Ratatouille Tartine

"Ratatouille tartine" sounds fancy. But a tartine is just an open-faced sandwich. And ratatouille is a French dish of cooked vegetables.

Ratatouille usually includes eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic and herbs. If there’s a “right” combination of vegetables and a “right” way to cook it (and given that ratatouille is French, I’m sure there is) then I don’t know what it is. I do know that almost any combination of vegetables piled on top of luscious ricotta cheese and crusty bread is going to be delicious.

I first made this in August. It was a perfect summer dish. Warm veggies on cool ricotta and grilled toasts.

I made it again last week. And now it feels like the perfect fall dish, with eggplants, zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes all in season.

I'm guessing it's going to be just as good in the winter and spring.



Gather your vegetables. Grab whatever looks good.

Start chopping and sautéing. Cook a couple of vegetables at a time, so they have enough room to get tender and golden. Salt and pepper each vegetable as you cook it. I started with bell pepper and red onion.

As the veggies cook, put them into a large bowl.

Zucchini next.

Then yellow squash.

Finally, the eggplant. I like to do the eggplant by itself, to make sure it's completely tender.

Mix the cooked vegetables until they are well combined. Allow them to cool slightly.

To the mix of vegetables, add minced raw garlic and fresh thyme.

Then add uncooked tomatoes. Mix well and taste for salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl, mix ricotta cheese with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. This gives the ricotta more flavor. (And makes it so delicious you want to eat it straight from the bowl.)

Toast the bread or grill until it's light brown. Top with ricotta cheese and veggies. Enjoy!

 

Ratatouille Tartine

Recipe from The Garlic Press

olive oil

1 red bell pepper

1 red onion

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1 eggplant

1 tomato

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1 pint whole milk ricotta cheese

salt

pepper

baguette or other crusty bread

1.    Chop the vegetables, all the same size. (A small dice gives you a nice combination of flavors in each bite.) You can chop all the vegetables at once, or chop as you cook.

2.    Put olive oil in a saute pan. Add one or two vegetables, then a little salt and pepper. Don't crowd the pan or the veggies will steam. Once each vegetable is golden brown and tender, add it to a large bowl.

3.    Continue until the bell pepper, red onion, zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant are cooked. Mix the vegetables together and allow them to cool slightly. Add the chopped raw tomatoes, minced raw garlic and fresh thyme leaves. Add salt and pepper if needed.

4.    In a separate bowl, mix ricotta cheese with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.

5.    Toast the bread or grill until light brown. Top with ricotta cheese and vegetables.

Serves 6 to 8 as an appetizer or 4 for dinner.

Chilled Roasted Strawberry Soup

I love cold fruit soups in the summer. There's something so fun and expected about them, like having dessert before dinner. What makes them appetizers, though, and not dessert, is that they're not out and out sweet.

The blueberry soup that I wrote about a few years ago (still a regular in our summer rotation) definitely leans more towards sweet than savory, with its strong hit of blueberry and cinnamon undertones. But it's not so sweet that you feel like you're eating blueberry yogurt.

This roasted strawberry soup is even more restrained. I add only a teaspoon or so of sugar. Just enough to cut any tartness in the berries. Roasting the berries intensifies their flavors. The sherry adds a bit of richness. And the yogurt smooths it all out.

Serve this soup very cold, in small clear glasses, with or without spoons. It's a really fun and informal way to kick off a summer meal.

Start with red, ripe strawberries.

Halve berries and toss with sherry.

Spread berries evenly on a large baking sheet.

Roast until the strawberries start to break down and caramelize a little.

Transfer the berries and their juices to a food processor. 

Process until smooth.

Add Greek yogurt to the food processor.

Blend again until well mixed. Thin with water if needed.

Refrigerate the soup until cold. Enjoy!

  

Chilled Roasted Strawberry Soup

Recipe slightly adapted from The View From Great Island

2 pints strawberries

3 Tbsp dry Sherry

16 oz Greek yogurt 

1 Tbsp lemon juice or Sherry vinegar if needed

1.    Set oven to 400F

2.    Wash and trim the strawberries. Cut the larger ones in half. Put them in a bowl and toss with the Sherry.

3.    Spread out the berries in a baking dish big enough for them to be in a single layer. Roast for about 20 minutes or until the strawberries start to break down and caramelize just a little bit.

4.    Scrape the berries and any juice into the bowl of a food processor, and puree.

5.    Add the yogurt to the processor and blend. Add a little water if the soup seems too thick.

6.    Refrigerate until chilled. Taste before serving and add the lemon juice or vinegar if the soup needs a little tang.

7.    Serve very cold, in small glasses or bowls.

Serves 4 to 6

Garlic Confit

Everyone has a kitchen chore they can't stand. For some it's chopping onions. For others it's doing the dishes. Some people hate peeling potatoes, pitting cherries, or hulling strawberries.

For me, there's nothing more onerous than peeling garlic. I don't like the sticky feel of cut garlic on my knife. I hate the strong smell that clings to my fingers for days. And it drives me nuts when the papery skins flutter off my cutting board and onto the kitchen floor. Life would be a lot easier if I didn't love garlic so much. Sigh.

That's why I waste spend money on peeled garlic. Not the stuff in jars immersed in a strange preservative. Just peeled garlic cloves.

Peeled garlic stays fresh in the fridge for a couple of weeks. But it won't last forever. And the other day I found myself with nearly half a container nearing its sell by date. I thought about making Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic. But I decided to go a different route.

I gently simmered the garlic cloves in olive oil for almost an hour. The olive oil took on the flavor of the garlic. And the cloves softened while their flavor mellowed.

I had some good, crusty bread that I dipped straight into the oil. But the possibilities are endless. Spread on roast chicken. Drizzle over a caprese salad. Brush onto grilled vegetables. Blend with white beans to make a dip. Stir into mashed potatoes. Or toss with pasta.

Place garlic cloves and olive oil in a small saucepan.

Heat over medium heat until first small bubbles appear.

Simmer gently over low heat until garlic is tender and golden brown and the oil is fragrant.

Enjoy!

Garlic Confit

Recipe from The Garlic Press

1 cup garlic cloves

1 1/4 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper, optional

1.    Place garlic cloves and oil in a small saucepan. The oil should completely cover the garlic cloves.

2.    Heat oil over medium heat.

3.    When the first bubbles appear in the oil, turn heat down as low as possible. Heat for 45 to 55 minutes, until the oil is fragrant and the garlic cloves are light brown and can be easily pierced with a knife.

4.    Remove some oil and cloves and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

5.    If you're not going to use it right away, wait for the confit to cool. Then transfer it to an airtight container. Refrigerate. 

Makes 1 1/2 cups garlic confit. 

Note: The garlic confit will keep in the fridge for about two weeks. Remove from the fridge about 30 minutes before you want to use it to give the oil a chance to come to room temperature. You can also reheat it gently.

Smooth and Creamy Hummus

  

I thought I'd continue with the theme of healthier Game Day snacks. In my last post, I talked about buffalo cauliflower bites, a lighter and healthier version of that Game Day stalwart, buffalo wings.

Another quintessential Game Day (or any day) snack is chips and dip. When I was little, that meant Lays potato chips with sour cream and onion dip. Tortilla chips with guacamole came later. These days, it's pita chips and hummus. 

Truth be told, I usually buy my hummus. I'm partial to Trader Joe's edamame hummus, with its distinctive green color and garlicky bite. I've made hummus a few times and it's been fine. But somehow, when I've made it, it's always had a grainy texture that turned me off.

I might not have even tried this hummus recipe if it hadn't been billed as "smooth and creamy." The secret is cooking the chickpeas with a little baking soda. The baking soda works on the skins so that they come right off the chickpeas. They float to the top of the cooking water from where you can easily skim them off. No skins, no grainy hummus.

The flavor didn't blow me away at first. But that was easily fixed. A drizzle of good olive oil, a sprinkling of pine nuts, a dusting of smoked paprika and I was in business. Next time I'll cut back a little on the tahini and throw in some extra garlic and lemon juice.

You can really play around with this recipe. Add a chipotle pepper, toss in some fresh herbs, or add chopped olives or roasted peppers. In other words, take this basic recipe and make it your own.

Soak dried chickpeas overnight in cold water.

Drain. Then heat for a few minutes with baking soda, until the skins start to peel off.

Cover with water and bring to a boil.

Cook until tender, skimming off any foam and skins that rise to the top.

Drain, then place cooked chickpeas in a food processor.

Process until you get a stiff paste.

With the processor running, add the following through the feed tube: tahini paste, lemon juice, garlic, salt and ice water. Let the processor run for five minutes, until you get a gloriously smooth and creamy hummus.

Enjoy!

Smooth and Creamy Hummus

Recipe slightly adapted from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi an d Sami Tamimi

*I cut down a little on the tahini and amped up the lemon juice and garlic.

1 1/4 cups dried chickpeas

1 tsp baking soda

6 1/2 cups water

3/4 cup tahini (light roast)

6 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

6 cloves garlic, crushed

6 1/2 Tbsp ice cold water

Salt

Good quality olive oil, pine nuts and paprika, to serve (optional)

1.    The night before, put the chickpeas in a large bowl and cover them with cold water at least twice their volume. Leave to soak overnight.

2.    The next day, drain the chickpeas. Place a medium saucepan over high heat and add the drained chickpeas and baking soda. Cook for about three minutes, stirring constantly.

3.    Add the water and bring to a boil. Cook, skimming off any foam and any skins that float to the surface. The chickpeas will need to cook for 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the type and freshness, sometimes even longer. Once done, they should be very tender, breaking up easily when pressed between your thumb and finger, almost but not quite mushy.

4.    Drain the chickpeas. Place the chickpeas in a food processor and process until you get a stiff paste.

5.    Then, with the machine sill running, add the tahini paste, lemon juice, garlic, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Finally, slowly drizzle in the ice water and allow it to mix for about five minutes, until you get a very smooth and creamy paste.

6.    Transfer the hummus to a bowl, cover the surface with plastic wrap, and let it rest for at least 30 minutes. If not using straightaway, refrigerate until needed. Make sure to take it out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before serving.

7.    Serve with a drizzle of good quality olive oil, a dusting of paprika and a sprinkling of pine nuts.

Serves 6

Note: This hummus will keep in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

I joined a Fantasy Football League. Yeah. It still sounds a little weird for me to hear those words coming out of my mouth. 

Until I got married, I'd never even watched an entire football game. But my husband went to Michigan. Go Blue! See? It's a reflex. I literally can't say "Michigan" anymore without following it up with "Go Blue!"

I hear it's impossible to go to a Big Ten school without becoming a football fan. Apparently the same is true of Big Ten spouses. So I watched the games. Slowly but surely, football was reeling me in.

Then I went to a game. Michigan-Notre Dame. At Michigan. My first real football game. (Unless you count the time I went to see my college team, the Columbia Lions, play Yale. At a stadium in the Bronx. That required a long subway ride. For which the visitors had more fans than the home team.) 

It wasn't until I entered Michigan stadium that I got hooked. No, check that. It was before we got to the stadium. It was when we joined the masses of students and alum, all wearing their maize and blue, heading towards the stadium. It was a Saturday afternoon and every single person in Ann Arbor was walking together, towards the same destination, with a common purpose.

And the best part? Michigan's quarterback that year was Tom Brady.

Soon after, Brady started playing for the New England Patriots. So now we were watching Michigan games on Saturdays and Pats games on Sundays.

The more I watched, the more I learned. First the basics. Then the finer points. But I was still just watching our two teams.

Then, a few years ago, my sister's husband started talking about his fantasy football league. I was intrigued. So this year, I asked him how to join. He took my question and ran with it. He created a league and got the whole family involved -- my husband, my sister, my sister's husband, cousins, brothers-in-law, even my nephew and my dad -- joined our fantasy football league. 

But here's the thing about fantasy football that you may not know if you've never played. (At least I didn't.) You don't pick an actual, existing team to be your team. You pick a bunch of players, from different teams, that make up your fantasy team.

You know what that means? It means you watch Thursday Night Football. And Sunday afternoon football. Followed by Sunday Night Football. And Monday Night Football. Because you've likely got some skin in almost every game.

That's a lot of football. And a lot of food. Because what's Game Day without snacks, right? But if I'm going to watch football three days a week, I can't very well reach for buffalo wings and nachos every time.

That's where these buffalo cauliflower bites come in. I know it sounds strange. But trust me when I tell you it'll satisfy your buffalo wing craving without all the fat and calories and guilt. The key is the rice flour coating. It gives the cauliflower a satisfying crunch and helps the sauce to stick. The buffalo sauce is similar to what you'd use on wings. But it's made with canola oil instead of butter. You can dip the bites into blue cheese or ranch dressing to get the full buffalo wing experience. And best of all, it's finger food that you can pop in your mouth without taking your eyes off the game.

Start with the cauliflower, broken down into florets.

Combine rice flour, water, salt and a dash of hot sauce to make the batter.

Coat the cauliflower in the batter. I found it easiest to toss a few pieces of cauliflower into the batter at a time, then pull them out with a large, slotted spoon. Let the excess batter drip back down into the bowl. Then lay the cauliflower out on a baking sheet coated with nonstick spray.

Bake until the batter hardens.

In the meantime, combine the ingredients for the buffalo sauce.

When the cauliflower come out of the oven, brush them with the buffalo sauce. Bake again until the cauliflower get crispy.

Serve warm or at room temperature with blue cheese or ranch dressing and celery sticks.

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

Recipe from Amazing Pinterest World

1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-size florets

For the batter:

A dash or two of Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce (or your favorite hot sauce)

1 cup white rice flour

1 cup water

Pinch salt

For the Buffalo sauce:

1/2 cup Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce (or your favorite hot sauce)

1/2 cup canola oil

Pinch salt

1.    Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2.    Mix batter ingredients together in a small bowl. Dip the cauliflower in the batter until evenly coated, then place on greased baking sheet. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the batter hardens.

3.    Mix sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.

4.    Once the cauliflower are done baking, brush them with the hot sauce mixture and bake again for a few more minutes, until cauliflower is crispy. Remove from oven.

5.    Add more buffalo sauce to taste. Serve with blue cheese or ranch dressing and celery sticks.

  

Melted Zucchini

  

Go to any grocery store or farmer's market right now and you're going to see summer squash. It's one of my favorite vegetables. And now I've got a new way to cook it. 

This recipe is simplicity itself, both the preparation and the flavors. Just grate the zucchini and yellow squash, then slowly cook it down with some garlic and olive oil until it practically melts. 

Melted zucchini is incredibly versatile. Spread it on toasted bread. Serve it as a side dish with fish or chicken. Slather it on ciabatta, top with thinly sliced mozzarella and warm it in a panini press. Use it in place of tomato sauce on pizza. Or serve it as a dip with pita chips.

Grate zucchini. I used a combination of zucchini and yellow squash to get a nice combination of colors and flavors.

Place grated zucchini in a colander. Leave it for a few minutes to drain and/or squeeze out excess water with your hands.

Heat olive oil (with a bit of butter) and add garlic. Let cook for a minute or so, until the garlic is fragrant but not brown.

Add grated zucchini.

Cook it down for a few minutes until the water starts to evaporate.

And then for a few minutes until the water has completely evaporated and the zucchini starts to clump together. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve!

Melted Zucchini

Recipe by Jennie Cook

2 pounds zucchini or assorted summer squash

¼ cup olive oil or butter

2 minced shallots, garlic, or combination of both

Salt and pepper

1.    Coarsely grate the zucchini. Let it drain in a colander for 3 to 4 minutes or until you are ready to begin cooking. To hasten cooking time, squeeze the water out of the zucchini by wringing it in a clean cloth towel.

2.    In a deep skillet, heat the olive oil/butter. Sauté the shallots or garlic briefly.

3.    Add the zucchini and toss. Cook and stir over medium to medium-high heat until the zucchini reaches a spreadable consistency, about 15 minutes.

4.    Enjoy!

Makes about 2 cups