FAREWELL, SUMMER

Tuesday, September 20

This is my favorite summer pasta dish. Another Brick-Oven knock-off, this pasta turns up in my kitchen many times over the course of the summer. A couple of weeks ago, the vendor at the Market who sold me these tomatoes told me that would be his last crop until the fall ones came in. In honor of the last summer tomatoes, I decided to fix them in the way I feel best captures their pure flavor. If you can still get your hands on some summer tomatoes, please make this pasta before the season leaves for good. I do wish it would take some of this dreadful humid heat with it when it goes...a breath of fall air would do me some good.

FRESH TOMATOES AND BASIL

1/2 pound angel hair pasta

1 T. butter

2 T. olive oil

6-8 cloves of fresh garlic, sliced thinly

2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes chopped

1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn

Kosher salt

Cracked pepper

Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta until tender and drain. Toss with the butter and set aside. In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat, until it shimmers. Add the garlic, and cook until it just begins to turn golden, but be careful not to let it burn. Add the tomatoes all at once and coat with the garlicky oil. Salt and pepper well. Lower the heat to medium-low, and cook until the tomatoes' skins are beginning to shrivel (they should be soft but not mushy). Add half of the basil until just wilted. Pile each plate with a mound of the pasta. Pour the tomatoes on top, making sure to get plenty of the liquid. Top with extra basil leaves and grated Parmesan cheese. Serve with crusty bread (I cook mine right in the skillet after the tomatoes are done; it soaks up the leftover juices and absorbs that garlicky flavor). And, if you are one of those must-have-meat people (or if you cook for one), grilled shrimp or chicken works well in this dish. A quick, easy, and so delicious meal!

PORTABELLA PIE

Monday, September 19

The menu for this week proves that I apparently cannot go a week without relying heavily on chicken. I can't get away from it! In my second-semester writing class for the past 2 years, I have taught an essay called "A Savage Life," in which Suzanne Winckler vividly describes her ritual participation in chicken-butchering at a friend's farm. Both times I've taught the essay, without fail, on the way to school I've ended up behind one of those awful chicken trucks with the cages stacked on top of each other, feathers flying out everywhere. Coincidence? Maybe, except that another professor confessed last year that the same exact thing happens to her. What is the interstate trying to tell us, I wonder?

I don't know, but it is certainly hard for me to go a week without using this versatile bird in my menu. My apologies for his constant presence. I did, at least, avoid him until Wednesday this week. That's something, right?

For my first chicken-free meal, I made this portabella mushroom pie. My good friend from Jackson, Angela Simpkins, makes a pie similar to this one; I think of her each time I make it. I did not make my own pie crust this time (Aunt Prissy, don't be mad!), but if you have time, you should. The caramelized onions with their sweet richness and tangy feta cheese complement the earthiness of the mushrooms nicely. I have, in the past, added the tomatoes without cooking them first, but then, they make the pie too juicy and the crust soggy. Roasting them first in the oven intensifies their flavor, and eliminates much of their water content. I served the pie with an arugula salad, finished with long, thin slices of parmesan, cracked black pepper, and olive oil.

PORTABELLA PIE

2 pie crusts

2 onions (1 red, 1 yellow) sliced thinly

1 T. butter

1 T. olive oil

3-4 medium tomatoes, chopped

4 portabella mushrooms, chopped

More olive oil

Kosher salt

Cracked pepper

4 ounces feta cheese

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place one of the crusts in a pie dish, poke holes in it with a fork, and cook for about 10 minutes, until beginning to brown. In a large skillet, heat the butter and olive oil. Cook the onions over medium-high for about 20 minutes, or until they begin to release their sugars and brown. At that point, salt well, and turn off the heat. Meanwhile, toss the tomatoes with olive oil on a cookie sheet (the pieces should be evenly coated), salt and pepper well. Place the mushroom pieces on a separate cookie sheet, and coat them with oil, salt, and pepper also. Roast the tomatoes and mushrooms in a 425-oven for about 12 minutes, or until they begin to shrivel (see photo below). Layer the vegetables in the pie crust, beginning with the mushrooms and ending with the onions; sprinkle the cheese and some basil between each layer. Top with the remaining pie crust, and bake until the top is just beginning to brown, about 10-15 more minutes.

Grilled Chicken on Focaccia

Strawberry-Goat Cheese Salad

Lemony Chicken with Tiny Potatoes

Pesto Chicken Salad

Angel Hair with Goat Cheese and Caramelized Vegetables

ARCHIVES:

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MY FAVORITE COOKBOOKS:

The Aunts' Recipe Book

by Cindy, Prissy, Jennifer, and Emily

This is the cookbook my aunts gave me when I got married. It is a 3-ring binder compilation of all their favorite recipes and some hilarious photos of me as a kid. It is by far my favorite book to cook with because it reminds me of people who love me. And, boy, do they know their food!

The Barefoot Contessa

by Ina Garten

Ina Garten's philosophy on food suits me so well. She believes in simplicity and fresh ingredients, and everything I have made of hers has been both easy and delicious.

Barefoot Contessa Family Style

by Ina Garten

I gave my sister-in-law, Hannah, this cookbook for her birthday last year, and we recently traded. She has the original Contessa, while I'm trying recipes from this one. So far, Ina's record with me is impeccable.

The Foster's Market Cookbook

by Sara Foster

I love this cookbook for its sheer variety; if ever I am in a creativity slump, I can count on this book to inspire me.

Fresh Everyday

by Sara Foster with Carolynn Carreno

I just got this one, and so far I love it. Lots of good basic recipe templates with ideas for innovation.

Come On In!

Junior League of Jackson, MS

This cookbook is a staple in the kitchens where I come from, and whenever I need a southern food fix, I turn to it.

Intercourses

by Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge

Based on ingredients that have aphrodisiac qualities, this is a cookbook to hide when your mother comes over. The food and the photography are fabulous, but as for its aphrodisiac powers, well, you'll have to be the judge of that (my mother might read this, after all). The food really is good, though; I've made almost everything in it.

Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet

by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

I love Asian food, and this cookbook is valuable as much for its narrative and photography as for its recipes. Often, it calls for ingredients I can't find, but I have had fun trying my own substitutions nonetheless.