Preserving: Pickled Farm-Stand Tomatoes with Jalapeños

This week's box includes:

• Red Beets
• Carrots
• Tomatoes
• Cilantro
• Cauliflower
• Baby Bear Pumpkin
• Strawberries
• Green Leaf Lettuce
• Corno di Toro Peppers

It has been weeks since I've posted and just as many weeks since I've cooked.  Changes at home, changes at work ... a very busy time.  This weekend brought a return to the pleasure of good food and good friends.  The past month, from a food perspective, has been more like this:

That is indeed one very neglected cantaloupe.  Sadly, many other fruits and vegetables headed for the compost pile over the past four weeks.  All I can say is that sometimes this happens...

Onto the good bits...

In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, we hosted a small group of friends for an early dinner. The grog and the grub were fantastic, as was the time with friends.  Some of our recipes included below.  Dinner included:

• Crudités (carrots, cauliflower and, Corno di Toro peppers) with Zucchini Cilantro Dip
• Grilled, Prosciutto-wrapped Grape Tomato Skewers
• Grilled Italian Sausages (vegan and not) with Pickled Farm-Stand Tomatoes with Jalapeños
• Green Leaf Lettuce Salad with Roasted Beets, Spiced Walnuts, and Balsamic Vinaigrette

Friends brought gougère, chickpea salad, beet/carrot/avocado salad, miniature tartes, and wild boar chorizo.

The three "volunteer" cherry tomato plants we have in our backyard are in full season. Today we harvested nearly two gallons, last weekend was the same.

These plants, two grape tomatoes and one standard cherry, are downright prodigious.

There is simply no way we can keep up with the number of tomatoes these plants are producing.  To top it off, most recipes for preserving tomatoes call for peeling and seeding them ~ not reasonable given the size and number of tomatoes we have to deal with...

After a bit of research following my usual methods, we landed on Pickled Farm-Stand Tomatoes with Jalapeños, as mentioned above.  We subbed cherry tomatoes for the sliced tomatoes called for in the recipe ~ it was fantastic.  Also worth noting these hold for far longer than 3 days.

The key is paring these complex and intense pickles with something relatively simple and high in fat with lots of bread for sopping up the juices.  The combination of the spices, the vinegar, and the sweetness of the tomatoes begs for an uncomplicated, yet sturdy, backdrop.

Still Dealing with Zucchini: Garlicky Zucchini Bruschetta

This week's box contains:

• Lacinato Kale
• Bacon Avocados
• Parsley
• Mystery (more summer squash and ZUCCHINI!)
• Strawberries
• Lettuce (traded for more parsley)
• Mystery (Red Norland potatoes)

Oh yes, more zucchini. Well, more green summer squash. While technically different I suppose, to me at this point they are all the same.

The themed dinner idea worked so well for us this time we repeated it this week.  Flipping through my cookbooks I stumbled upon "Garlicky Zucchini Bruschetta" in The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook by Jack Bishop and Ann Straton. Given the capability of this recipe to work through another 2-3 zucchini, I was sold.

Italian was the theme, here was our menu:

Appetizers:

• Garlicky Zucchini Bruschetta
• Vegetarian Bagna Cauda with Bread, Carrots and Asparagus

Main Course:

• Grilled Hot Italian Sausage ("regular" and Field Roast)
• Pasta with Zucchini, Lemon, Pine Nuts and Herbs
• Kale Salad with Sun-dried Tomato Dressing
• Giardinera

Dessert:

• Strawberry Shortcake with Meyer Limoncello Spritzers

The meal worked incredibly well.  Caution: there were lots of leftovers from the bagna cauda.  However, we found a fantastic way to use them up: panzanella.  We cubed the left over bread, chopped the leftover carrots and asparagus into bite sized pieces, added a pint of cherry tomatoes (halved), and tossed with the left over bagna cauda.  Amazing!

Vegan Bagna Cauda

1/2 cup large salted capers, drained and rinsed
10 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 bunch whole carrots, cleaned, trimmed and quartered length-wise
1 bunch asparagus, cleaned and trimmed

In a saucepan, combine the capers, garlic and oil. Simmer over moderately low heat until the garlic is very soft but not colored, about 30 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a blender and let cool for 10 minutes. Add the butter and lemon juice and puree until the bagna cauda is smooth. Place into serving dish and set aside.

Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add the carrots and cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate and let cool. Repeat with the asparagus.

Slice loaf of crusty Italian bread and serve alongside the bagna cauda and blanched vegetables.

We were able to work through the Lacinato kale, zucchini, strawberries at dinner. as for the rest of the box contents:

Bacon Avocados: eaten out of hand. I literally sliced the avocados in half, removed the pit, salted them heavily, and ate them with a spoon. Incredible!

Parsley: made two batches of parsley-walnut pesto for the freezer.

Red Norland Potatoes: roasted and tossed with, you guessed it, parsley-walnut pesto.

Too Much Zucchini: Pasta with Zucchini, Lemon, Pine Nuts and Herbs

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we've got a lot of zucchini.  After the tapas, we still have 3.5 pounds left to consume.  I am not a big fan of zucchini, so this presents a bit of a challenge.

I spent some time digging through cookbooks and searching the web to no avail.  Finally, I decided to search for an ingredient pairing ~ coupling an ingredient I love with one I'm struggling with, in this case, capers and zucchini. 

Turns out the original recipe is from The Greens Cookbook by Debora Madison, which we happen to own.  We adapted this recipe to the ingredients on hand to great results.

Pasta with Zucchini, Lemon, Pine Nuts and Herbs
Serves Two Generously

1/2 package of whole wheat pasta (roughly 4 ounces)
1 medium zucchini, cleaned and sliced into matchsticks
zest of 1/4 lemon, sliced into matchsticks
6 T extra virgin olive oil (worth using a good one for this recipe)
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
5 T pine nuts
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
4 t capers, non-pariel
2 sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted if necessary, sliced into matchsticks
salt and pepper
Parmesan (optional)

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for pasta and prepare all ingredients as noted above.

Heat 2 T oil in a saute pan; add pine nuts and cook till they begin to color, stirring frequently.  Add garlic, cook till fragrant, and remove from heat and place in a large serving bowl.  Stir in remaining olive oil, lemon zest, parsley, capers and sun-dried tomatoes into the pine nut mixture; set aside.

When the water comes to a boil, add the zucchini and cook for one minute.  Remove from water with a bamboo skimmer (or similar strainer) and add to the pine nut mixture.  Return the water to a boil and cook pasta as instructed and drain; add to the bowl and mix well.

Enjoy!