Looking for a no-cook summer supper idea? How about one that uses up almost-overripe tomatoes and stale bread? Panzanella is an Italian summer salad that is best made with the ripest summer tomatoes you can find — and the perfect way to use those tomatoes sitting on your kitchen counter.
Panzanella can be served as a side dish or the main course — because I was serving this for Meatless Monday, I added cannellini (or white kidney) beans to boost the protein content. A good quality cheese — parmigiano reggiano or my personal favorite, a sharp pecorino — is a great finishing touch. Because I use canned beans to save time (see note below), I like to cook them with a little garlic first to add flavor. You can omit that step if you prefer, or if you’re more organized than I and cook dried beans ahead of time.
Recipe: Panzanella with Cannellini Beans
Ingredients:
- 1 loaf day-old Italian bread
- 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans*
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 large, very ripe tomatoes
- 1/2 red onion, chopped
- 1 handful fresh basil, thinly sliced
- parmigiano or pecorino cheese
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (plus 1 tablespoon for the beans)
- 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- sea salt and black pepper
* I use Eden brand organic, BPA-free canned beans
Instructions: Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes and spread on a baking sheet in a single layer. Toast in the oven at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes.
In a small saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium low. Cook garlic for 2-3 minutes, until soft. Rinse and drain the canned beans, then add them to the pan, stirring to combine with the garlic. Cook on low for 5 minutes.
In a large salad bowl, pour the bread cubes, cooked beans, tomatoes and basil. Separately, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper to make a vinaigrette. Drizzle over the salad and toss gently to combine. Let the salad sit on the counter for 15-30 minutes to let the flavors meld before eating. Just before serving, grate some cheese over top. Makes 4-6 servings. Enjoy!
Note: this recipe depends on juicy tomatoes to moisten the salad — if your salad seems dry, add additional olive oil and vinegar to taste.
Tags: at market · beans · meatless monday · proteins · recipe
If you’ve been to a DC-area farmers market lately, I don’t have to tell you peaches are here. After a couple week hiatus, we stopped by the Crystal City Farmers Market last week to stock up on fruit at Kuhn Orchard — but I passed up the peaches and went for apricots, plums, blue and blackberries. I’ll definitely get the peaches this week, but I figured apricots were easier for one-handed eating while holding the baby.
If you’ve already stocked up on peaches and need inspiration, here are a few of my favorite recipes from past years:
If you’ve got a favorite peach recipe, please share it below — or anything else you’ve cooked up lately from the farmers market, CSA or your garden!
Local Potluck Tuesday — a few guidelines:
1. Share a relevant post — a recipe, menu or pictures of a meal featuring local foods, from the farmers market, CSA, farm stand or your own garden — using the MckLinky widget below. In the link title field, enter both your post title and your name &/or blog name, e.g., “Lemon Cucumber Salad — Colleen @ FoodieTots.”
2. Bonus points if you included your kids in picking, growing, purchasing or cooking the ingredients for the meal! (And by bonus points, I mean increased likelihood of seeing your post featured in a future post.)
3. In your post, please link back to this post here at FoodieTots, so your readers can find the potluck and be encouraged to join in as well. Of course if you don’t have a blog, you’re welcome to share in the comments.
That’s it! I hope you’ll join in and share what you’re cooking up that’s fresh & local to you!
{Editor’s Note: I’m on “maternity leave” for the next couple weeks. Posts are scheduled to keep you satiated (including a whole month of cherry recipes!), but please forgive me if I don’t respond to comments promptly.}
Tags: at market · fruit · local potluck tuesday · recipes
As promised, July is cherry month here at FoodieTots. I know it’s the tail end of the season around DC, but elsewhere they’re just coming into season. While I bought all the Bing and sour pie cherries I could during our too-short season, I never spotted Queen Anne cherries this year — the yellow-red cherries that resemble my favorite West Coast Rainier cherries. But the Bing cherries were nice and sweet this year, and in an effort to use them in as many meals as possible I made this warm cherry apricot compote for Sunday brunch.
Recipe: Cherry Apricot Compote
Ingredients:
1 cup sweet cherries, pitted and halved
4 apricots, diced
1 tablespoon raw honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions: Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook apricots until lightly browned on one side. Add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat until fruit is warmed through and apricots are soft, about 8-10 minutes. Serve warm over Almond French Toast (below) or your favorite pancakes or waffles. Makes 4 servings.
Recipe: Almond French Toast
Ingredients:
8 thick slices of day-old bread
1 tablespoon butter
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of ground nutmeg
Instructions: Whisk eggs in a shallow baking dish (big enough for your bread slices) until light and fluffy. Add milk, extracts and nutmeg and whisk until combined. Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Dunk slices of bread, one at a time, in the egg mixture, letting soak for a minute or so. Cook for several minutes on each side, until golden. Serve with maple syrup and or/Cherry Apricot Compote. Serves 4. Enjoy!
Farms of Origin: cherries and apricots from Black Rock Orchard (PA) @ Falls Church Farmers Market, milk from South Mountain Creamery (MD), bread from Atwater’s Bakery.
Tags: at market · breakfast · fruit · recipes
I learned to love artichokes during college in California, where a big, steamed choke and bowl of melted butter with wine (for dipping) was one of my favorite meals. The array of drop dead gorgeous artichokes at the Portland Farmers Market two summers ago was one of the things that had me nearly begging my husband to move back west. So it’s safe to assume there may have been a tear or two of joy when I spotted these baby artichokes at Kuhn Orchard’s stand at the Crystal City Farmers Market.
I trimmed the prickly tops, peeled the stems, sliced them and fried them up, per a recipe found at Steamy Kitchen. I first fried slivered garlic to season the oil, a la the Pioneer Woman. After removing the chokes from the frying pan, I tossed them with sea salt, a generous dose of grated parmesan cheese and the fried garlic. They were fabulous and I probably chowed down on half the plate before they made it to the table. (That’s okay, they taste best hot anyway.)
If you’re lucky enough to find baby artichokes grown near you, this is the perfect appetizer for your next dinner party. Or just for Tuesday night.
Please join the Local Potluck and share what local foods you’ve enjoyed this past week!
a few guidelines:
1. Share a relevant post — a recipe, menu or pictures of a meal featuring local foods, from the farmers market, CSA, farm stand or your own garden — using the MckLinky widget below. In the link title field, enter both your post title and your name &/or blog name, e.g., “Lemon Cucumber Salad — Colleen @ FoodieTots.”
2. Bonus points if you included your kids in picking, growing, purchasing or cooking the ingredients for the meal! (And by bonus points, I mean increased likelihood of seeing your post featured in a future post.)
3. In your post, please link back to this post here at FoodieTots, so your readers can find the potluck and be encouraged to join in as well. Of course if you don’t have a blog, you’re welcome to share in the comments.
That’s it! I hope you’ll join in and share what you’re cooking up that’s fresh & local to you!
{Editor’s Note: I’m on “maternity leave” for the next couple weeks. Posts are scheduled to keep you satiated (including a whole month of cherry recipes!), but please forgive me if I don’t respond to comments promptly.}
Tags: at market · local potluck tuesday · recipes · vegetables
As we prepared to welcome baby #2, this holiday weekend was an exercise in clearing out our CSA produce from the fridge. We grilled flank steak one evening, and I had chimichurri on the mind but was missing jalapeno peppers. (Chimichurri is a South American pesto-style green sauce, typically made with parsley and peppers. We first tasted it at an Argentinian steakhouse in Puerto Rico, on our honeymoon.) When my dad arrived back in town, imagine my surprise that a garden-fresh care package from my sister-in-law in North Carolina contained … jalapenos! I used the last of our CSA garlic scapes, and parsley from my herb pots. Unfortunately my basil plants have quite overshadowed my parsley, so I didn’t have quite as much as I would have liked. But this turned out delicious just the same. We also roasted beets, zucchini and yellow squash on the grill. Simple and tasty!
Recipe: Garlic Scape Chimichurri
(If you don’t have garlic scapes, substitute fresh garlic cloves.)
Ingredients:
- 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded (leave seeds in if you like it extra hot)
- 3 garlic scapes, cut into 1-inch pieces (or garlic cloves, peeled)
- 1 cup fresh parsley
- 1/3 – 12 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions: Place peppers, garlic and parsley in food processor and process until finely chopped. Gradually add olive oil until a pesto-like consistency is reached. Stir in salt and store in refrigerator until ready to use.
Notes: I rub a generous amount onto flank steak, place it in a pan and add half a bottle of beer, then marinate it for at least 1 hour before grilling. Then serve extra chimichurri along side the cooked steak. It’s also great tossed with potatoes and/or zucchini before roasting them. Enjoy!
Please join in and share what local foods you’ve enjoyed this past week!
Local Potluck Tuesday — a few guidelines:
1. Share a relevant post — a recipe, menu or pictures of a meal featuring local foods, from the farmers market, CSA, farm stand or your own garden — using the MckLinky widget below. In the link title field, enter both your post title and your name &/or blog name, e.g., “Lemon Cucumber Salad — Colleen @ FoodieTots.”
2. Bonus points if you included your kids in picking, growing, purchasing or cooking the ingredients for the meal! (And by bonus points, I mean increased likelihood of seeing your post featured in a future post.)
3. In your post, please link back to this post here at FoodieTots, so your readers can find the potluck and be encouraged to join in as well. Of course if you don’t have a blog, you’re welcome to share in the comments.
That’s it! I hope you’ll join in and share what you’re cooking up that’s fresh & local to you!
Tags: CSA · grilled · local potluck tuesday
