Once a month I get together with 10 or so brilliant, witty and beautiful womem to discuss a book that we’ve read. We all bring wine and or an appetizer and some of the most delicious desserts I’ve ever tasted. This month it’s at my house so I’m serving an olive plate and roma tomatoes. I baked the tomatoes slowly for hours and then added some buffalo mozzerella and fresh basil. This is a good recipe for store bought tomatoes that don’t always have a lot of flavor. It’s kind of like making them into sun dried tomatoes but in the oven.
Tomatoes
- 10 roma tomatoes, cut in half
- Olive oil, about 2 tablespoons
- 1/4 pound of fresh buffallo mozzerella
Bake for 3 hours at 325 degrees or a little longer depending on your oven. You want the tomatoes to collapse and be all gushy. Let them cool and sprinkle with salt and pepper. You could then use oregano, or fresh basil or thyme. I like dried oregano because that is the way my mom and Aunt Angie would eat garden tomatoes in New York and the taste has stayed with me. FYI–I tried to lessen the three hour cooking process by turning on the confection oven and it dried the tomatoes out and made them like sun-dried. So if you want them to be like that; then go for the confection oven.
It’s been above 100 degrees here in Austin the past week. Who wants to cook? Not me. However I do enjoy fresh and delicious food and I love to create something in the kitchen. So I went to Central Market and bought some heirloom tomatoes, a cucumber and a red onion. Central Market is my favorite grocery store. The produce is fresh and exotic, the meat is prime, the wine selection is excellent and everything always looks so good that I want to buy it all. I also get great ideas while shopping there. I like Whole Foods Market as well. Whole Foods originated in Austin in the 1970′s as a small store on Lamar Boulevard that flooded anytime it rained hard. They sold delicious coffee beans, and they were the place to get vitamins and special health tonics that you couldn’t buy anywhere else. Now of course they are not only a health source but one of the greatest gourmet markets in the world. Several more organic grocery stores and lots of Asian and Indian stores call Austin home. This city has become a foodie paradise and there is really nothing that you can’t get. I just bought some truffle butter. I can’t wait to use that. But for now back to Panzanella.
Enjoy with a good bottle of wine. I recommend two; one is a French Chardonnay and the other is a nice red. The red was introduced to me by my inimitable and delightful friend Ed Ward who lives in Montpellier, France. He is an writer, and a radio personality and an expert on food and wine. He has a terrific blog called “
Today is Memorial Day and the Grovers are coming over for a late lunch. My mom’s coming too. She is a fantastic Italian cook that doesn’t cook anymore due to her age. She asked me to make German Potato Salad and I did. More on that in a minute. Memorial Day means barbecuing, at least the food part of the day signifies that. The day itself should make us remember all of the soldiers that fought for our freedom. My wonderful dad fought in World War 2 and I’m thankful to him for risking his life and to all of the others that did so as well. Otherwise we may not be blogging, Facebooking, emailing, etc. This is a food blog so on with our menu for today.
