GASTRONORMOUS

I am not even sure I can call this a ratatouille, conformiste ou non-, seeing as I totally made up the recipe without reference to a single recipe for actual ratatouille. [Quelle dommage!] Oh, and this was my first attempt at making ratatouille. [Zut!] But we all know what the basic components of ratatouille are, right? Luckily for me, it is a forgiving dish, and this whatever-it-was that I made and am calling ratatouille was delicious.

I was inspired by our lot of goods from the CSA last week, where there was buzz that all the veggies that day screamed to be made into a ratatouille. So, susceptible to suggestion as I am, I decided to make it. In the box were: yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, eggplant, onions, and garlic, among other things. Not included in our CSA lot were tomatoes, so I had to go buy some of those.

The non-conformiste part of the recipe comes mostly from the treatment of the eggplant, which was grilled before being added to the dish. I did this because I thought it would add some smokey interest to the pot, but also because the eggplant we had added to stir frys past had turned out unpleasantly oil-logged; I thought grilling the ‘plant first would keep this from happening. Another element that might seem odd to you is the addition of the poached egg. I did this to add some protein to the dish, but it was actually inspired by a long-ago lunch in Paris I enjoyed: a ratatouille crepe with an egg cracked on top, gently cooked only by the heat of the ratatouille.

This is not the most flattering photo possible, mostly due to the inelegantly shaved cheese that was allowed to sweat from the heat a bit before I snapped the pic. But ratatouille is a humble dish, not meant to impress the eyes, but only the mouth. And at that, at least, this succeeded.

What follows is more of a technique than an actual recipe. As with most non-baking kitchen endeavors, I encourage you to play with proportion of flavor and texture to suit your taste. I love a lot of garlic, but you may not. You might have a glut of zucchini in your garden, but no crooknecks. Or maybe you have some mushrooms or other non-conformiste vegetable you need to use. Go with that!

Ratatouille Non-Conformiste

eggplant
olive oil
white or yellow onions
garlic
zucchini
crookneck squash
and/or summer squash
tomatoes
dried basil
dried oregano
dried or powdered thyme
salt
pepper
tomato paste or powder
balsamic vinegar [or wine]
eggs

Put thick eggplant slices on a piping hot grill (or cast iron griddle if you are stuck indoors). Brush with a little olive oil, flip slices, brush with more olive oil. Cook until browned and charred in spots, drain on paper towels.

Heat a good amount of olive oil, add some sliced onions (at least one medium), saute until softened a bit. Add a few sliced squash (I did a half-moon shape) and a couple cloves of minced garlic. Sautee for a few minutes until the squash is beginning to soften and the mixture is aromatic. Do not let brown. Add a few tomatoes, roughly chopped, along with some basil, oregano, thyme, salt, and black pepper, to taste. Your eggplant should be cool enough to handle by now, so chop that roughly and add it to the pot and give it a good stir. Add some water, a bit of tomato paste or tomato powder, and a splash of (white or traditional) balsamic vinegar [You can instead add some white or red wine here, but I elected not to as I am preggers]. It couldn’t hurt to add a little more olive oil at this point, too. Stir, and then cover.

Let simmer for 15 minutes or so until the squash is soft and the flavors have mingled. Taste and adjust seasonings as usual. If it is too thick, add a touch of water (you need it to be pretty liquidy to poach the eggs). Now, crack an egg into a little bowl or ramekin and transfer gently to the simmering mixture. Repeat until you have one egg per mouth to feed. Try not to let the eggs touch each other. Use a ladle to spoon some of the hot liquid from the ratatouille over each egg. Cover again and let cook until desired doneness. An almost raw yolk would be the most appropriate, but as I am pregnant, and the Hubs doesn’t like raw yolks, I must confess I cooked the hell out of these eggs. But, do as you wish!

Spoon the ratatouille into bowls, placing an egg in the center of each bowl. Top with shaved parmesean, and voila! Dinner is served.

In these first crisp days of Fall, there is nothing more satisfying for dinner than pasta made using the last of this season’s tomatoes, roasted in the oven to eke out every last bit of sweetness.

I had planned on using plum tomatoes for this recipe, but when I got to the store, all they had were hothouse tomatoes from Holland and some grape tomatoes from the USA. I went for the grape tomatoes; I often find hothouse tomatoes to be tasteless, plus these were shipped so much farther. The grape tomatoes ended up working surprisingly well here.

In addition to being easy and scrumptious, this recipe is pretty recession-proof: the tomatoes aren’t too expensive, and everything else is probably already in your pantry. If you want to splurge on fresh herbs, or if you grow your own, go for it. But especially in roasting, I find dried herbs work perfectly well.

Roasted Grape Tomato Pasta

4-6 cloves garlic, sliced very thin
2 T olive oil
2 pints grape tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise
2 tsp dried rosemary, rubbed between your palms
1 tsp ground dried red pepper
1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes
1 tsp salt
more olive oil to finish

10 oz penne pasta

parmesan cheese, shredded, to taste

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Put garlic and oil in a 9×13 glass baking dish (using something along the lines of a pyrex dish, not a cookie sheet). Stir it around gently with a wooden spoon to ensure all the garlic slices are separated. Put this in the oven while you wash and slice the grape tomatoes. (I find the garlic needs a few more minutes cooking than the tomatoes do.) Take dish out of the oven and put tomatoes in, being sure to scrape any juices from the cutting board into the dish to (be careful, there might be splatter!). Add seasonings and stir it all up. Roast for 20 minutes. Toward the end of the roasting process check to see how dry the tomatoes are. If they haven’t given up much juice, add another splash of olive oil.

In the meantime, cook the pasta in salted water until barely al dente. Add the pasta and a ladleful of pasta water directly to the Pyrex dish. Stir to incorporate, and while you are at it, scrape up some of the caramelized bits sticking to the bottom of the baking dish.

Top with some shredded parmesan cheese and serve!

Serves 3 or 4.

I don’t know about your local farmer’s market (or backyard garden), but this year my market has been selling the most gorgeous heirloom tomatoes. Last week I bought some small and intensely flavored Black Prince variety tomatoes, some big and sweet Great Whites, and plump and juicy Red Brandywines.  With this sudden glut of tomatoes in my fridge, I decided to do two riffs on one of my favorite uses for fresh tomatoes: the caprese.

The list of ingredients for these two salads is almost identical, but you will find that the sum of their parts add up quite differently.

Gastronormous Caprese

Many caprese recipes do not call for balsamic, but I find that, used in moderation, it adds a little something special to this now commonplace Italian menu item.

If you happen to have a bottle of 40 year-aged balsamic languishing in your cupboard, by all means use it here. But if a $100 bottle of vinegar is not in your price range, do it my way: use a reduction of grocery store balsamic. The result of reducing the vinegar might not fool the palate in a head-to-head taste test against the real thing, but I promise this thick, rich, and sweet substitute will wow your cocktail party guests (or, you know, your spouse)!

1 cup balsamic vinegar
approx. 1 lb piece of fresh mozzarella (a bit bigger than a baseball)
1-2 heirloom tomatoes, depending on size (I used half a Great White and a whole Black Prince)
10-14 large fresh basil leaves
2 T good quality extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat balsamic in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until boiling. Immediately reduce heat to low and simmer without stirring until vinegar is the color and thickness of dark molasses, about 15 minutes.Take off heat and let cool to room temperature (do not refrigerate!).

Slice tomatoes and cheese into 3/8-inch slices. Cut these in vertical halves (this is optional–it looks a little more elegant if the pieces are kept whole, but it is easier for guests to serve themselves and eat if smaller; if the tomatoes are small, do not cut slices in half). Lay out slices of tomatoes and cheese on the cutting board and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper (taste the mozz first–if it is really salty, just use pepper; be sure to salt the tomatoes, though–it helps draw out the juices).

Arrange the tomato and cheese slices in an alternating pattern on a serving platter. Slip a basil leaf between each layer (ie, tomato-basil-cheese-basil-tomato, etc.). Drizzle with olive oil. Drizzle with just a couple teaspoons of the reduced balsamic and serve (do this right before serving or else the balsamic will be absorbed by the cheese and won’t look as pretty!).

Serves 4-6. Serve with (toasted) bread, if desired.

Brooklyn Panzanella

This is really a cross between a traditional bruchetta, which doesn’t include cheese, and a panzanella, which generally utilizes a lot more olive oil than I call for here. Here, the tomatoes are the true star, and the fresh mozzarella plays a supporting, but essential, role. Because the tomatoes are cubed they release a lot more juice than when cut into thick steaks for caprese, and that juice helps create a very flavorful dressing.

3 c heirloom tomatoes, medium dice ( I used Great Whites and Red Brandywines)
1 small garlic clove, minced*
1/4 cup basil leaves, torn (or chiffonade, if you are feeling fancy)
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
1 c cubed fresh mozarella
12 3/4-inch slices of baguette

Toss together tomatoes, garlic, basil, oil, and vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and give another quick toss. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes but not longer than 3 hours. Before serving add cheese and toss well, ensuring that it is coated with the tomato-y dressing that formed through maceration.

Arrange 3 slices of bread on a small plate and top with about one cup of the salad. Spoon some extra dressing over the top. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil. Repeat with the rest of the bread and salad.

Serves 4.

*Resist the temptation to go for a larger clove–you don’t want the garlic to overpower the sweet tomato flavor.

The inspiration for making this dish was two-fold. First, I went to the great little French restaurant in my neighborhood, Ici, for brunch a couple weekends ago, and I had the quinoa with roasted vegetables and pesto, which was really simple and delicious. Second, when I talked on the phone with my Mom last weekend, she told me about a bulgur recipe she makes, and it sounded like a healthy and simple weeknight meal. When I went to the store to buy the bulgur, I spied the quinoa and it occurred to me that it would be a slightly exotic stand-in for the bulgur wheat from Mom’s recipe.

Quinoa looks, tastes, and cooks like a grain, but is actually the seed produced by a flowering plant (of the Goosefoot or Chenopodium family, which in turn is related to Amaranthaceae, or spinach family, in case you are into botany). It is native to Peru, and has a long history there: it was reportedly revered by the Incas. Unlike beans, which must be paired with rice to make a complete amino acid profile, quinoa is a complete protein containing all nine essential amino acids. It is also packed with vitamins and high in fiber. And have I mentioned it is darned tasty?

The following recipe is basically the one my Mom gave me over the phone (substituting the bulgur for quinoa), and I duplicated it from memory, so forgive me, Mom, if it is at all wrong!

“Mom’s” Quick Quinoa

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and picked over
1 tomato, chopped
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp rosemary, rubbed between your hands
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups broth (or water with bouillon)
1 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

After rinsing quinoa in a fine mesh sieve and picking out any foreign debris, place sieve in a bowl and fill with water. Let quinoa soak while you do chop the veggies and do the following:

Saute onions in the oil over medium heat until they reduce in size and start to brown (almost caramelized, but not quite), adding the garlic after about 5 minutes. Add tomato and spices and cook a few minutes more.
Drain the quinoa really well, then add to the pan. Stir around until much of the water has evaporated. Add broth, bring to a boil, cover and cook for 12-16 minutes until the quinoa is done (which you only know for sure by tasting!). It should be chewy but not crunchy when done. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Right before serving, stir in the parley.

It is yummy on its own, but would also be delicious garnished with sour cream or plain yogurt and/or cherry tomatoes. This would be great as a side or main dish. You could serve it with a salad, quesadillas (what we did–see pic below), steamed vegetables, soup, you name it, be creative!

Serves 4 generously.

I knew the Hubs would be working late last night, so I wanted to prepare something that I could eat when I wanted, but would also be enjoyable hours later when he came home. After some mild brain-racking and multiple fridge-surveys, I finally decided on a new take on my curried lentil and chick pea salad, and to go with it, some chutney and cheddar grilled sandwiches. I am not generally a big sandwich-for-dinner person, but on this particularly hot and muggy evening, I wanted to make something easy, filling, and requiring only a minimum of stove time, and a salad and grilled sandwiches fit that bill.

The salad recipe isn’t worth repeating here as it utilizes basically the same ingredients and technique as before, but with a couple additions, and slightly different proportions. The dish is really quite malleable and hard to mess up, so if you want to try this, I encourage you to play with my original recipe, using whatever additions or substitutions that sound good to you.

Varying from the original, I used a little less mayo and more oil and vinegar, plus I used white navy beans in place of both lentils and chick peas, I left out the artichoke hearts, and added lots of carrots and celery (in a small dice). The resulting dish had an about equal ratio of carrots, celery, and beans. The salad was delicious, and had a great, satisfying crunch provided by the heavy addition of fresh veggies. We ate this salad two nights in a row, and it was even better the second night! So go ahead and make it in advance if you can plan ahead better than I!

If you have ever had a ploughman’s lunch at a pub, you know what Branston Pickle is. It is actually more of a chutney than what Americans think of as a pickle, but it goes really well with cheese. When I eyed the jar of mango chutney I happened to have in the refrigerator, I thought of the ploughman’s flavor combo, and decided to give it a spin on the grill, along with some aged cheddar cheese and some hearty pumpernickel bread. It was really tasty, and the vaguely Indian-ish flavors paired well with my curried bean salad. This combo of cheese and chutney would also be great as a quesadilla or on some crusty white bread.

I was able to prepare everything for the sandwiches in advance, so that when the Hubs came home, it was just a matter of firing up my trusty grill, and throwing the sandwich on it for a few minutes. It ended up being a quick and tasty meal, one that would only have been more enjoyable if he and I had eaten it together!

Some grilled cheese tips.

• Spread a really thin schmear of softened butter on the outside-facing side of each slice of bread (rather than putting butter on the grill or pan) in order for the sandwich to evenly brown.
• As tempting as it is, only press down on the sandwich if the bread is really thickly cut.
• When using cheese other than American, shredding the cheese works better than slicing. It can be a little trickier to get onto the grill without cheese falling out, but it melts in a much more even layer, ensuring cheese in every bite!

This meal was inspired by an email I received from a friend who is currently in El Salvador working for the Peace Corps. She wrote in her email about making papusas from scratch with two Salvadorian grandmas, which sounded lovely, not to mention tasty. But It was hot out in Brooklyn (not that isn’t in El Salvador!), and it was a Monday evening, and well, I wasn’t really motivated enough to engage in the effort of finding the ingredients (such as corn masa, which is not available in nearby markets) and making it all from scratch.

So, I wasn’t exactly going to make papusas, but would have to figure out how to make something that gave the general impression of them. If you have ever been to the Red Hook Ball Fields, you know that the traditional accompaniment to papausas is pickled cabbage, so a mayonnaise-less coleslaw was a must. And, while not exactly traditional, I was thinking an avocado salsa might be nice on top of the “papausas.” So there was my dinner plan: A non-specific-but-definitely-south-of-the-border Monday.

Since I wasn’t going to make papusa dough from scratch, I thought a good stand-in would be thick, high quality tortillas, requirements fulfilled by the Hot Bread Kitchen homemade corn tortillas that I located at Provisions market in Front Greene, Brooklyn. I felt like an über-gringo paying an absurd $5.50 for 8 tortillas, but Hot Bread Kitchen happens to be a cool company that pays immigrant women a fair wage to bake breads traditional to their culture, while at the same time training them to work in the New York food industry, so at least I can say I overpaid for a good cause.

Note: This recipe calls for jalapeños, which, after I assembled the dinner, I learned has been found to be the most likely cause of the Salmonella outbreak. Tonight I am going to watch the News Hour with Jim Lehrer before cooking dinner. Assuming I am not in the hospital with Salmonella poisoning tonight, of course. Fingers crossed!

Faux-Papusas with Mexican Coleslaw and Avocado Salsa

For the Coleslaw:
1 small head cabbage
1 large carrot
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup flavorless oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1 T. sugar, plus more, to taste
1/2 to 1 jalapeño, to taste, minced

Clean, core, and slice the cabbage as thinly as possible (I find it easiest to cut the head it in quarters first). Clean the carrot and make long ribbons by lying the carrot flat on a cutting board and running a peeler along its length.

Whisk together the vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. Add one tablesppon of sugar and taste. Add more sugar to taste, a few teaspoons at a time until it tastes good to you. Now add the half the jalapeño and taste again. Add more if necessary (I notice some jalapeños are practically as mild as bell peppers while others are super hot. The one I used last night, though it was big, was hot enough to make my fingers burn for hours after I handled it!!). Whatever you don’t use set aside for the avocado salsa.

Toss the shredded cabbage and carrot ribbons with the dressing, cover, and refrigerate for at least an hour. Taste again right before serving and add more seasoning as necessary.

For the avocado salsa:
1 avocado, diced
1 tomato, diced
juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 jalapeño, minced
1/4 c. cilantro, roughly chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Gently toss all the ingredients, serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate until ready to use (but not more than an hour or so).

For the faux papusas:
4 thick, fresh, corn tortillas
about 4 T. refried beans
1/2 cup shredded or crumbled cheddar, jack, queso fresco, or cotija cheese

Simply spread a tortilla with a thin schmear (or whatever the Spanish for “schmear” is) of refried beans, top it with a modest amount of cheese (I used cheddar, but jack, queso blanco, or cotija, would also be great), then put another tortilla on top. Then put them on a very hot, dry griddle or non-stick frying pan (no oil!), and heat them until the insides are bubbly and the tortillas are beginning to brown.

Plate the “papusa” topped with some salsa, and coleslaw on the side.

Serves 2 generously.

We are going through a little heat spell here in Brooklyn, with days on end of 90+ degree heat in our immediate past and future. Who wants to eat a big meal, let alone cook one, in the sweltering heat? Not me.

Last night I put some plump summer strawberries to work in a really delicious salad. Because it was a main course I added a little body in the form of cheese. But this is without question a light meal. If you have a big appetite, this of would work well as a side dish, or especially a post-main-course salad.

This is is a sort of a loose “recipe.” Please adjust proportions to your taste!

Summer Strawberry and Baby Arugula Salad

For the salad, wash and dry some baby arugula (it bruises easily, so be gentle); slice some strawberries (I used an egg slicer to make quick and beautifully uniform work of it); and slice some red onion as paper thin as you can possibly get it.

Now make a very simple vinaigrette of about half very good quality extra virgin olive oil and half white balsamic (the higher proportion of vinegar than in your typical vinaigrette works with the bitter arugula and sweet strawberries here), plus some salt, pepper, and fresh or dried basil (basil and strawberries go swimmingly together). Whisk it well and toss it with the arugua, strawberries, and onion.

After plating, shave some ricotta salata and sprinkle some toasted walnuts over the top of each serving. Drizzle a little more olive oil and/or vinegar over top, if desired. You can’t get simpler than that!

Note: I picked ricotta salata cheese because I thought the creaminess of it would go well with strawberries, which it did. You might want to go an even creamier, milkier route and choose a cheese like manouri. I also considered using parmigiano reggiano, as it tastes great with with arugula. Any of these cheeses would be great options.

As I mentioned a couple days ago, I decided to use the scapes (the ones I didn’t put into my summer squash salad) to make a pesto. Rather than follow a recipe, I winged it, using ingredients other than those traditional to pesto. In fact, there is no basil, no pine nuts, and not even parmesan in this recipe (I know, what business do I have calling it pesto?)! I did have on hand some pine nuts, but not quite enough for the dish, so I decided to use a combination of pecans and walnuts instead. These nuts have a less delicate flavor than pine nuts, to be sure, but I thought they would stand up well against the strongly flavored garlic scapes. Also, I decided to use the asiago cheese I already had in my fridge, rather than the more traditional parmesan or romano. I though the sharp flavor would nicely balance the garlicky punch of the scapes.

Pesto in general is pretty simple to make. Just crush the chunky and leafy ingredients together, incorporate some olive oil, then stir in the cheese. Simple! Normally, you pour the “raw” pesto over piping hot pasta, give it a toss (maybe adding some pasta water), and you are done. In this case, after incorporating the oil, but before incorporating the cheese, I tasted the pesto and it was just a bit too piquant, too strong, and too, well, I don’t know how else to describe it, but, a little too green. The beauty of winging it is that you aren’t bound to follow tradition. So, I decided to try to mellow out the flavors by putting the pesto on the stove for a few minutes before incorporating the pasta and cheese (something that would ruin a basil pesto).

The pesto pasta turned out really well: incredibly creamy, garlicky, nutty, and uncommonly delicious. So, here’s my non-traditional-in-every-way pesto. I hope you enjoy it! (But enjoy it soon–garlic scapes have a brief summer season!)

Garlic Scape Pesto

2/3 cup pecans and/or walnuts
1 cup roughly chopped garlic scapes
at least 1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 pound pasta
1 cup asiago cheese

Start a big pot of salted water boiling for the pasta.

Put the nuts in large frying pan set on a medium flame. Stir the nuts often until the just begin to release a scent, a few minutes, then turn the flame off.

Put the chopped scapes and the nuts in a food processor (it i ok if the nuts are still hot) and pulse until the texture is uniform and the size of big breadcrumbs, stopping to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl as necessary.

Now, turn the processor on and pour in the olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Keep pouring, exceeding the 1/4 cup, if necessary, until the sauce loosens up and spins freely around the processor, but is not yet liquidy. Season with salt and pepper.

Start cooking the pasta now, setting the timer to a minute or two less than the pasta package directs.

Scrape the contents into the same frying pan you used to toast the nuts. Turn the heat on medium-low. Stir frequently. When the pasta is a few minutes to done, add it and a bit of the pasta water to the pesto and continue stirring.

Once the pasta is perfectly al dente and coated with the sauce, turn off the heat and stir in the cheese. (Lydia Bastianich taught me never to add cheese while the flame is on–it will get stringy and separate into a gloppy, oily mess). Now, enjoy!

Serves 4.

A note: the pasta I used here was organic elk pasta from IKEA of all places. The pesto clung to the shape really well, but I can’t recommend the pasta for its flavor. Any shape pasta would work well for this, but it seems the more complicated the shape, the better the sauce-cling!

The sign says the garlic scapes are $1.50 a bunch, but you may note that there is nary a “bunch” of these twisty tendrils to be seen—just a crate filled with loose ones. When I asked the proprietress of this booth at the Fort Greene Farmers’ Market last Saturday what constituted a bunch, she pursed her lips and dove both hands into the box. She pulled out two big handfuls of the scapes and offered them forward, shrugging “This much?” I was agreeable to the “bunch” size and held open my shopping bag so that she could unburden herself of scapes, as I unburdened by wallet of a buck-fifty.

Garlic scapes are the green stems that shoot up from the developing garlic bulb. They are cut off so that the garlic bulb itself can grow bigger. I imagine that as farmers figure out that they can extend their profits by selling these, garlic scapes will become more and more familiar to American markets (they have been eaten in parts of Europe for ages). And after my little culinary experiment, I certainly hope that is the case.

I had supposed the scapes would be relatively mild, in the vein spring garlic or ramps. But no, garlic scapes have an extremely pungent aroma, and an even stronger flavor. Cooking with them, I thought, might be a challenge. Having never used them before, I turned to the computer for more information and recipes, but to little avail. My search of the fantastic recipe website Epicurious came up with zero hits for scapes. A Google search brought up some references to garlic scape pesto, which sounded like a good option for dinner that night, but not much else that was useful.

But first that early afternoon, I needed to figure out what to do with the beautiful yellow and green pattypan squash I also bought at the market (and how to incorporate the scapes into whatever I decided to make with them). As it was incredibly hot out that day, I was already anticipating not wanting to stand in front of the stove cooking too much that evening, so a cold squash salad sounded like the perfect side dish to go with my planned garlic scape pesto.

My cold squash salad couldn’t be simpler to make, but does require some marinating time, so plan ahead if you are going to make it. I used scapes in this, but if you don’t have this pungent allium on hand, then substitute scallions, a couple cloves of crushed garlic, or some fresh herbs (dill would be good). Don’t overdo it with the add-ins, though; the point of this recipe is to celebrate in-season produce.

Summer Squash and Scape Salad

3 T apple cider vinegar
3 T extra virgin olive oil (a flavorless oil would also work)
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
a few grinds of pepper
2-3 garlic scapes
4-5 pattypan squash (or 3-4 of another type of summer squash)

Whisk together the oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

Trim and slice the scapes crosswise. Use a mandolin or food processor to slice the squash as thinly as possible.

Give the dressing another good whisk and dump in the sliced squash and scapes. Give it a gentle stir, cover in plastic and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Stir again before serving. (A lot of liquid escapes from the squash during the marinating process, so you might want to serve using a slotted spoon.)

*A note: I plated this on top of mixed greens, which looks nice, but actually did the flavor of the dish a disservice. Next time I would serve the squash salad on its own.

Serves 4 (as a side).

Tune in later for my unusual and delicious garlic scape pesto recipe!

This is a salad inspired in part by one my mom makes and in part by the specialty oils and vinegars I happened to have in my kitchen cupboards on a recent evening.

A salad of avocados and oranges may sound like an odd combo, but the creaminess of the avocado balances out the bright acid of the orange in such a blissful way that I think it must be no accident that the two fruits grow in the same climes–it is as if Mother Nature intended them to be eaten together.

The mandarin oil I mentioned in a previous post I thought would work well here for obvious reasons, but since it was a little too orangey last time, I decided to cut it with another oil. I was just going to use some good quality extra virgin, when a tin of chili-flavored olive oil on the shelf caught my eye. (I am not so into store bought flavored oils generally–these were both gifts, actually–but these from O&CO. are of very good quality, and the chili one especially is very versatile.) The slight spiciness would add just the touch of intrigue I was looking for. But then! I saw that I was completely out of white wine vinegar. Quelle dommage! And the cider vinegar I had just would not do. But what was the slender orange-capped bottle stashed in the verrry back of the top shelf of the cupboard? Ah! It was rice vinegar with chili flakes! That might just work, it might just work perfectly.

The salad ended up being a great combination of sweet-salty-creamy-fresh-and-spicy (whew!), with none of the tastes or textures overpowering the others. I hope you try and enjoy it.

Sweet and Spicy Avocado-Orange Salad

For the dressing:

2 T. chili-flavored olive oil
2 T. mandarin-flavored olive oil
2 T. seasoned rice vinegar with pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. chili pepper paste
A few grinds black pepper
a pinch of salt, optional

For the salad:*

4-6 cups of mixed salad greens, cleaned and spun/dried
2-3 scallions, sliced
1 ripe avocado, cut into cubes
1 large orange, sectioned, then sections cut crosswise in half or thirds

Whisk together in a large glass bowl all the ingredients for the dressing, except for the salt. Taste dressing, then add a pinch of salt (and adjust other flavors to your taste), if needed.**

While the dressing rests, slice the scallions, cube the avocado, and section the orange (I did this the fancy way, which makes for better eatin’–no tough membranes. Psst! It is also faster than peeling by hand!). When you cut the sections out, hold the orange over the dressing bowl to catch all the juices.

Give the dressing another quick whisk before throwing in the avocado, scallions and orange sections. Toss very gently so as not to mush the avocado. Put the greens in a salad bowl, spoon the avocado-orange mixture onto the greens and toss. (You don’t want to just dump the entire bowl’s contents into the greens as it may be very liquidy.) After you toss with the greens, assess the dressing situation and add some of the reserved dressing from the glass bowl if necessary.

*Next time, per the good suggestion of the Hubs, I would add some sliced celery and toasted nuts (pecans or walnuts would be especially good). That would add a nice bit of crunch that this salad lacked. Add the celery with the avocado-orange-scallion step; the nuts should be tossed in right before serving.

** The rice vinegar I used has salt and corn syrup in it (I know, yuck, bad for you.), so be sure to taste the dressing before adding salt.  If you use an unsweetened rice vinegar, then add a couple pinches of superfine sugar too.