Ooey, gooey goodness

With all the news about the continuing surges of waves at Santa Cruz harbor - I knew I wanted something comforting for lunch.

I decided to use up the rest of the plum tomatoes and the one yellow tomato that was left.

I sauteed one shallot and two cloves of garlic in a little bit of olive oil. I then added two pinches of basil, oregano and the chopped up tomatoes.

While that simmered, I cooked up some pasta.

The gooey part?

I added chunks of mozzarella to the sauce.

When the mozzarella had melted into the sauce it was time to eat!

I did go on a long walk with the dogs. About 3 miles by mapmyrun.com.

 
And I do have a shot of my kitchen which is slowly - very, very slowly - getting more organized.

 

Bruschetta and basil pesto

The morning was fairly productive.

The noise has started up again. The stomping - the screeching as they drag copper pipes across the roof. 

I know the workers are not having fun doing this work. I know they want to get the work done as fast as possible as much as I want them to.

But it is incredibly grating and irritating. And no matter how loud I turn up the T.V. the dogs are disturbed.

In an effort to keep them distracted I made a lunch that incorporated bread - one of their favorite ingredients.

I picked up some gorgeous yellow tomatoes and mini - plum tomatoes at the corner market.

I sauteed slices of bread in olive oil. Then, since there were out of fresh basil at the market, I made do with basil pesto.

I blanched the tomatoes in boiling water, dunked them in cold water and peeled off the skins.

1/2 teaspoon of chopped garlic and 2 tsp. of olive oil were mixed into the chopped, blanched tomatoes and then spread on top of the pesto.

The dogs enjoyed a snack of mini-plum tomatoes stuffed with basil pesto.

And, yes, the dogs did get the bits of bread that just wouldn't do :-)

Tomato tartlets

I have long been obsessed with tomato tartlets.

One of my favorite restaurants used to have them on the menu as an appetizer. Imagine my horror when one day I sat down anticipating my favorite dish, only to find that they had taken it off the menu.

Today, I started a project to try and recreate this dearly missed dish.

Tomato tartlet with cheddar cheese.

 I decided to make the simplest form of the recipe - using just the ingredients I knew were in the dish.

Ignore the anchovies - they are for the dogs version :-)

 The stars of the show:

Canned plum tomatoes and sharp cheddar cheese.

Puff pastry cut into rounds and then gently patted into the wells.

Plum tomatoes with most of the liquid drained off.

Shredded cheese.

I placed a small amount of cheese in the pastry (hoping this would keep it from getting too soggy).

Then I put the tomatoes on top.

And then some extra cheese to cover. Into the oven at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Hot out of the oven.

 

 Did they turn out perfect? No.

Was it a good first try? Definitely.

I think I needed to add more tomato. The puff pastry was right, along with the cheddar cheese.

Adding in a pinch of salt and pepper to the tomatoes would have improved it, I think.

I am cooking the dogs version now - I will get that posted tonight :-)