Caprese Salad

As we head towards the end of summer, we offer another seasonal recipe that takes full advantage of the beautiful summer tomatoes. Insalata caprese or Caprese salad is simple food at its best; slicing the cheese and the tomatoes is the hardest part. According to Epicurious.com, the salad was created in the 1950s at the Trattoria da Vincenzo on the island of Capri for regulars out for a light lunch. They'd order a just-picked tomato and fresh fior di latte (cow's-milk mozzarella — no water buffalo on Capri), with a bit of wild arugula and dried oregano.

Traditionally, the dressing is always a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil — and that's it. Vinegar is never used on Capri, as purists believe it ruins the delicate flavor of the mild cheese. But, we think the balsamic vinegar adds a nice zing. Because this salad is so simple, top-rate ingredients are imperative. You need to get the ripest summer tomatoes, fresh mozzarella (forget about the rubbery mozzarella wrapped in plastic), and the best balsamic vinegar you can afford. It is positively divine with aged balsamic vinegar but even an inexpensive balsamic is delicious.

This is a salad that must be eaten as soon as it is made. It does not get better as it sits. As in Capri, consider this a light entree. Or share with someone you love. It's a bit of an extravagance but summer tomatoes are worth it.

Slicing dead-ripe tomatoes is not easy with a chef's knife unless it is incredibly sharp. A serrated knife (a bread knife or a serrated steak knife) is the best tool for slicing soft, squishy tomatoes.

Caprese Salad
(serves 1 as a light entree, 2 as a side salad or appetizer)

1 large tomato, sliced about ½ inch thick
4 oz. fresh mozzarella (fior di latte), sliced about ½ inch thick
extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt
black pepper
1 basil leaf, cut into ribbons (see Note on how to do this)

Layer the cheese and tomato sliced on a plate. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Be generous with the olive oil but stingy with the balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Scatter basil ribbons on top. Enjoy!

Note: To cut basil into ribbons, roll up the basil leaf starting at the tip and rolling towards the stem end. You'll end up with a little basil cigar. Slice as thinly as you can across the cigar. You'll end up with very delicate basil ribbons. This type of cut is called chiffonade.

What's in season now?

Garden tomatoes (photo courtesy of Diane Fritz)

Jamie Oliver just posted an article about what's in season now. He lists peppers, peaches, cucumber, tomatillos, raspberries, and celery. I have a few more suggestions below, but no matter where you are, this is certainly a great time to pick up fresh produce. My local farmer's market is just busting out with beautiful produce. So is my garden. Even your local supermarket will benefit from the abundance of fresh produce. There is such a surplus that prices drop on all manner of delicious fresh fruits and veggies.

For instance, in Colorado where we live, there is a bumper crop of both peaches and cantaloupes this time of year. This is a very, very good year for peaches. Right now, peaches from the west side of Colorado where nearly all our local fruit comes from, are on sale for 99¢ per pound. It's definitely time to buy some peaches. Large cantaloupes are $1.25 a piece. Cantaloupes and peaches are both great in salsas. See our post on making fruit salsas if you need a basic recipe.

Warm season vegetables - eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, corn - are all inexpensive and beautiful right now. You can try out Jamie's Evolution Salad with the tomatoes or our recent recipe for a Cucumber-Yogurt Salad for the cucumber . Or for something kind of different with cucumber, try this stir-fry.

The grapes must be ready in California because the prices here have dropped like a rock. Seedless red and green grapes are on sale for as low as 99¢ a pound this week. Grapes are great to eat out of hand, providing a sweet snack that is much healthier than any candy. For a twist, freeze them and eat them right out of the freezer - a delicious treat on a hot day. Berries are also wonderful this way and if you want to fancy those frozen berries up, check out our recipe below.

We need to gobble up the great produce this time of year because it doesn't last*. Come winter, prices rise and quality drops. Get the good stuff while you can. Enjoy all that summer-time goodness and realize that, like warm summer evenings and baseball, it has its season.

*If you have the space and energy, much of the great produce can be preserved for the middle of winter but that's a whole other post!

Frozen Berries with White Hot Chocolate Sauce
Serves 2

2 oz. white chocolate
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup frozen berries

Combine the chocolate, heavy cream, and vanilla in a heat-proof bowl and either microwave it on medium, 1 minute at a time, or set it over a pan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. About 5 minutes before serving, remove the berries from the freezer and place them on individual serving plates. Ladle the warm chocolate sauce over the berries and serve.

Note: You can either buy frozen berries, or freeze your own by placing berries on a flat tray or plate in one layer. When the berries are fully frozen, keep them in a plastic bag in the freezer. Larger berries, such as strawberries, do not freeze well.

Cucumber and Yogurt Salad

Still way too hot to cook inside here in Colorado. But, heat has one good byproduct: great produce from the garden. One vegetable that loves the heat is cucumber. My garden is just starting to pump them out which means lots of cucumber salads. Cucumbers are full of water making them a crunchy, refreshing dish on hot days.

For those of you without a garden, cucumbers are inexpensive at the supermarket right now. On sale, you can get 2 or even 3 for a $1. Not a bad deal for such a refreshing and versatile vegetable. Though you can use regular yogurt, Greek yogurt works better - the dressing will be thicker and will hold up better if you plan to eat it the next day.

You can substitute basil or parsley for the mint here. They are delicious with cucumbers too.

Cucumbers in Yogurt with Mint
(serves 4)

2 cucumbers, peeled
½ cup Greek yogurt
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh or frozen mint (see Note)

Cut the ends off (they are sometimes bitter). Cut the cucumbers lengthwise. If they have well-developed seeds, scoop these out with a spoon and discard. Cut crosswise into ¼ inch slices.

Combine yogurt, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and mint in a medium bowl. Add cucumber slices and mix to coat with dressing.

Great on some lettuce, alone, or as a relish for grilled fish or chicken.

Note: Frozen mint well work just as well here. See this post for instructions on freezing fresh herbs.

How to Roast a Pepper

Peppers - red, green, yellow, poblano - have a lot of natural sweetness. To play up this sweetness, roast them, either in your oven or on your grill. The texture is also dramatically different - soft and silky rather than crunchy. It's an easy process and can save you a bunch of pennies. Roasted peppers are sold in jars but they are often quite expensive. They are packed in an acidic solution to preserve them. The preservative is usually citric acid, a totally natural preservative but it does change the flavor. Homemade roasted peppers are much sweeter because of this, and you can preserve them by freezing them with no loss of flavor or texture.The next time peppers are on sale, buy a few extra to stash away.

When selecting peppers to roast, look for boxy ones, without lots of wavy parts. The boxy ones will blacken up more evenly then the oddly shaped ones.

Whether you use a grill or the broiler in your oven, the process is the same:

Remove those stupid stickers and wash the peppers.

If broiling in the oven, place on a cookie sheet without a nonstick coating. The coating can't stand the extremely high temperature of the broiler. You may want to line it with aluminum foil to make cleanup easier.

Put the peppers in the oven or on the grill and leave until the skin on the broiling/grilling side is blistered and black. [Usually, you'll be able to peel the skin off easily if the skin has blistered enough to wrinkle up, even if it hasn't turned black.] Turn the peppers to get them blistered or blackened on all sides. When they are done, put in a heatproof bowl and cover the bowl with plastic.

Let them sit for about 10 minutes. The steam will loosen the skins and make them easier to peel.

Peel off the skin and remove the core and seeds. You can rinse them off  to get the last bits off but I was once berated by a famous Southwestern chef for doing this. He said it washed off the sugars. On the other hand, Rick Bayless(*) does rinse them off, so you'll be in pretty good company if you do.

Once the peppers are all clean, use them within a few days or freeze them. I recommend you freeze them as halves or whole. They are much easier to separate if you freeze them in a stack, since you probably won't be using your whole stash of peppers all at once.

Here's recipe that not only makes use of the roasted red peppers, but the beautiful summer tomatoes are now showing up in markets everywhere.

Tomatoes Stuffed with Roast Peppers, Shrimp, Capers, and Olives
(Serves 3, total cost is $8.40)

1 roasted red bell peppers, cut into 1" pieces
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
7 ounces cooked salad shrimp (see Note)
1 Tablespoons capers
2 Tablespoons chopped black olives
Zest of ½ a lemon, grated
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley
3 large tomatoes
½ teaspoon Salt, divided
½ teaspoon Pepper, divided

Mix together roasted red pepper, oil, shrimp, capers, olives, lemon zest, parsley, ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Cut off the top of each tomato. Use a paring knife to cut up the center of the tomato, being careful not to cut through the outer wall. Remove the center and seeds with a teaspoon. Season the inside of the tomatoes with the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Fill the cavities with the shrimp mixture. Arrange in a shallow baking dish and bake in a preheated oven at 350° for 25 minutes, or until the tomatoes are a little soft.

Serve with crusty bread to soak up the delicious juices.

Note: A 6-7 ounce can of tuna, drained and flaked, can be substituted for the salad shrimp

* Rick Bayless is a chef in Chicago who is well-known for his deep and broad knowledge of Mexican cuisine. He has a show on PBS (highly recommended) and many excellent cookbooks. If you want to learn how to cook real Mexican food, he is your guy.

Grilling Peaches

It's peach season in Colorado (really! they grow peaches in Colorado) and grilling them is one of my favorite ways to dress them up. This is simple, delicious cooking at its finest.

First, you macerate (like marinate but that's the term used for fruits) the peaches in something tasty for about an hour. Then you grill them. They don't need much grilling - a few minutes per side. I like to serve them in summer main dish salads. Particularly tasty with a bit of goat cheese. They are also good on yogurt as a light dessert. Or, for a more decadent dessert, serve on ice cream.

Grilled Peaches
(serves 4-6)

3 peaches, washed and cut into halves or quarters
1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh basil (see note)

Mix the lime juice, honey, and basil in a medium bowl. Add peaches and stir gently to coat them. Let sit at room temperature for about 1 hour. Grill on a hot, lightly oiled grill for 3 minutes per side until you get some grill marks. The sugar in a peaches and the honey will help them brown up quickly. Serve hot or cold.

Note: Basil is particularly good with peaches but most herbs complement this tasty fruit. Try mint, thyme, rosemary, or tarragon instead of basil.

Very cool news

Ronnie and I have been in France enjoying all the glories of Provence. We had a wonderful, relaxing vacation, soaking up the sun, the wine, and all that sunny food. I can't even tell you how fantastic the melons are in that part of France. Once you eat one of these, you will give up all those bland cantaloupes in US supermarkets. But, I digress...

While we were away, we received an exciting email: we've been recognized by Rachel Ray's Yum-O! organization. You can see what's up with Yum-O! here but simply put, their mission fits in with the School of Eating Good mission: to empower kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking.

You can see the post about School of Eating Good on the Yum-O! here.

We have now been recognized by Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and Rachel Ray's Yum-O! We consider that some pretty good company!

Recipes and cooking tips to start up again now that we back.