One of the best things about getting Fine Cooking is that the recipes are seasonal, so they include fruits and vegetables that are in season. I made a quick visit to Boggy Creek Farms one morning and picked up some heirloom tomatoes and eggplant for two recipes I found in the August/September issue. However, I wasn't there right at the moment they opened, so it was slim pickin's in terms of good tomatoes. I found a couple that were satisfactory, but I had to cut out a lot of bruised and unripened parts. I swung by Whole Foods to pick up some other ingredients and completely forgot about getting an extra tomato or two. After getting the good parts off the tomatoes I had, I still needed a lot more, so I went back again to Whole Foods for more tomatoes. (and these babies are not cheap!) As you can see from the picture, I made sure I would not run out! I liked that I could let this no-cook tomato sauce sit from 30 minutes to 3 hours while I worked on preparing the rest of dinner. I made a topping for the grilled eggplant that had anchovies, olives and orange in it! I also made my first solo attempt at the Rosemary Focaccia Bread.
The meals were good. I think the salsa cruda would have been better if my tomatoes were all properly ripened. They didn't have a whole lot of flavor, but the dish was good. I invited my neighbor Gen over since I figured I'd have plenty more food than just for two. She said the salsa cruda reminded her of bruschetta. The grilled eggplant on its own was excellent, and the topping was good, too. Although it was good, I think there might be a better one of the four recipes listed. I'll definitely be trying one of the other recipes soon because grilled eggplant was easy and yummy. The rosemary bread tasted as delicious as always, but it really, REALLY liked the pan and wouldn't let go. There was a lot of pasta leftover. Like usual, I used whole wheat pasta. Jay did an excellent job of grilling the eggplant!
- No-Cook Tomato Sauce (Fine Cooking, August/September 2007, p. 39)
- Grilled Eggplant (Fine Cooking, August/September 2007, p. 49)
- Olive, Orange & Anchovy Vinaigrette (Fine Cooking, August/September 2007, p. 50)
- Focaccia Bread
Comments (3)
Yum! I'm making the no-cook sauce tomorrow. I'm overrun with tomatoes, from our three piddly little plants out back!
All of the corn sautes have been good, especially the one with ginger. And the five-spice chicken thighs are excellent (I'm behind on blog entries, but that's okay because I'm still debugging my Movable Type 4.0 upgrade :( ).
Posted by Sheri | September 2, 2007 2:56 AM
Posted on September 2, 2007 02:56
That no-cook tomato sauce didn't really do anything for me, even though I used RIPE tomatoes from Mr. Enstone's backyard.
Oh your focaccia looks gorgeous! I'm sorry it stuck to the pan, but I bet it tasted as good as it looks! See, you are a bread natural. It's a porkcracklinsfamilytradition :) Thank you, Sheri. All bow to Sheri...
Posted by Amy Anderson | September 3, 2007 8:44 PM
Posted on September 3, 2007 20:44
*bows to Sheri*
Posted by Julia | September 20, 2007 4:12 AM
Posted on September 20, 2007 04:12