Basil Tomato Tart (or small tarts)

As shared by Mari @ Once Upon a Plate
www.onceuponaplate1.com
Adapted from "Gathering in the Garden" by Shelly Snow and Elaine Husband

Basil Tomato Tart
8 to 10 servings

12 cup flour
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 large or 2 medium ripe tomatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 pie crust (home made, or frozen, etc.) *see notes below
3 green onions (scallions), chopped ~ both white and green parts
1/3 cup fresh basil, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup real mayonnaise (not sandwich spread)
2 cups grated Swiss cheese

Optional:
8-10 black olives
8-10 fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 350º(F)
Pour flour, salt and pepper into a plastic bag, place sliced tomatoes into bag and shake well to coat evenly. Layer tomatoes on bottom of piecrust. Sprinkle green onions and basil evenly over the tomatoes,  mix the mayonnaise and Swiss cheese together and spread it evenly over the ingredients in the pie crust. Bake for approximately 35 to 40 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish each slice with a basil leaf and olive if desired.
Delicious warm or at room temperature.

This can be made into small tarts: Cut pastry into rounds, larger than tartlet pans.  For the tomatoes use either smaller tomatoes (to fit into bottom of tartlet lined pastry, chopped and drained tomatoes, or
cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half.)  Proceed with recipe.

Enjoy!

Cheesy Tomato Melts

As shared by Mari @ Once Upon a Plate
www.onceuponaplate1.com
Adapted from "Gathering in the Garden" by Shelly Snow & Elaine Husband

Cheesy Tomato Melts

1 (16 ounce) loaf garlic bread, split  
---(I just make my own garlic butter and lightly spread on a split 16 ounce loaf)
2 Tablespoons good mayonnaise (not sandwich spread)
1/2 cup basil, torn or chopped
3 medium tomatoes, sliced
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
Salt and Pepper to taste
8 ounces aged white cheddar cheese, grated (or your favorite cheese)

Preheat 450º(F)
Cut each half loaf into three pieces. Bake, cut side up, for 4 minutes. Spread with
mayonnaise and sprinkle with basil. Top with tomatoes, bacon, salt and pepper.
Sprinkle with cheese and bake 2 more minutes.

My variation:
Bake the split garlic bread as directed. Slice the split loaves into 1 1/2 to 2-inch wide slices.
I coarsely chopped (and drained) the tomatoes so they would fit more evenly on the bread. 
Proceed with recipe.
Optional: Thread whole fresh basil leaves on wooden skewers and place in bread vertically to represent sails.

Enjoy!

Lemon, White Chocolate and Basil Cookies from Mia's Domain

These are very good cookies; bright with lemon and the fresh basil just adds a nice little flavor nuance in the background. The recipe is from Mia at
www.http://www.miasdomain.com/.  It's a beautiful blog with lots of appealing recipes, stop on by enjoy all the eye candy that Mia creates! 

Mia's Domain: Lemon, White Chocolate and Basil Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons lemon zest, finely grated

1 tablespoon basil, finely chopped into small pieces

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup white chocolate, chips

1 cup superfine sugar

1 egg, room temperature

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, lemon zest, chocolate chips and basil.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, and lemon juice and beat until combined.  With the mixer on low, beat in flour mixture to combine.

Drop teaspoonfuls (about 1" apart) onto two cookie sheets. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until cooked and a golden color. Remove from the oven to cool.

Frosting:

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup powdered/icing sugar

2 tablespoons lemon zest

Whisk fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.  Frost cookies and sprinkle with fresh lemon zest.

My notes: Start with slightly less than 1 tablespoon lemon juice and add more by droplets to get the desired consistency.

Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe Mia! (www.miasdomain.com/)

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Cream of Vine Ripened Tomato Soup

• 2008, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics by Ina Garten
• (5 to 6 Servings) 
• 
  
• Adapted and shared by Once Upon a Plate by Mari (www.onceuponaplate1.com)
• 
  
• Ingredients for Soup:
• 
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped red onions (2 onions)
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 4 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped (5 large)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves, plus julienned basil leaves, for garnish (I used 1/8 cup basil leaves, plus 4 sprigs of fresh thyme tied together with butchers' twine.)
• 3 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade (Stock would probably be better, but I used chicken broth from the carton)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste; Ina suggests 2 teaspoons
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• Garnishes:  Ina suggests Croutons (see my notes below)*

Method:

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and carrots and saute for about 10 minutes, until very tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, chicken stock, salt, and pepper and stir well. Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes, until the tomatoes are very tender. Discard thyme stems.

Add the cream to the soup and process it through a food mill into a bowl, discarding only pulp that's left. Reheat the soup over low heat just until hot and serve with garnish, see Notes.*

*Notes:  Ina suggests garnishing with croutons and juilenned basil leaves. 

Along with a shower of freshly ground black pepper, I have served this garnished two ways: 

1.) Fresh baby arugula leaves with crispy crumbled bacon. (Top photo)The bite of the arugula adds a nice contrast to the rich soup . . . and the bacon?  Ummm! 



2.) As shown above, with a Crouton (thinly sliced baguette slice, toasted/grilled) spread with spinach-basil pesto (In a food processor whir baby spinach leaves and a few basil leaves with a small clove of garlic and olive oil, plus salt and pepper to taste)

I hope you enjoy!

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Capellini with Olive, Artichoke and Tomato Sauce

Capellini with Olive, Artichoke and Tomato Sauce
This recipe is very loosely based on a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis
4 servings ( I halve this recipe to serve 2 generously)

1 pound dried capellini (angel hair pasta, or other pasta of your choice)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups tomato sauce, recipe below (may be made in advance)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup basil leaves, julienned

Directions:
For the sauce~ (Can be made ahead)

Olive and Tomato Sauce
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1 1/4 cups mixed olives, pitted and halved
1 (14 oz.) can of artichokes, coarsely chopped (may use marinated artichokes, drained)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, plus more if desired
2 dried bay leaves

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, optional


In a large saute pan, heat oil. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft and translucent, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, bay leaf and red pepper flakes; simmer over medium heat for 45 minutes to 1 hours until thickened. If too thick, add a bit of water to thin. Near the end of cooking time add olives and artichokes, continue simmering for 10 to 15 minutes. (The sauce may be made ahead and refrigerated.)


To assemble the dish:

In a large pot, bring 6 quarts of salted water to a boil. When water comes to a boil, add pasta, stirring constantly for the first minute . Cook until al dente.

In the meantime, heat the sauce in a large pot, and keep hot.

Drain pasta in a colander, reserving 1/4 cup pasta water. Add pasta to the sauce and toss to coat completely. Add pasta water if you need to thin out the sauce a bit. Plate pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and basil.

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Herb Infused Oils

Herb-Infused Oil

This technique can be used for making infused oil whether the ingredient is basil, rosemary, oregano, garlic, chiles, chervil, chives, cilantro, mint, mushrooms or citrus fruit. (Tarragon works best in early spring, otherwise it is quite bitter when infused.)

The ratio of olive oil to flavoring ingredient of your choice is one cup of oil to two cups of tightly packed soft leaved green herb. I rarely make an entire cup of infused oil as it should be used within a week, I usually use 1/2 cup of oil which calls for only one cup of herbs, or other ingredient as listed above.

Method:

Fill a large bowl with ice water, set aside.

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add the herbs, blanch for 5 seconds (make sure the leaves are submerged.) Drain into a strainer and immediately plunge the herbs into the bowl of ice water until cold. Drain the herbs well and squeeze out all liquid.

Puree in a blender with olive oil (blender works better than a food processor here.) Strain puree immediately through a fine-mesh strainer. Strain again through three or four layers of cheesecloth (rinsed in clear water and squeezed dry before straining the herbs.) Put the oil in a sterilized glass bottle, cover tightly and refrigerate. For best flavor, use within one week.

For most purposes I don't mind if the oil is not transparent so I simply drain through two fine metal sieves, one placed inside the other ~ it catches most of the herb sediment.

Important Notes~

It is imperative that no fresh herbs (or any other flavoring ingredient you are using) are added back into the oil before bottling because this could introduce the risk of the food borne illness, botulism.

This method is adapted from Michael Chiarello.