Gazpacho Salad with Candies tomatoes

Candied tomatoes:

1pint cherry tomatoes
1 cup water
1 Tbs kosher salt
1Tbs crushed red pepper
Salad:
31/2 piece baguette cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 Tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic pressed
1/4 lb haricot verts
1 English cucumber seeded and sliced
3 scallions chopped with some of the green
1 Tbs sherry vinegar
1Tbs olive oil
Salt and cracked pepper to taste

To candy the tomatoes: Bring saucepan full of salted water to boil. Prepare a ice bath and set near stove. Blanch the beans until just tender 2-3 minutes. put in ice bath. Remove and place on towel to dry. Blanch tomatoes until skin bursts quickly remove to ice bath. peal and set aside in glass bowl. Discard water. In same saucepan simmer water, sugar,salt pepper until salt and sugar dissolves.simmer 5 minutes. Stain sauce over the tomatoes and let sit 40 minutes. Prepare croutons- cut baguette into 1/2 inch cubes place in bowl and drizzle with olive oil and pressed garlic stir to cover. Place on baking sheet and bake 325 until golden brown. In medium bowl toss tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, scallions, vinegar and olive oil. Salt and cracked pepper to taste.


I had this salad on one of the San Juan Islands one summer and loved it. It was a beautiful warm day on the water and this was the perfect refreshing salad to share with good company a great Pinot Grigio. There are many ways to make this. Just think what goes into the famous Spanish cold soup and deconstruct it. This recipe which was adapted from Andy Nusser's recipe in Food and Wine years ago has these amazing candied tomatoes that I love. They have this kind of sweet hot taste that adds so much to this very simple salad. If your a bit more hungry add some shrimp or chicken and it becomes a great meal. Certain foods can really evoke memories of wonderful places and people and every time I make this I want to be back on those beautiful islands watching the orcas and imagining what life would be to live there... One day......



Enjoy!!

French Inspired Tomato Tart

2 sheets puff pastry,defrosted

2 tbls dijon mustard

3-4 tomatoes sliced
3 branches thyme
1 red onion sliced thinly
4 slices prosciutto
1/2 cup Parmesan grated fine
salt and pepper to taste








I've become a Francophile lately. Listening to french music( pretty much exclusively)and drinking http://www.mariagefreres.com/ tea. Ordering french cookbooks. Signing up for french at the local college. And above all excitedly awaiting http://www.frenchfridayswithdorie.com/ which I will start posting on Fridays in October. So it only makes since that I would choose to make a french inspired tomato tart for dinner with all the wonderful tomatoes my friend gave me from her garden.

I can't get enough tomatoes these days. They are even better than they were earlier in the season. We are having a late burst of heat this year and its made the late harvest particularly yummy. I've been busy as of late so we are having simple meals here. This tart takes virtually no time to assemble and store bought puff pastry(shhhhh) makes it even more simple.

Preheat oven to375. Lay puff pastry on lined baking sheet. Using a tip of a knife score the outside all the way around the border about 1/2 inch from the pastry edge. Prick the dough all over with a fork.This will prevent the pastry from puffing as it cooks.


With a pastry brush or knife spread a thin layer of the mustard all over the pastry. Layer the prosciutto and thinly sliced onions evenly over the tart. Layer the tomatoes over the last layer. Making sure not to overlap or crowd. Because that will make the tart soggy. Sprinkle with the thyme leaves add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle a thin layer of Parmesan.


Bake the tart until the pastry is crisp and deeply browned on the bottom and around the edges. 30-40 minutes.

This is such a nice simple summer meal served with a fresh salad and a nice glass of wine with friends and family.

Enjoy!