Okay, here is my post for Weekend Cookbook Challenge, which incidentally, I am hosting this month. Yay! But, the real props go to Sara for starting and running such a great blogging event on a regular basis for a while now.

The theme for this July is Farmers Markets and at the Hollywood Farmers Market, (in Portland), I managed to find a whole bunch of beautiful blueberries. And, what’s a great thing to do with summer berries? Why yes, pie. You are so right.

For the cookbook, I turned to the one and only baking book a person could ever need, Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Seriously, if you don’t have this book, go get it. I’ll wait.

Okay now, I am by no means a pie expert, but I’ve a couple made some tasty pies. That said, I’m still never really sure if a pie will turn out. I was a little concerned about not baking the bottom crust before adding the blueberries but I went ahead and followed the directions. And the bottom crust baked fine for me. One thing I did that may or may not have made a difference, was that I preheated a baking sheet in the oven and then placed the pie directly on that for baking.

I was also worried about using just flour as a thickener. It seemed to work out okay The filling was a little runny, but not out of the realm of what pie filling consistency should be. All in all, I was quite pleased and jwa seemed to really like it too!

The pie crust recipe is first (weirdly, I got enough dough with this recipe for about three 9 inch crusts). I have an extra ball of dough in the freezer right now…

Printable recipe pdf!

Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough
For a 9 inch Double Crust (or possibly more)
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 sticks very cold unsalted butter, cut into tbsp size pieces
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
About 1/2 cup ice water
Optional: (My additions):
1 tsp dried lavender (the eatin’ kind, not the potpourri kind)
1 tsp orange zest

Put the flour, sugar, lavender, orange zest and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour. You can of course, also use a pastry blender thingie or two forks or even your fingers.

Don’t overdo the mixing - what you’re aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 6 tablespoons of the water - add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour.

If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn’t look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a work surface. Honestly, I added about 10 tablespoons of water to mine. So, you may need more than 6 here.

Divide the dough in half. Gather each half into a ball, flatten each ball into a disk and wrap each half in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling.

You can roll the dough out onto a floured surface or between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap or in a rolling slipcover. Butter or spray coat your pie pan and lay the dough down in it. trim your edges with a 1/2 inch overhang. I laid my bottom dough in the pie pan and my top piece out on some parchment on a baking sheet and refrigerated for about 30 minutes before assembling the pie.

Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie
double pie crust
5 cups fresh blueberries (about 2 1/2 pints)
1 cup of sugar, or a little more, to taste, plus more for dusting
1/2 cup all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
Coarsely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
Squirt of fresh lemon juice, or a little more, to taste (I used about 1 tablespoon)
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs (you can use packaged unseasoned crumbs)
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tsp of water, for egg wash
Sugar, for dusting (I used raw sugar here and the bigger crystals looked awesome!)

While your pie crusts (in the pan and on the baking sheet) are in the fridge, position a rack in the lower third of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Put the berries in a large bowl and gently stir in the sugar, flour, salt, zest and juice; let sit for about 5 minutes. Taste the filling and add more sugar and/or lemon juice, if needed.

Remove the pie shell and top crust from the refrigerator. Sprinkle an even layer of the breadcrumbs over the bottom of the shell. Give the filling a last stir and turn it into the crust.

Using your fingertips, moisten the rim of the bottom crust with a little cold water. Center the top crust over the filling and gently press the top crust against the bottom. Either fold the overhang from the top crust under the bottom crust and crimp the edges attractively.

Using a small, sharp knife, cut 4 slits in the top crust crust and cut a circle out of the center, then lift the plate onto the baking sheet. If you have time, refrigerate the pie for about 30 minutes. The pie can also be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months. Brush the top crust with the egg wash, then sprinkle the crust with a little sugar, just to give it sparkle.

Bake the pie for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F, and bake the pie for another 30 minutes or so (total baking time is about an hour) or until the crust is a beautiful golden brown and the filling is bubbling up through the slits. If the crust seems to be browning too quickly, make a loose foil tent for the pie. I had to do this after the first 30 minutes.

Transfer the pie to a rack and let it cool and settle for at least 30 minutes before serving. We let ours sit for about 3 hours before digging in…really good!

Okay, don’t forget about WCC #30. Get me your posts by July 27th! And thanks again to Sara for letting me guest-host for July!

Last Sunday we picked up some nice looking Italian Artichokes at the Farmers Market. (Pssssst: don’t forget WCC30!)

I really didn’t know what to do with them but jwa assured me that he did.

“Boil them in water,” he instructed.
“For how long?” I asked.
“Hmmm”, he replied, “maybe you should look that up.”

So I did. Not surprisingly, one of the best resources I found was on Simply Recipes: How to Cook and Eat an Artichoke. Which is what I did. Kind of.

Artichokes!
artichokes
water
lemon slices (1-2)
1 -2 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf

Basically, I followed Elise’s instructions for preparing the artichoke. In very little detail — trim the stem and cut about 3/4 of an inch off the top of the artichoke. We did not bother snipping the ends of the leaves off. Okay. All ready to go.

We also chose to boil them instead of steaming, as jwa had fond memories of boiling artichokes as a youth. This will take 25 - 45 minutes to cook (pot covered), depending on the size of your artichokes. When the leaves pull off easily, they are done! Let them drain upsidedown for a few seconds before serving.

Mmmm….quite tasty dipped in a combination of mayonnaise and balsamic vinegar (I used about a 4/1 ratio). Pull off the leaves and dip in your, uh, dip of choice. Scrape the leaves with your teeth.

After the leaves are gone, you’ll be left with this. Pull of the top fuzzy part (the choke) and you will be left with a delightful artichoke heart. Dip it on the dip and nom it up.

***

Oh, I’ve started putting together pdf’s of the blog recipes for easy printing. I’ll try to go through the backlog as time permits but going forward, each recipe will hopefully have an easy way to print out now. Yay!

I have been getting into Spanish food lately, well, over the past couple of years. I really like the flavors and, although most that I have made have been served hot, they really seem to go great with Summer weather.

Now, this dish is pasta but it is also pretty much one pan pasta dish (okay, and a pot, but just for a few minutes). It’s relatively quick and you can be out of the kitchen before it even gets too hot in there. Get yourself a glass of wine and you’ll be eating in no time. Plus, damn, it’s just so good.

Chorizo, Chorizo, Makes the World Go Round:
For the sausage, I used a mix of ground, uncased, hot & spicy chorizo and regular Italian ground pork sausage (removed from the casing). This is because when I first made the dish, I decided to use up some Italian sweet sausage that I had in the freezer. Tasty.

But, with the leftovers, I got some ground pork chorizo, cooked it up, and reheated all the pasta in the pan with the new sausage. Mmm! If you can find authentic, Spanish chorizo links where you are, I would go ahead and use that for all of your sausage needs. But, I liked the mix of half sweet sausage and half ground, really spicy, chorizo. Oh, I actually saw some Spanish-style chorizo links at the Hillsdale Farmers Market last Sunday and I’m planning to grab some the next time I’m there!

Anyway, I also added orange zest, manchego cheese and just a bit of fennel seed and chopped rosemary to the finished dish.

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Spaghetti with Chorizo and Almonds
Recipe from Gourmet Magazine, with tweaks by me!
1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 tsp crumbled saffron threads
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil plus additional for drizzlin’
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 ounces Spanish chorizo (cured spiced pork sausage; not hot), cut into 1/2-inch pieces (or a mix of ground chorizo and sweet pork sausage)
1 tbsp unsalted butter (oh, you’re already eating a bunch of sausage, just use the butter)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
9 ounces fideos (dried coiled vermicelli noodles) or angel-hair pasta or thin spaghetti, broken into 2-inch lengths
1 tsp orange zest
1/4 tsp fresh, chopped rosemary
1 (14- to 19-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup sliced almonds with skins, toasted (bonus points for marcona almonds)
1/2 cup Manchego (or other Spanish cheese), grated or shaved

Bring broth, water, wine, saffron, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil in a small saucepan, then reduce heat and keep at a bare simmer.

Heat oil in a 5- to 6-quart heavy pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then sauté garlic until pale golden, about 1 minute. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Add chorizo and sauté until golden brown, about 3 minutes. If using uncooked, ground sausage, cook until both browned and cooked through.

Transfer with slotted spoon to paper towels with garlic. Add butter to pot and sauté onion until golden, about 5 minutes, then add fennel seeds and pasta. Sauté, breaking up fideos with a wooden spoon, until golden, about 4 minutes. (Be careful here or you will have little pasta shards all over your stovetop. Use a high-walled pot, not a big skillet for this — I learned the hard way).

Add broth mixture and cook, covered, until all liquid is absorbed, about 6 minutes. Stir in chickpeas, tomatoes, orange zest, rosemary, cooked garlic and sausage, parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Serve pasta sprinkled with almonds, cheese and drizzled with oil.

Awww….Petrozza.

Hai there. Oh, look, I am guest-hosting July’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge! Hooray, it’s my 2nd time! Thank you very much to Sara, for agreeing to let me do this again. Last October, my theme was Halloween. This time, the theme is…Farmers Markets.

July is a great time to hit your local Farmers Market in search of veggies, fruits, cheeses, maybe even eggs and meat. You never know what you can find unless you go look! So, go to a Farmers Market near you, find some interesting foodstuffs and bring them home and cook something!

Of course, since this is a cookbook challenge, you should try to get your recipe from a cookbook, but if you see an amazingly awesome recipe for just the very item(s) that you got at the market, in a magazine (or even online) that you really want to use for this, I’m not going to stand in your way. Myself, I just scored a used copy of The Northern Exposure Cookbook and I can’t wait to make something from it!

Alternatively, if you are a member of a CSA or something like that, that works just fine too. And if there is just no Farmers Market by you at all, you can, of course, use something from your very own garden or even windowsill.

To participate, please make a recipe and post about your dish and send your entry to mlbATjemangelavilleDOTcom (or mlbATjammedDOTcom works too) by Sunday, July 27th. If your recipe is from a cookbook, please make sure you include what the book you used in your post. Also, feel free to plug the Farmers Market in your post as well. I plan on getting the recap up very soon after the deadline.

Thanks again to Sara for generously letting me host this month. WCC is one of my most favorite food blog events! Please feel free to email if you have any questions about the theme or anything.

PS: If you are looking for a market and you live in the US, this seems like a pretty good tool.

I am usually not a big soda fan but I almost always am tempted by the pretty glass bottles of Italian Blood Orange Soda, especially when it is hot outside. I think about some in a tall glass of ice (okay, sometimes with a little vodka in there too) and the next thing I know I have multiple bottles in my shopping cart.

Anyway, I’ve seen this type of soda at Trader Joe’s and Safeway so I bet I could find it where you live. Here is a fun thing to do with it.

You could, of course, also use regular orange soda.

Italian Blood Orange Float
Blood Orange Soda (figure about 1 cup per float)
Vanilla Frozen Yogurt or Ice Cream (a pint should yield four floats)

Scoop some ice cream or frozen yogurt into a tall glass. Two generous scoops works well. Pour in soda until it comes up to the top and foams. Mmmm…tastes like a Dreamsicle!

Hot! Hot! It is hot in Portland. About 99 Saturday and 95 today (Sunday). Thankfully, we are, hopefully back to the 80’s and 70’s (yay!) this coming week. I am not a fan of hot weather, which is one of the reasons that I wanted to move North, but we do get a handful of 90+ days each Summer. This is a nice recipe for those kind of days or any kind of day, really.

I wasn’t quite sure how they would turn out but I am happy to say that both jwa and I really liked these shrimp cakes. They are also a great use for a bag of frozen shrimp (defrosted) that you may have hanging around the freezer. Also, you can use panko for all of your breadcrumbs here, but personally, I kind of like to save my panko for breading-type applications and use regular, plain breadcrumbs for filler type uses. So, I used both type of crumbs here.

When I made these, I did a half recipe and got four nicely sized cakes, which along with a Spinach & Strawberry Salad, was a good amount for two people. The recipe as written below, should yield eight shrimp cakes.

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Shrimp Cakes
Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine
16 uncooked large shrimp (about 1 pound), peeled, deveined
1 large egg
1 green onion, chopped roughly
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp + 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 handful fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of ground black pepper
1 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
2 tbsp (or more) peanut oil (or canola or olive oil — I used olive oil)

Coarsely chop shrimp in processor. Add egg, green onion, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon mustard, cilantro, hot pepper sauce, salt, and pepper. Blend in using on/off turns. Add 1 cup of plain breadcrumbs and blend in using on/off turns. Form mixture into eight 4-inch-diameter cakes.

If you don’t have a food processor, I don’t see why you couldn’t chop the shrimp by hand and then mix it in with all the other ingredients.

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet or plate and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Brush half of the remaining mustard on one side of each cake and dip in panko. Brush other side with mustard and repeat with the panko so that both sides are coated.

Heat 2 tablespoons of your oil of choice in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches (if needed), fry cakes until cooked through and golden brown on both sides, adding more oil to skillet as needed, about 6 - 7 minutes total. Serve with Lemon and Paprika Aioli.

Speaking of, this is a mighty tasty sauce. Originally, it was paired up with Fish Cakes (using halibut) but I figured it would work well for the shrimp cakes too. It really did!

Spicy Lemon and Paprika Aioli
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
3/4 tsp smoked Spanish paprika (or 1/2 tsp Hungarian sweet paprika and 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper)*

Combine all ingredients in small bowl; whisk to blend. Season aioli to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

* But, really, imho, it is worth it to find yourself some Smoked Paprika because it is a little bit of awesome in a jar

My new goal is to post at least once a week. So sad. I was trying to figure out this morning why it is I’ve gotten lazy. Okay, one, because I’m kind of lazy. But also, (this would be point two) after having this blog for three (!!) years, most of the stuff I make around the house is not new. They are recipes that I’ve made and posted about before. There. I feel better now.

This is a great Summer meal. You could eat it all room temperature if it’s really hot or just have the sauce a little chilled. I used a little of my sauce as a quick marinade. I liked the way that worked as I also got grilled parsley and cilantro. Yes, cilantro. I added some of that to my chimichurri. If you don’t want to do that, just use all parsley!

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri
Adapted from a Gourmet Magazine recipe
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced shallot
1/2 tsp hot red-pepper flakes
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 (6- to 8-oz) halibut fillets

Whisk together the 1/3 cup olive oil, lemon juice, water, garlic, shallot, red-pepper flakes, and 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper until salt has dissolved. Stir in parsley and cilantro. Let chimichurri stand 20 minutes.

Alternately, you can also do this in a food processor. That’s what I did as I wanted a finer consistency to my herbs and I was not really wanting to chop them finely.

Meanwhile, prepare grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-hot charcoal (medium heat for gas). Or, set your trusty grill pan over medium high heat.

Now, I took about 1/4 of my chimichurri sauce and spread it over the halibut before cooking. I let it sit for about 10 minutes. If you don’t do this, brush a little extra olive oil on the fish and give it some salt and pepper before cooking.

Oil grill rack, then grill fish, covered only if using a gas grill, turning once, until just cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes total. In my grill pan, I found about 5 minutes per side on medium to medium-high was good.

Serve fish drizzled with some of chimichurri; serve remainder on the side. Also on the side here is some whole wheat couscous and chopped cherry tomatoes.

First off, this was amazingly good. I mean I expected it to be tasty but it totally and completely surpassed my expectations. Especially the slaw. And it is finally almost Summer here in Portland. Woo!

Hey — I just realized that while I halved the steak and the slaw portions below, I made a full recipe of the marinade. Hmmm, I used some of that to brush on the meat while cooking, but I probably didn’t need as much marinade as I had, so I think the ratios below are just fine. And, I let the steak marinate in the fridge for about 5 hours. Reviews on epicurious.com also mentioned letting it go overnight. Good advice, I will probably do that next time.

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Grilled Asian Flank Steak with Sweet Slaw
Adapted from Bon Appétit
1/4 cup soy sauce
5 tbsp vegetable oil
5 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger, divided*
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 1 1/2-pound flank steak
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1-2 red jalapeños, diced finely
1/2 tsp orange zest
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
10 ounces of shredded cabbage mix
1/2 cup chopped green onions, divided

Mix soy sauce, oil, 3 teaspoons ginger, and garlic in resealable plastic bag. Add flank steak and seal bag; turn to coat. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes, turning occasionally. Or marinate up to overnight in the refrigerator.

Stir sugar and vinegar in small saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves; remove from heat. Add jalapeños and remaining 2 teaspoons ginger. Place cabbage, cilantro, orange zest and green onions in medium bowl. Pour vinegar mixture over and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Let stand while grilling steak, tossing occasionally.

Prepare barbecue (medium heat) or a grill pan over medium-high heat. Grill steak until cooked to desired doneness, about 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to work surface. Let rest 10 minutes.

Slice steak thinly against grain and serve with the slaw. Use extra cilantro as a garnish if desired.

* I keep my ginger peeled and in the freezer in 1-inch pieces. This works well for me and I always have usable ginger in the house. Here I used a microplane grater to deal with the ginger quickly, which is fast becoming my favorite way to mince ginger.

So, if I post this today, maybe there will be an asparagus recall tomorrow? Originally, this was just an asparagus lasagna but i had some chicken sausage to add to it. Thus, making it Asparagus & Chicken Sausage Lasagna.

There was also, in the original, heavy cream that was whipped and spread on the top of the lasagna before baking. I was really intrigued by that but I opted to just use the goat cheese sauce for the whole thing. But at some point, I will whip some cream and bake it on the top of something, just you wait.

And it’s a good thing it has been cold here lately. Perfect lasagna weather! Although, I think we will be sunny and in the 70’s today.

Asparagus & Chicken Sausage Lasagna
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
2 pounds medium asparagus, trimmed
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 chicken sausages, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, diced
Salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth, heated
1/2 cup water, heated
5 ounces mild goat cheese, such as Montrachet
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest, or to taste
no boil lasagna sheets for 4 layers of noodles — I used about 8 full sheets (mine were about 4 X 6 inches) and 2 halved sheets
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Cut the tips off each asparagus spear and reserve half of them them. Cut the stalks of asparagus into 1/2-inch lengths.

If your asparagus is of varying sizes, use one pan for the thinner stalks and one pan for the larger stalks. That way, you can take the thinner stalks out of the oven first. In each of 2 large shallow baking pans toss half the asparagus stalks (and half the total spears) with 1/2 tablespoon of the oil, and salt and roast them, shaking the pans every few minutes, until they are crisp-tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. Set them aside. Lower oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Heat a pan with the remaining tablespoon of oil and add the onion and garlic with a little salt. Add the sausage and cook until done. Or, if your sausage is fully cooked (mine was), just get it to brown a little. Set aside.

In a saucepan melt the butter, add the flour, and cook the roux over moderately low heat, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the broth and the water in a stream, whisking, simmer the mixture for 5 minutes, and whisk in the goat cheese, zest, and salt, to taste, whisking until the sauce is smooth.

Ladle a little sauce into the bottom of your 9 X 13 inch, oiled pan. Arrange 1 layer of pasta and spread each sheet with 1/4 of the sauce.

Top the sauce with 1/3 of the reserved roasted asparagus and sausage mixture and sprinkle with 1/4 cup of the Parmesan.

Continue to layer the pasta, sauce, asparagus, sausage and Parmesan in the same manner, ending with sheets of pasta. So, you will have the bottom sheet of pasta, three layers of asparagus/sausage/sauce and a final pasta cover. Ladle on the rest of your sauce.

Add the remaining asparagus tips to the top and any super skinny stalks of asparagus if you had any. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan on top.

Bake* the lasagna in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes, or until it is golden and bubbling, and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

* I made this in advance of baking it, storing it in the fridge for about 6 hours. I let it sit at room temperature before baking for about 45 minutes. I found that I needed to add about 5-7 minutes to the cooking time above.

This month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge is all about salads. The theme was picked by Mike of Mel’s Diner and he’s hosting this month. Yay, Mike! This theme sounds like a job for my newest cookbook, How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift. You know, The Splendid Table people.

This was one of the first recipes in here I saw and really, really wanted to try. So this WCC was the perfect excuse. I put a few arugula leaves on the bottom of my tomato stack to make it more salad-y. I also made about a half recipe of the vinaigrette (but with one full garlic clove) for two tomatoes. It worked well.

Both jwa and I liked this a lot and I am looking forward to making this with tomatoes from the garden. In like, September.

Ripe Tomato Stack with Pine Nuts & Mozzarella
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper
pinch red pepper flakes
1/3 medium red onion, diced (I used a sweet onion because that’s all I had)
3 tbsp dried currants
salt
2 tbsp (tightly packed) fresh basil leaves, torn
2/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
6 medium, ripe tomatoes
1 lb fresh mozzarella, packed in liquid, sliced 1/2 inch thick
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

In a small bowl combine the lemon juice, garlic, pepper, pepper flakes, onion, currants, and alt to taste. Let the mixture stand for 20-30 minutes. Just before assembling, stir in the basil and all byt 1/4 cup pine nuts.

Core the tomatoes. I was slightly confused about this but then I took out my apple corer, shrugged and used that. If you don’t have a corer, you could probably just use a shape knife to get the core out of the top of the tomato. I was just excited to use my apple corer and see how it would work with a tomato.

Cut each tomato horizontally into 1/2 inch thick slices. You should try to have the same number of slices for each tomato. I found it was helpful to have everything sliced up and ready to go (mise en place, if you will) for easier assembly.

Put the bottom slice of each on a plate and season with salt. Add a mozzarella slice, and about a teaspoon of the vinaigrette. Add another slice of tomato and continue in the fashion until you use the last slice of tomato.

Sprinkle the tomatoes with the reserved pine nuts and the olive oil. Serve at room temperature.

”

It may fall over…it’s still good. Thanks again to Mel’s Diner for hosting this month!