Tomato and Zucchini Pie | Not-so-original-but-oh-so-good

It seems that everywhere I've looked this past week or two I found yet another version of a tomato pie -- with corn, with bacon, with ricotta, with spinach, with cheddar, with mozzarella. They all sound wonderful.

I'm up to my earballs in tomatoes and I've canned many a pint (perfect for a twosome) of a roasted tomato sauce and eaten many a tomato sandwich. (Or "sammich" as my friend insists on saying.)

Still, I wanted to find new and different ways of using the tomatoes that are ripening faster than I can pick 'em.

Although I've been wanting to make a tomato pie for some time, I avoided it, mostly because I knew I'd end up eating it myself. (Unfortunately, I don't live with a tomato lover! Doesn't he know we call tomatoes "love apples"?)

But I wanted to make one so much I decided to go ahead and portion myself out slices and freeze them for quick lunches for a taste of summer later. And so I did.

So although it's not original, here's my tomato pie. What makes it special to me is that so much of it came from my back yard -- the veggies from my garden, the eggs from my neighbor, the basil from my back deck.

(If only I could {would} make puff pastry!)

Enough to make you feel like an authentic homesteader!

Tomato and Zucchini Pie
adapted from Pepperidge Farm
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 medium green onion, chopped
2 small zucchini, sliced into rounds
4 Italian plum tomatoes, sliced into rounds
2 eggs
1 cup half-and-half
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Unfold the pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll the pastry into about a 10 inch square. Snip the corner to make a circle. Press the pastry into a 9 inch pie pan and fold the excess edges under to make a rim.
Layer the cheeses, onions and herbs in the pan. Arrange the zucchini and tomatoes slices in concentric circles on top.
Beat the eggs, half-and-half and black pepper in a medium bowl with a whisk. Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables. Sprinkle with the 1/2 cup Parmesan.
Bake for 45 minutes or until set.  Let cool for 20 minutes before cutting into wedges.

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Cook's Note:  Although the concentric circles of veggies looked very pretty, actually cutting the pie into pretty wedges wasn't so.  Next time I'll chop most of the vegetables and make a pretty arrangement of just a few slices on top -- just for pretty.

Fire and Ice | Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad

There are few  things that scream "August!" more loudly than corn and tomatoes.  They're ripe and plentiful and at their absolute best at this time of year.  Is there anyone who doesn't love biting into a freshly cooked ear of corn?  (Excluding those wearing braces on their teeth.)

For me, the same goes for tomatoes. While I was picking the first of my new tomatoes in the garden the other day, I really just wanted to bite into one right then and there, no salt required. Always reminds me of the time my younger sister and I  -- at about the ages of  5 and 7 --  snuck off with a peck basket of tomatoes my mother had just bought at a farmer's stand that day and ate nearly half of it ourselves.  We were a bit sick, but my mother was so amazed, she shook her head in awe more than she was angry with us.



Although I can exercise better restraint these days, I still relish the freshness of corn and tomatoes. Only lately have I started to enjoy grilled corn, either on the gas grill or on a gas stove burner flame or from an outdoor campfire. And I'll eat a tomato hot or cold, peeled or seed, or not.  Just love 'em.  Any kind.  Any size. The combination of the roasted corn with tomatoes and cucumbers and jalapeno really needs no more than a drizzle of olive oil and a generous squeeze of lime.  But the addition of smoked paprika adds a nice bit of spice to this super combination.




 I obviously like to combine corn with other veggies (and fruit!) in a salad because I've done it a time or two before.  The corn and blueberry combo above was from a previous post, as was this corn and red pepper salad.  It's the jalapeno, though, that makes all three of these special.  (And the lime juice.  And th cilantro.)



Joy the Baker's salad included bacon and avocado, which I know would be deliciously perfect.  And she made it as filling for a a lettuce wrap.

I have to admit:  I've never been much of a cilantro fan, but I grew some this year and have begun to love it (I also grew jalapeno peppers for the first time this year.)  And I also have to admit it, along with the smoked paprika, the cilantro was the perfect finish to this fire and ice salad. Come to think of it, though, wouldn't cumin be nice?

Roasted Corn & Tomato Salad
makes about 4 cups of salad
adapted from Joy the Baker
3 ears of roasted corn
1 or 2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped (about 1 cup)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded (for as much heat as you want) and minced
juice of one lime
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
chili powder
smoked paprika
fresh cilantro

Roast the corn your favorite way.  (I used the gas grill, placing ears of corn still in their husks and soaked in water for several hours.)  Let cool before husking and removing the corn from the cob.

Combine the corn with the tomatoes, cucumber, onion and jalapeno in a large bowl.  Sprinkle the juice of a whole lime over all and drizzle with olive oil.  Add chili powder, paprika (or cumin) to taste and toss.  Taste and adjust as you like. Sprinkle chopped fresh cilantro over all and serve.

Tomato Granita

I don’t want to complain abut the tremendous tomato season I’ve enjoyed, especially after I’ve been cursed with some pretty meager harvests in recent years, but I’ve been running out of things to do with this bounty.  I’ve canned sauce, frozen sauce, roasted tomatoes, made soup, tomato pies, caprese salads, panzanella., eaten plenty of tomato sandwiches.  Need I go on?

But they’re still coming!  And me, out of  ideas – not to mention time and space. And I hate to waste all this good stuff.  My sister told me about a tomato bacon jam that sounds too irresistible to pass up and I’ve been tempted by some very interesting drink recipes  but  the first thing that intrigued me as I searched for something new was this Tomato Granita.  Only three ingredients and a bit of time and attention. Imagine!  Frozen tomato slush!

The recipe comes from a book called The Essential Mediterranean, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins, who wrote the Mediterranean Diet Cookbook. 

This book has off and on been great bedside reading because it’s not just recipes (although I can read recipes just like fiction) but great descriptions of  the intimate connection of food and culture that have so colored the countries that surround the Mediterranean– how the same ingredients take on new forms and taste as they make their way around the sea.

The name of this dish sounds so pretty in Italian – Granita di Pomodoro.  (Much better than tomato slush.)

The author says that this dish "makes an elegant entremet for a dinner party  . . .  or a startling but delicious dessert."  I had to run straight to Wikipedia to look up entremet.  It just means something served between courses, what I grew up calling "palate cleanser," which was usually some kind of sherbet.

For me, the granita was just a pretty tasty treat.  And it was just for me.  Mr. Rosemary loves tomato sauce and will eat cooked tomatoes, but not fresh.  Me?  I can eat them like apples.  And have.

Because it has both chili pepper and corn syrup in it, it's a mix of spicy and sweet.  And the chunky cold texture of the granita somehow enhances both the spiciness and sweetness.

And when you have pretty much just tomatoes in a recipe, they have to be nearly perfect and very ripe tomatoes.  The recipe specified romas -- and I had plenty -- but says any fresh red ripe tomato will do nicely. My trouble was finding a substitute for chili pepper.

Nancy Harmon Jenkins advises that you want the flavor of a chili but not the mouth burning qualities of some Mexican or Caribbean types.  So I had some dried peppers I'd ground myself and used them but they weren't well-labeled so I can't tell you for sure what they were.

My bottom line? A great experiment but probably not something I'll likely make again. If I ever host a really fancy dinner party and need an entremet, however, this is the one I would make.

Tomato Granita
from The Essential Mediterranean, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins
Makes 8-10 servings as an entremet, 6 as a dessert

1 1/2 pounds very red ripe tomatoes, peeled
1 tablespoon fragrant ground chili pepper
1/4 cup light corn syrup

The day before making, halve the tomatoes and gently squeeze out the seeds and excess liquid.  Coarsely chop and store, covered in the fridge overnight.

The next day, combine the tomatoes and the chili pepper in a food processor and process in brief spurts, adding the corn syrup as you do.  Don't make a puree; you want a chunky mixture.

If you have an ice cream maker, follow the manufacturer's instructions for sorbets and granitas.  Or turn the mixture into a stainless steel bowl, cover well, and freeze. Every 20 minutes or so, stir the mixture with a fork.  Within an hour or two, you'll have the granular ice chucks typical of a granita.  (I used this second method.)