Tomato tart – 6 September 2014

This is a common tomato-season dinner for us, though this year I’ve made it only once before. It’s a butter pastry crust with chopped leeks cooked in butter, basil, grated cheddar, and tomato slices. My version of the recipe is here. I used Tillamook medium cheddar again this time, and it works well. I’m not convinced that the sweetness of the exceptional dry-farmed early girls form Dirty Girl Produce makes an ideal taste for this tart, but it is still very good. I think more acidic tomatoes might be preferable for this particular recipe. We choose the tiniest tomatoes b/c they have the strongest flavor, so I actually used eight of them in this dish!

We tasted wines from less familiar regions of Italy today at The Wine Mine, and I chose one for tonight’s dinner. It’s from Alt0 Adige – high as in north, and high as in up – the Alps. It’s from the Sudtirol, which is near Austria and Switzerland. This is labeled St. Magdalener Classico, and Huck am Bach, which might be the producer? Also says Kellerei St. Magdalena Cantina. 2012. We cooled is slightly from room temperature, and also decanted it in our nifty rolly decanter, and it was quite enjoyable. At $16, not bad for a Saturday dinner.

 

 

Lunch:

D suggested we ride our bikes to the farmers’ market and have lunch after we did our shopping. Two people recommended the snapper in banana peel at the Thai booth, so we tried that, and the spring rolls, and split both. The spring rolls were refreshing and tasty, and their dips (peanut and Other) were good, too. We shared both. Unfortunately, I found the fish bland and uninteresting. It was accompanied by a pretty and well made salad, and plain rice, which was good, as plain (brown) rice is, but I would have been happier with a curry.