Cooking
If your tomatoes aren’t perfect, so much the better — a quick blast in the oven and some dollops of ricotta and pesto make them shine.
Good morning. This is Tejal, filling in for Sam.
It’s August in Los Angeles, which means that if I can get my hands on a truly perfect tomato, I will slice it, salt it, flood it with olive oil and eat it just the way it is. I could do this all summer long but, let’s be real, I won’t. Just because it’s late summer doesn’t mean that every single tomato I come across is ideal for eating this way — and that’s OK!
Bless the squishy tomatoes, the dimpled, heavy-bottomed, almost sappy tomatoes, ideal for seasoning an extra-juicy panzanella. Bless the firm, unyielding and tight-skinned tomatoes, too, which will slump and sweeten when they’re baked in a tomato tart.
If you find yourself with firm tomatoes, layer slices over puff pastry that you’ve smeared with a little crème fraîche and bake for about half an hour — that’s all it takes to bring out the best in them. Cover your tart with ricotta, pesto and extra basil leaves. It’s a luxurious weekend breakfast or a beautiful savory treat to bring over to someone’s house or carry along to a picnic (in this case, pack the ricotta and pesto separately to finish the dish on site). Or, have it with a simple green salad, and it’s dinner.
Featured Recipe
Roasted Tomato Tart With Ricotta and Pesto
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What else do I feel like making? After reading Korsha Wilson’s excellent article about the Coleman-Richards reunion in Fayette County, Ky., I bookmarked Isaiah Screetch’s showstopping West African spice cake to make over the weekend. I can already imagine the kitchen perfumed with calabash nutmeg, cloves, ataiko, cinnamon, ginger and cayenne, and I have a plastic tub of tamarind paste in the fridge, ready to go.
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