sweetness)
1 large can whole, peeled tomatoes (look for those with lower sodium), liquid reserved
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T butter
Sherry vinegar to taste
pepper
herbes de Provence
grated hard cheese as desired
about 1/2 lb pasta


Drizzle pepper with olive oil on baking sheet, and sprinkle with herbes de Provence and salt. Roast at 400F until very soft, or even till slightly browned.

Start a large pot of water boiling for the pasta, adding salt once it does.

Place sausages in pan over medium-high heat, and let cook till browned. Split open with a spatula (they may have started to split on their own), then turn upside down to cook the inside. Remove once crispy and cooked through; let cool and then chop. Reduce heat to medium-low, remove all but about 2 T of fat from pan, and add onions, stirring occasionally. Once onions start to become transluscent, add garlic and cook a few minutes longer. Open tomatoes. Pull out and squeeze to break up with your hands (I love this part!), directly into the pan. They tend to squirt tomato juice, so beware. Add half of tomato juice from tomato can, reserving the rest. Add vinegar, starting with about 1 T and adding additional to taste.




Adjust heat to maintain a steady simmer. Chop and add pepper, and hot sauce or pepper flakes if necessary. Add herbes de Provence. Add sausage back in. Simmer for at least a half hour, adding reserved tomato juice as necessary, starting the pasta cooking at the appropriate time. Take off of heat, stir in butter, and then drained pasta. Sprinkle with cheese if desired.

Sunday Afternoon Tomato and Mushroom Focaccia

Dear Devon,

I made this on a lazy Sunday. Lazy mainly because I was too engrossed in a book to think much about lunch. I needed something easy and self-reliant in the "throw it in the oven and forget about it until the timer rings" way. I had made a trip to the farmer's market and picked up a few luxuries like fresh tomatoes and mushrooms. In a matter of minutes, my lunch was baking away in the oven and I was back to my book.


I used a store-bought flatbread about an inch thick. I wanted a substantial enough crust to support my tasty toppings. The bread crisped up nicely in the oven and absorbed the tomato juices. A soft goat cheese acts as a binding agent, replacing tomato sauce. Roughly torn mushrooms finish off the dish. For added flavor, brush an herb and olive oil mixture over the bread before arranging your toppings. Herbacious olive oils are easy to make, chopped fresh herbs like parsley, dill, thyme or rosemary (in combination or individually) whisked with olive oil and perhaps some crushed garlic. This meal is about easy preparation and general convenience. I don't always have time or the energy to cook an elaborate dish, but I don't feel that those limitations should detract from having a healthy or yummy meal.

It was absolutely beautiful when it came out of the oven. The oozing red and green tomatoes added vibrant color. The deep brown mushrooms retained their shape nicely. I loved the pairing of the rustic torn mushrooms with the almost opaque sliced tomatoes.


Tomato and Mushroom Focaccia

large piece of flatbread
1/2 green tomato, sliced
1/2 red tomato, sliced
6 or 8 mushrooms, roughly torn or chopped
3 oz soft goat cheese
2 tbsp of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place a large piece of baked flatbread on a baking sheet. Dot with half the goat cheese. Layer the tomatoes over the cheese. Sprinkle with chopped or torn mushrooms. Top with the remaining goat cheese. Sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until the bread is crisp and the mushrooms are cooked through. The goat cheese will brown slightly. Remove from the oven. Drizzle with a good olive oil and a pinch of black pepper. Slice into squares and serve.