My favorite way to use them is in a “tomato tasting” salad: Assemble as many varieties, colors, shapes, and sizes of very ripe tomatoes as you can find. Choose a few different “cuts” for variety; for example, cut small yellow pears in half lengthwise to reveal their curves, big beefsteaks in large rectangular chunks, small ridged ones crosswise in thick slices, and some of different colors in small wedges. Arrange them in groups on a long shallow platter and season generously with salt, fresh pepper, and olive oil. As your guests hover expectantly, let the tomatoes sit for at least 30 minutes and up to an hour. Serve with a spoon for the juices.
In the age of the 32-ounce (or larger) Big Gulps and the like, a small drink may not necessarily seem fashionable. But large quantity is not always related to good quality, as is attested by those mammoth margaritas, laced as they are with artificially flavored sweet-and-sour mix. This margarita is the real thing: purity and refreshing freshness that's strained into martini glasses after a vigorous rumble with ice cubes in a cocktail shaker. Just before your guests arrive, combine the tequila, orange liqueur, and lime juice in a pitcher, and you'll be poised for the shaking to begin.
Sweet-scented Pilaf: Masala Pulao
Lacto-vegetarian (vegan if you use oil); gluten-free
Thin, crisp crusts like this one are the hallmarks of much of Italy's pizza. Another vital element is not overloading the pie with toppings; less is definitely more on pizza. This dough goes together quickly and can be used after a single rising. If time is very short, blend, knead, rest for 30 minutes, and roll out. No baking stone is needed, since you slip the crust out of the pan and crisp it directly on the bottom rack of the oven during the last two minutes of baking. Use stone-ground, organic, flour if possible.
A long with muscadine grapes, butter beans are among the farmer's market treasures of late summer in Charleston—reason to wake up with gusto to another day of stultifying heat and oxford-soaking humidity. We do all kinds of things with butter beans: we make a hummus-like spread for the cocktail hour, we simmer them with seasoning meats of all sorts, and we compose marinated salads aplenty. But this may be our most simple treatment yet, and one of the most satisfying.
Star chef Mario Batali's outstanding vegetable pasta boasts juicy roasted tomatoes with asparagus, Broccolini and shavings of ricotta salata cheese.
Ingredients
Steam the cauliflower florets and core over boiling water for about 3 minutes. Taste a piece. It should be on the verge of tenderness and not quite fully cooked. Set it aside.
As featured in episode 611.
I know this sounds like a Dr. Seuss recipe (only without the elastic scansion) but it is, as the Italians say, "sul serio," no joke. The green factor is not crucial, but since this came about because I happened upon some spinach-dyed stubby coils of trottole—the pasta shape named after its supposed resemblance (I don't see it) to a spinning top—it feels right to me. Serendipity is only part of the story: I have also always had a thing about pasta and blue cheese, both separately and in conjunction. This recipe is in many ways an evolution of the Pasta with Gorgonzola, Arugula & Pine Nuts in my Quick Collection app, and indeed you could make any sort of mishmash of the two. The major developments here are that I felt the need—or rather a fancy—to sprinkle the deep green of the pasta with the paler pistachios, and I add no cream or mascarpone (as I used to) since a little pasta-cooking water, whisked into the cheese, makes it as creamy as you could wish for. This is not a dietary stance, but because the starchy water doesn't mute the palate-rasping piquancy of the Gorgonzola.