Back Again: Tomato Bread Salad ala David Tanis

After a few months off to finish my upcoming book, Peaceful Places Boston: 121 Tranquil Places in the City and Beyond, I'm back to writing this blog at the perfect time: just as the height of the summer's bounty begins to appear in farmers' markets and farm stands.

Hallelujah for corn, new baby potatoes, eggplant, peppers, and of course, tomatoes!

I've been making bread salads for years now. My long-time, go-to recipe is the Panzanella: Bread and Vegetable Salad with Anchovies in The Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan, which unfortunately, now seems to be out of print.

Recently, I've also enjoyed Judy Rodgers version, Tomato Summer Pudding from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. But I'm always looking for new slants on this salad and interesting techniques--so when I found a recipe for Layered Tomato Bread Salad, in David Tanis' Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys, I was eager to experiment.

Part of what intrigued me was the complexity of the vinaigrette for the salad--complexity of flavor, by the way, not of preparation.
You macerate a minced shallot in red wine vinegar for five minutes, then add a garlic paste, made by smashing garlic cloves and a little salt with a mortar and pestle, then drizzle in some olive oil to make your vinaigrette.

Next, you add some chopped anchovies, capers, and olives to make a chunky dressing that you pour over the cubed tomatoes and sliced cucumbers--and let the pungent flavors meld.

Heirloom tomatoes have just come into the Seacoast Growers' market in Portsmouth. Robin and Dave were able to buy a ripe and colorful selection through our CSA at Meadow's Mirth Farm. We also bought some country-style bread at Beach Pea Bakery in Kittery. Of course, as it was just fresh baked, it was not the day-old bread we needed, so to dry it, we sliced it and left it out overnight, in preparation for grilling it the next day. (The point of this salad is to have some bread pieces be really crispy, while others soften by soaking in the salad juices.)

 

Because this salad was to be our contribution to a cookout, we made everything ahead of time and transported the vegetables and dressing separately. Our host was happy to grill the bread prior to making dinner, so we could have the completed salad on the table when the rest of the food was ready. Needless to say, it was a big hit!

Layered Tomato and Bread Salad

From Heart of the Artichoke And Other Kitchen Journeys by David Tanis

Ingredients

12 slices day-old country bread, such as pain au levain

1/2 c olive oil, plus more for brushing
3 garlic cloves for swiping the bread
1 shallot, minced
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
6 anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
1/2 cup Nicoise olives, pitted and roughly chopped
Salt and pepper
6 ripe large tomatoes, roughly cubed
1 small cucumber, peeled and sliced
A generous handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped
A generous handful for serving, if desired

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Paint the bread generously with olive oil on both sides and place it on a baking sheet. Bake until the slices are crisp and golden, about 10 minutes, turning them halfway through. (Or toast the oil-painted bread on a grill.) Let the bread cool, and swipe each slice with a garlic clove. Break each slice into 2 or 3 pieces. Set aside.

2. To make the vinaigrette, macerate the shallot in the vinegar for 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic paste and add the 1/2 cup olive oil. Add the anchovies, capers, and olives and stir well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Put the tomato cubes and cucumber slices in a medium bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables.

4. Assemble the salad on a deep platter or in a low, wide bowl. Layer half the bread slices on the platter or in the bowl and spoon over half of the tomato/cucumber mixture. Lay over the rest of the bread and top with the remaining tomatoes. Cover with a clean towel and let sit for about an hour at cool room temperature.

5. Just before serving, gently press down the salad with your hands to distribute the juices. Sprinkle generously with the basil and parsley. Spoon the salad onto plates lined with crisp lettuce leaves.

A Warm Spot for Spicy Black Bean Chili

Is there a dish more aptly named than chili? I mean on a morning when the snow banks along the walkway to the front door are up to your hips and you can practically see your breath inside the house, and more than anything you want something that explodes with heat the second you taste it, you know it's a chili day. Even better, it was a Seacoast Growers' Winter Market day. That meant I could buy some black beans that Jean Jennings of Meadow's Mirth Farm had grown and dried last season and make my favorite chili recipe, the Black Bean Chili from Cafe Beaujolais.

I'd first sampled this dish in the late '80's at Margaret J. Fox's restaurant of the same name in Mendocino, California, after a breathtaking, but harrowing drive up the coast from San Francisco. Mendocino bills itself as a perfect replica of a quaint little New England town, though I might point out that the ocean is on the wrong side. But it was a beautiful place to relax for a couple of days, (I stayed at the inn that was the setting for the movie, Same Time, Next Year), and I was very pleased to take a number of meals at the sunny yellow cottage that was home to this illustrious cafe. (In the 70's and 80's, Margaret J. Fox was almost as famous in the Northern California culinary scene as Alice Waters!)

 

To me, what makes this recipe so special is the seasonings, which include cayenne pepper and paprika, as well as a blend of cumin seed and dried oregano, basil, rosemary, and thyme that have been heated in the oven for 10 minutes or so. To add a little smokey zip, I chopped up a couple of chipotle chiles en adobo and added them, with a little of their sauce, to the pot.

You may think dried beans are dried beans, but the truth is that the fresher the beans, the more flavorful they are -- and the faster they cook. I was looking forward to sampling Jean's beans, and can happily report I was not disappointed.

Don't try to substitute canned beans here -- I think the texture would be all wrong. Plus the dried turtle beans don't need to be soaked for this recipe and since they're really quite small in size, they were ready to go after just an hour and three-quarters of cooking -- it's also a nice way to heat up the kitchen on a col, cold day.

To serve, put some cheese in a bowl and scoop in the chili and top with chopped scallions, more cheese, and a little cilantro -- the latter is optional. One note of warning: this is a spicy chili -- if you don't like the heat, well maybe, you should stay out of the kitchen. 

Black Bean Chili
from Cafe Beaujolais by Margaret Fox
(Recipe originated at Greens in San Francisco)


Ingredients
4 cups dry black beans
3 cups  crushed whole tomatoes
2 large finely chopped yellow onions
1 1/2 cups finely chopped green bell peppers (I used red because I like the color contrast)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
2 tablespoons dried oregano (You can also try to approximate the famous Beaujolais Blend by substituting a mixture of dried basil, rosemary, and thyme for one of the tablespoons of oregano.)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons paprika
1/2 cup finely chopped jalapeño chiles (2 large jalapeños) (Canned are okay -- I also added a couple of chopped chipotle chiles en adobo.)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese, grated
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
8 sprigs or 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Instructions
1. Sort through the beans; discard the funky ones and any small pebbles. Rinse well. Place the beans in a large pot and cover with water by several inches. Cover and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce the heat and cook for about 1 3/4 hours, or until tender. You'll need to add more water if you start to see the beans. Water should always cover the beans, so add more if the beans start to peek through.

3.When the beans are cooked, strain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water and adding it back to the beans.

3. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Toast the cumin seeds and oregano in a small pan until the fragrance is toasty, about 10 minutes.

4. Sauté the onions, bell peppers, and garlic in the oil over medium-high heat with the toasted cumin seeds and herbs, cayenne pepper, paprika and salt until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and chiles. Add this mixture to the beans and stir well. Add additional seasoning to taste.

5. To serve, place about one-quarter cup grated cheese in a warmed bowl, add a generous cup of beans, and dollop with a spoonful of sour cream. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon green onions, a little more cheese, and the cilantro.

Conserva the Summer

I'm just dazzled by the array of tomatoes available now in the farmers' markets in both Portsmouth and Boston. And while this summer's heat and drought has been hard on flowers, it's been heaven for tomatoes. Even the lemon yellow heirlooms, which I too often find mushy and tasteless -- have a surprising deep flavor. I find myself calculating how many tomato-filled meals I can look forward to until the season finally ends. (You haven't lived if you haven't savored an heirloom tomato and Monterey Jack cheese quesadilla for breakfast, with warm tomato juice rolling off your chin! Today's will have leftover corn and bacon, too!)

One thing that's been very exciting is seeing the interesting selection of paste tomatoes
that New Hampshire farmers are growing. I'm talking way beyond San Marzano. At Barker's farm stand, I've seen the little Juliettes that Paul Bertolli, who has been a chef at the Bay area's Chez Panisse and Oliveto, mentions in a chapter called "Twelve Ways of Looking At Tomatoes", in his book Cooking By Hand. He suggests cutting them in half lengthwise and putting on a baking sheet filmed with olive oil, adding a little salt, then cooking them in a very slow oven (180 to 200 degrees) for five or six hours to concentrate the flavor. I'm looking forward to trying this.

However, thanks to Bertolli, one of my current tomato obsessions is Conserva, a super concentrated tomato paste made in the oven. (In Italy, it's called estratto, and there, it's the blazing hot sun that does the work, over the course of four to six days.) In my convection oven, it takes about five- and a-half hours (it can be closer to seven in a regular oven). Coincidentally, I found one of  Bertolli's favorite sauce tomatoes, Principessa Borghese, at the Meadow's Mirth stand at the Seacoast Grower's farmer's market, so last Sunday, my sister Robin and I spent the afternoon chopping, sauteing, food milling and oven drying about 6 pounds of tomatoes. Though there's surprisingly little waste -- it appears that tomatoes are nothing but cells full of flavor -- we wound up with two Ziploc bags full of concentrated tomato essence. I suspect that next winter, we'll be grateful that we conserved a little of this summer's glory.

I'm looking forward to making some sauce next weekend, using Bertolli's sauce recipe. (Basically, this is the same as the Conserva -- only you saute some onions and garlic first, until softened, add the diced tomatoes, cook until soft, put through the food mill, then put the tomatoes into a clean pot and simmer on the stove top until it's the thickness you desire.) I suspect this year, our traditional night-before Thanksgiving spaghetti supper will be something to be really thankful for.

Conserva

from Cooking by Hand by Paul Bertolli

Total time: 20 minutes, plus 7 hours cooking time

Yield: 1 1/4 cup

Ingredients

5 pounds ripe, good-quality tomatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for storage

1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Cut the ripe tomatoes into small dice; this promotes the most rapid cooking. Warm a little olive oil in a wide skillet or casserole. add the tomatoes and salt and bring to a rapid boil. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until tomatoes are very soft. Immediately pass them through the finest plate of a food mill, pushing as much of the pulp through the sieve as you can. The puree should be devoid of seeds. (Note: I did this in two batches.)

2. Lightly oil a baking sheet with olive oil. Spread the tomatoes in the pan in an even layer and place in the oven. If using a convection oven, cook for three hours. If not, cook for 5 hours until the water has evaporated from the paste. Use a spatula to turn the paste over on itself periodically as water evaporates and you notice the surface darken. Reduce the heat to 250 degrees and continue to evaporate the paste for about 21/2 to 3 hours, or until it is thick, shiny and brick-colored.

Tomato Conserva holds for a long time stored in glass canning jars and topped with one-half inch of olive oil. As you use it, maintain this level of olive oil on top. Store the Conserva in the refrigerator. Or put it in a large

Ziploc freezer bag, flatten, remove air, and freeze, breaking off pieces when needed.

Give Peas a Chance

I try to eat seasonally, but sometimes (all too often, really) my mouth gets ahead of things. I feel that way about peas. To me, peas seem like the perfect spring vegetable, like artichokes or asparagus. Alas, in New England, fresh peas are rarely available until late June -- hence that traditional Fourth of July dish, salmon and peas.  Fortunately, I've found a way to get the pea fix I've been craving. Right now, a number of the farmers at the markets in Portsmouth and Boston are selling pea tendrils. These actually aren't really tendrils at all, but rather the leaves and shoots of a young pea plant. I've discovered that they have a surprisingly strong, authentic pea flavor.

Last week, we found fresh pea tendrils at the Meadow's Mirth stand in Portsmouth. Usually we serve pea tendrils raw in salads or lightly sauteed as part of an Asian stir fry. This time, we decided it would be fun to try using them instead of basil in a pesto sauce for homemade pasta with smoked scallops. While Dave and Robin made the pasta and smoked the local day-boat scallops in our Bradley smoker, I made the pesto, using the blender pesto recipe from Marcella Hazan's The Classic Italian Cookbook. (I, however, find it easier to use the Cuisinart rather than the blender.)

The pea tendril leaves are about the same size and texture as basil leaves, but they don't bruise as easily and don't discolor. I toast the pine nuts just a little before adding them to the pesto and I don't use the butter as Marcella suggests.

By the way, this recipe freezes well, as long as you don't add the cheese until you're ready to serve it. In the fall, we often use it to make huge quantities of basil pesto before the frost does in that tender herb. This year, I might try making some pea tendril pesto for the freezer as well. After all, sometimes, I get a hankering for peas in winter, too.

Blender Pesto
ala Marcella Hazan from The Classic Italian Cookbook
Enough for about 6 servings of pasta

Ingredients
2 cups fresh basil leaves (I used 2 cups of pea tendrils. This recipe also works for parsley, cilantro or garlic scape pesto.)
1/2 cup of olive oil (I use extra virgin)
2 tablespoons pin nuts (I toast them briefly)
2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed with a heavy knife handle and peeled
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons freshly grated Romano pecorino cheese
3 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature (I eliminate this -- and add more cheese, if the texture isn't right.)

Directions
1. Put the basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt in the blender and mix at high speeds. Stop from time to time and scrape the ingredients down towards the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. [Using the Cuisinart, I pulsed the pea tendrils, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt, then added the olive oil in a stream to make an emulsion.]
2. When the ingredients are evenly combined, pour into a bowl and beat in the two grated cheeses by hand. (This is not much work and results in a more interesting texture and better flavor than you get when you mix the cheese in the blender.) [When I'm using the Cuisinart, I take out the blade and mix by hand in the bowl.] When the cheese has been has been evenly incorporated into the other ingredients, beat in the softened butter. [I usually eliminate this step.]
3. Before spooning the pesto over the pasta, add to it a teaspoon or so of the hot water in which the pasta has been boiled.

If you want to freeze the pesto, follow the recipe in Step 1. DO NOT ADD CHEESE OR BUTTER. To take up less room in the freezer, I put enough for a portion in a Ziploc freezer bag, flatten, seal tightly, and freeze. Before using, thaw overnightin the refrigerator. When completely thawed, beat in the cheese and butter as in Step 2. Before spooning over pasta, add the pasta water as in Step 3.