TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2021
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THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — B1
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Tuesday, August 3, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Summer is
TOMATO’S
PRIME TIME
Colter Peterson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/TNS
20 minutes.
5. Stir together cheese, may-
onnaise, basil, chives, Dijon and
egg until combined. Sprinkle with
pepper to taste and remaining
1/4 teaspoon salt. Fold in bacon
mixture.
6. Gently spread a third of
cheese mixture into pie crust;
layer with half of the roasted to-
mato slices in slightly overlapping
pattern. Spread another third of
cheese mixture on top of tomato
slices. Repeat with remaining
roasted tomato slices and cheese
mixture. Top with reserved sliced
fresh tomatoes, pressing fi lling
gently into crust. Shield edges of
pie with aluminum foil.
7. Bake in preheated oven until
fi lling is set, 45 to 60 minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack, and let
stand 1 hour before serving.
Sprinkle with basil and chives.
Per serving: 440 calories; 34
g fat; 11 g saturated fat; 64 mg
cholesterol; 11 g protein; 23 g
carbohydrate; 5 g sugar; 3 g fi ber;
840 mg sodium; 183 mg calcium
Adapted from a recipe by
southernliving.com
Salsa Roja on a bed of tortilla chips.
By DANIEL NEMAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Summer’s here, and the
tomatoes are ripe. If I could,
I’d fi ll a swimming pool
with tomatoes and dive in.
Admit it: The more you
think about it, the more that
sounds like a good idea.
Because tomatoes are
approaching the peak of
their tomato-ness right now,
I decided to celebrate every-
one’s favorite fruit-that-
masquerades-as-a-vegetable
by trying out a variety of
ways to use them when they
are fresh and at their peak.
No canned tomatoes
here. I made recipes that are
straight-from-the-vine good.
For only the second time
in my life, I made a tomato
pie. And I instantly won-
dered why it wasn’t some-
thing I make every week
throughout the summer.
If the thought of a savory
tomato pie gives you pause,
perhaps it is best to think
of it as a quiche without all
the eggs. And if you wonder
how you can bake tomatoes
in a pie crust without get-
ting the crust soggy, don’t
worry. These tomatoes are
sliced and somewhat dried
out in the oven before they
are placed in the pie.
Because it is a pie, you
obviously have a crust (I
made my favorite recipe,
which is both fl aky and fl a-
vorful), and clearly toma-
toes are involved. A lot of
tomatoes. Three pounds of
tomatoes.
But what makes this par-
ticular recipe so spectac-
ular is the rest of the fi lling.
It’s got bacon. It’s got sharp
cheddar cheese. It’s got
mayonnaise and Dijon mus-
tard and one egg, to bind
everything together. It’s got
garlic and shallots and basil
and chives, and after you’ve
baked it it’s got even more
basil and chives.
And all of that goodness
is served in a pie crust with
ripe tomatoes. Just thinking
about it makes me sigh
contentedly.
To further my enjoy-
ment of ripe tomatoes, I
next made spaghetti with a
fresh tomato sauce. It is a
wonderful dish that you can
only make at this time of
the year.
The sauce is uncooked,
so you get the pure fl avor
of the freshest, ripest toma-
toes. It is simple to make,
just chop a tomato and
mix it with olive oil, just a
bit of fi nely minced garlic
(the garlic is raw, so you
defi nitely do not want big
chunks), red wine vinegar,
balsamic vinegar and a
good sprinkling of chopped
basil.
The trick is to stir this
mixture into just-cooked
spaghetti while the pasta is
still hot. The heat warms
up the sauce just enough to
release its fullest fl avor. All
you need then is a sprin-
kling of Parmesan cheese
and you have a light, fresh
dish that is superb for the
summer.
And because I was using
deliciously ripe tomatoes, I
naturally had to make that
all-time Southern favorite, a
tomato sandwich.
Why tomato sandwiches
are relatively unknown
north of the Mason-Dixon
line, I will never know. If
you are familiar with them
and eat them, my even men-
tioning them is like sug-
gesting that peanut butter
might go well with jelly.
But if you don’t know
them, now is the time to try
one.
They are the simplest
things in the world to make.
You slather two pieces of
Wonder bread — it almost
has to be Wonder bread —
with plenty of mayonnaise.
In the South, they almost
always use Duke’s mayon-
naise, but any kind you like
will be fi ne.
Season a couple of thick
slices of tomato with salt
and pepper, and place them
between the slices of bread.
Eat immediately. Then
make another, because
you’re going to like the fi rst
one so much you won’t want
to stop eating them.
Also delicious was the
next dish I made, the some-
what misnamed Sizzling
Broiled Tomatoes With
Herbs.
They are misnamed,
because they are not actu-
ally made with herbs, other
than maybe some basil in
the vinaigrette. But they are
awfully good, a better ver-
sion of stuff ed tomatoes,
which my mother used to
make when I was young.
The dish is just tomato
halves topped with bread
crumbs and then broiled,
but two steps make it so
much better than ordinary
versions.
One is that the cut toma-
toes are fi rst spread with a
vinaigrette. You can use any
kind you like, but I made
the basil vinaigrette recom-
mended by cookbook author
Shirley Corriher, and it was
excellent. Its bright, fresh,
slightly acidic taste is just
what a tomato needs, and
forms an inviting bed for
the bread crumbs.
The other step involves
these same bread crumbs.
Instead of merely being
sprinkled on top of the
tomato (or in this case,
tomato and vinaigrette),
they are fi rst sautéed in
butter and then sprinkled
on top. As it always does,
a little butter makes all the
diff erence in the world.
And fi nally, when life
hands me tomatoes, I make
salsa. In particular, I made
salsa roja, which is just
Spanish for “red sauce.”
You can use salsa roja
for any number of dishes,
but mine rarely goes beyond
being served with tortilla
chips.
It includes all the usual
salsa suspects: tomatoes,
onions, cilantro and pep-
pers. I like to use three dif-
ferent types of peppers for
a rounded, layered taste,
but I also create consider-
able depth by fi rst roasting
the vegetables in a hot pan
before blending.
How does it taste? I’d tell
you, but my mouth is too
full of chips and salsa.
SALSA ROJA
Yield: 6 servings
3 tomatoes
1 small white onion
1 jalapeño pepper
1 serrano pepper
1 Anaheim or poblano pepper
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped
1. Cut tomatoes and onion into
quarters. Remove stems from
peppers and slice in half; remove
seeds if you want the salsa to be
less spicy. Peel and crush garlic.
2. Heat a large skillet over
medium-high heat and add oil.
Add tomatoes, onion, peppers
and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook,
turning occasionally with tongs,
until browned and soft, but not
burned. A few minutes before
the vegetables are done, add the
garlic; turn occasionally to keep
from burning.
3. Place cooked ingredients
in a blender with the water and
vinegar. Blend until it reaches your
desired texture. Pour into a bowl
or container and stir in cilantro.
Taste and add more salt and
vinegar, if needed.
Per serving: 75 calories; 5 g fat;
1 g saturated fat; no cholesterol;
2 g protein; 8 g carbohydrate; 4 g
sugar; 3 g fi ber; 397 mg sodium;
20 mg calcium
Recipe by Daniel Neman
TOMATO PIE
Yield: 8 servings
3 pounds tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt, divided
6 thick-cut bacon slices, diced
2 shallots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, fi nely chopped
6 ounces (about 1 1/2 cups)
aged extra-sharp cheddar
cheese, grated
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh chives
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 large egg
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie
crust, your favorite
Fresh basil leaves
Minced fresh chives
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut tomatoes into 1/2-inch-
thick slices. Place about 7 or 8
slices (enough to cover top of
pie) on a baking sheet lined with
paper towels, and sprinkle with
1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Cover
with additional paper towels, and
reserve.
3. Arrange remaining tomatoes
in a single layer on a lightly
greased wire rack set on a large
baking sheet. Sprinkle with 1/2
teaspoon of the salt. Bake until
wilted and slightly dried out, 40
to 45 minutes. Cool completely,
about 1 hour.
4. Meanwhile, cook bacon in
a skillet over medium-high until
fat is beginning to render, 4 to 5
minutes. Add chopped shallots,
and cook until bacon is crisp and
shallots are caramelized, 6 to 7
more minutes. Stir in garlic; cook
until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer
bacon mixture to a plate lined
with paper towels to drain. Cool
TOMATO
SANDWICH
Yield: 1 serving
2 slices soft, sweet, white bread,
such as Wonder bread
2 tablespoons mayonnaise,
Duke’s or your favorite
3 or 4 thick slices tomato
Salt and pepper
Spread 1 tablespoon of may-
onnaise on each slice of bread.
Cover 1 slice with tomato, season
liberally with salt and pepper, and
cover with the other slice of bread.
Per serving: 357 calories; 23
g fat; 4 g saturated fat; 12 mg
cholesterol; 6 g protein; 32 g
carbohydrate; 6 g sugar; 3 g fi ber;
618 mg sodium; 94 mg calcium
FRESH
TOMATO
SAUCE
Yield: 4 servings
8 ounces dried spaghetti
2 cups diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon fi nely
minced fresh garlic
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
Grated Parmesan cheese
1. Cook spaghetti according to
package directions.
2. While it cooks, mix together
in a medium bowl the tomatoes,
garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar
and balsamic vinegar, and season
with salt and pepper.
3. When spaghetti is done,
drain and place portions on serv-
ing plates. Immediately top with
tomato mixture, sprinkle with
basil and add Parmesan cheese
to taste.
Per serving: 311 calories; 8 g fat;
1 g saturated fat; 1 mg cholesterol;
9 g protein; 51 g carbohydrate; 6
g sugar; 3 g fi ber; 897 mg sodium;
72 mg calcium
Recipe by Daniel Neman
See, Tomatoes/Page B8
At war in the garden with an unknown enemy
LISA
BRITTON
IN THE GARDEN
I’m at war.
The enemy: unknown.
The casualty: my
garden.
This spring I set out
with a hopeful heart, as I’m
sure all gardeners do when
winter fi nally relinquishes
its grip and spring arrives.
I have raised beds along
our driveway, which runs
parallel to an irrigation
ditch. As the spring sun
warmed the soil, I amended
it with some compost and
then took out my seed
packets.
This year I decided to
plant only the crops we love
the most (well, mostly me
— the rest of my family
only tolerates vegetables).
I planted Walla Walla
sweet onions, lettuce, car-
rots, peas, radishes and
tomatoes.
The tomato plants are
in a bed against the house.
The other crops went into
the beds along the ditch.
Seeds sprouted and the
garden grew.
One day, my dad and I
were surveying the garden.
He lives across the street
and has his own garden,
so we like to compare the
growth rate between our
two techniques.
Suddenly I noticed that
half of my onions were
missing.
We have deer roaming
the neighborhood, and they
sometimes stop for a snack
in my garden. But the soil
in the onion patch was
smooth — no hole where an
onion was yanked from the
ground.
I shrugged and didn’t
think much about the
mystery.
Then more onions
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
An unknown invader hasn’t bothered the author’s fl owers, but the animal has made away with onions
and peas.
disappeared.
When my robust pea
plants suddenly wilted, I
investigated a bit closer.
The pea plants had no
roots.
Some vile invader was
munching my garden from
underneath the ground —
either nibbling the roots or,
in the case of the onions,
yanking the entire plant
under so the soil fi lled in
the hole.
As for the lettuce, I think
the deer started eating that
but it’s okay because the
heat turned it bitter.
Now my carrots are
disappearing.
I’ve pretty much given
up on the garden this year
except for the tomatoes,
which are behind some
fencing and away from the
ditch creature(s).
Now I’m looking ahead
to next year. I could dig out
all the soil, line the bottom
of the bed, and then replace
the soil.
But I’ve been surveying
gardens and yards around
town, and I think I’ve
devised a new plan.
I love fl owers as well as
vegetables, so I’m going
to get some metals tubs
to set on top of the garden
beds. I’ll grow vegetables
in those and plant fl owers
around the base.
My vision is to have an
actual crop to harvest while
also drawing pollinators to
the garden with a variety of
blooms.
And I hope that under-
ground critter bangs his
head on the metal when he
tries to get a meal.