It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve finally perfected gumbo. I’ve gone through countless over-complicated recipes over the years and have systematically thrown out the steps and ingredients that were superfluous. This recipe is what remained. It’s the best gumbo I’ve ever had.
This is the best time of year to make Caprese salad. I have a farmers’ market a half-mile from my house and they have so many varieties of tomatoes in varying stages of ripeness right now. I always hate how the oil and vinegar in Caprese salad drips below the sliced tomatoes, so I make a chopped version that can be tossed to coat the tomatoes.
Remember how I said I was trying to cook healthier dishes at home? This isn’t one of them.
The farmers market had a bunch of fresh spinach on sale this weekend and I was looking for a new way to cook it. I decided to throw it in a pot with some other classic Italian ingredients to make a dish that’s hearty. You can think of it as a thin pasta or a thick soup. Either way, it was so good that I ate three helpings.
In honor of Mother’s Day, I’m naming it Minestrone di Smeraglia. It’s basically just a variation of a classic peasant stew.
The wife and I have been making this side dish for a while now and it’s become one of our favorites. It slowly evolved from our grilled ratatouille recipe into it’s own dish.
We’ve served it to many people and everyone always asks for the recipe, so here it is.
I’ve spent years perfecting my chili recipe. It’s still subject to whatever ingredients I have on hand, but it’s safe to say it’s about done. It’s not competition chili by any means and it’s more of a compromise than I’d prefer.
I like really spicy Southwestern chili with no beans, but my wife likes a milder, more Southeastern chili with lots of beans. As a result, this recipe makes a medium-heat chili with one can of pinto beans for added texture and flavor.
Bruschetta is one of those recipes that many people really like to make, but few make really well. This past weekend, my wife and I had some great bruschetta at a restaurant in Hendersonville, NC. What made it great was the simplicity of the ingredients. It was just sliced baguette, crushed tomatoes, basil and soft mozzarella. It was nothing like the bruschetta you often get at restaurants. Those dishes are usually made with pizza sauce or canned “bruschetta spread.” This dish was made with freshly peeled and crushed tomatoes, and that made all the difference. I decided I wanted to recreate the dish at home, and the results came out great.
First, I prepped the tomatoes and peeled and halved a clove of garlic while my wife picked some fresh basil.
The wife and I are nuts for Insalata Caprese. We’ll make a large platter and munch on it for days. This time, we used the last of our green tomatoes to make an extra crispy version:
We served it with some sopressata. The fresh mozzarella will only get better as it soaks up more of the balsamic vinegar. We’ve made this dish with our homemade mozzarella before, but we just can’t seem to make cheese that tastes as creamy as the expensive stuff. I think it’s because the milk we buy isn’t very sweet. Does anyone have any experience with this?
We hoped that by this time of year, we’d be drowning in fresh produce. Sadly, the excessive heat and rain in June stunted our garden growth. Most of our squash, zucchini and onions are dead. We’re awash in banana and cayenne peppers, and our leeks are looking pretty good. Still, I’ve been salivating over fried green tomatoes since we planted the garden, but our plants just don’t seem to be producing very much. I was pleasantly surprised when I went to a farmer’s market in the Mount Laurel neighborhood near Birmingham, AL, this past weekend, and picked up a sackful of these:
They were all green on Saturday, but by Monday night they were starting to turn. Still, it’s the ripeness that matters, not the skin color.
