This week’s farmers’ market had the most beautiful grape tomatoes in the history of the world. Impulsively, I bought three baskets. Whoa! What does one person (and a small sweet dog) do with three baskets of ripe tomatoes?

So, this morning I bucked myself up with a little self-talk that I can do this and, by mid-morning, I’m beginning to work my way through my abundance of tomatoes. First stop, this wonderful grape tomato and basil risotto.

Upside: This risotto is decadently delicious. Downside: There is that boring part where you have to stand over the stove and stir six cups of broth into the rice for twenty long minutes. No. That’s not a typo. Twenty boring minutes stirring. Ugh!

I got through it partly with the help of Alexa, my Amazon bestie. She played a medley of love songs sung by Michael Feinstein as I stirred away.  (My favorite Feinstein song, by the way,  is the bittersweet Where Do You Start. Give it a listen. It is extraordinary. You’ll never look at your collection of  books and “tapes” the same way again.  (Michael Feinstein : Where Do You Start?) If you don’t know about Michael Feinstein and have romance in your soul, I recommend that you treat yourself to his album Isn’t It Romantic? It will improve your risotto game. I promise.

This recipe is an adaptation of one I learned in a Sur La Table cooking class in Costa Mesa taught by gifted chef Jennifer King.

Yields 4 Servings

Grape Tomato and Basil Risotto

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Ingredients

• 6-8 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 3 T. unsalted butter (divided)
• 1/3 C. finely chopped shallots
• 1 C.Arborio rice
• 1/2 C. dry white wine
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 C. finely grated Asiago cheese
• 1 C. grape tomatoes (quartered)
• 1/4 C. fresh basil leaves cut into ribbons
• Chopped basil and shallots for garnish

Instructions

1. Heat broth, cover and keep hot
2. Melt 2 T. butter in a large pan over medium heat until the butter foams. Add shallots and saute until softened (about 3 or 4 minutes) stirring frequently. Add rice and stir for about three minutes until the rice is well-coated with the butter and heated.
3. Add the white wine to the pan and stir until most of the wine is absorbed into the rice.
4. Ladle broth, one scoop at a time, into the rice mixture. Stir the broth into the rice until the ladle-full of broth is fully incorporated into the rice. Then add another ladle of broth. Repeat until the rice is al dente, having absorbed most of the broth. This will take 20-25 minutes. When the rice is ready, it will be creamy. (You, on the other hand, will be tired.)
5. Take the rice off the heat and season with salt and pepper. Stir in remaining butter and Asiago cheese. Stir in tomatoes and basil ribbons.
6. Serve immediately in warmed bowls garnished with chopped basil and additional grated Asagio cheese.

7.8.1.2

83

https://bluecayenne.com/michael-feinstein-alexa-and-me-grape-tomato-and-basil-risotto

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John Keats wrote that “a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

So it is with this beautiful salad. The colors are intense. The flavors and textures are delightful. There is joy on your plate.

But why do certain foods, like this beautiful salad, tempt our taste buds while others fall flat? According to an article in Popular Science, how we taste foods is affected by a complex set of factors including temperature, language, the utensils we use, color, environment and expectations.

For example, warm beer tastes more bitter than cold beer. Cold foods taste saltier. Likewise, the environment in which we dine affects our taste. In an interesting study, a group of Scotch whiskey drinkers were rotated through three themed tasting rooms. One room was decidedly “grassy.” As the crowd tippled, grass smells wafted in the air and the sounds of bleating sheep provided background Muzak. Others of the rooms were themed “sweet” and “woody.” Researchers found that the drinkers’ descriptions of the taste of the Scotch reflected the environmental clues. (Where do you sign up for Scotch tastings, by the way? If it will advance science, I’m willing to do my part.)

In another study, this one published in Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, a group of diners were gathered for a steak and fries dinner in a room that was specially lighted to showcase the food. A fine time was had by all until the special lighting was turned off and the diners discovered that the steaks were dyed blue and the fries were green. Yuck! Diners hurriedly pushed their plates away and several diners became physically ill.

I believe that color dramatically affects our sense of taste. I’ve long noticed the unappetizing quality of magazine food photographs where the color register is off or the color combinations are poor. Despite a strong affinity for the color blue, food magazine covers with lots of blues send me running.  On the other hand, covers dominated by reds and bright greens catch my eye and stimulate my appetite. Show me a photo of a bowl of juicy strawberries and I’m a happy camper.

This beautiful Smashed and Seared Beets recipe certainly hits all the right color notes with brilliantly-colored red and orange beets sitting atop a smooth white goat cheese crema and sauced with a bright green Chimichurri sauce.

There are rainbows of colorful beets now available in markets. Put some color on your table tonight with this great recipe. But, whatever you do, don’t let anyone slip you one of those nasty blue steaks.

Yields 4 Servings

Smashed and Seared Beets

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Ingredients

• Beet Salad Ingredients
• 1/2 C. (4 ounces) goat cheese (at room temperature)
• 3/4 C. heavy cream
• Fine sea salt
• 1 1/2 pounds small to medium beets
• 1 1/4 C. apple cider vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves (halved)
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 T. extra-virgin olive oil
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Baby arugula or baby spinach
• Chimichurri Ingredients
• 1/4 C. red wine vinegar
• 1 garlic clove (peeled)
• 1/4 t. crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 C. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 C. fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 1/2 C. fresh cilantro leaves (stems removed)
• 1/4 C. fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 t. ground cumin

Instructions

1. To make the beet salad, put goat cheese, cream and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl and whisk. Cover and refrigerate.
2. Put beets, 5 cups of water, cider vinegar, garlic, bay leaf, and 1 t. salt in a large saucepan and simmer over high heat. Once the water begins to vigorously simmer, partially cover the pot with a lid and continue to simmer until the beets are tender. This will take between 35 and 50 minutes depending upon the size of the beets. Remove the beets from the cooking water and let them cool.
3. Trim the cooled beets (but do not peel off the skin) and then smash them. I put the beets on my cutting board and used a large plate to smash them. You want them to be flattened but not smashed to the point of coming apart. Then, heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the beets and cook them undisturbed until the beet skins are crispy and caramelized. This will take about 3-4 minutes per side. (Turn the beets over once during cooking.) Season with salt and pepper.
4. To make the chimichurri sauce, combine all the ingredients in a blender and puree. Chill the sauce.
5. To assemble the dish, spread a thick layer of the goat cheese crema over the bottom of a large serving platter. Arrange the smashed beets over the top of the crema. Drizzle chimichurri over the dish and garnish with arugula or spinach. Serve with extra chimichurri sauce on the side.

7.8.1.2

80

https://bluecayenne.com/smashed-and-seared-beets

This recipe was adapted from one in Cara Mangini’s cookbook The Vegetable Butcher, available for purchase on Amazon. (Amazon: The Vegetable Butcher)

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We have a lot of things to thank Julia Child for beyond the fact that she popularized French home cooking here in the U.S.

She made cooking cool. She pioneered a cooking show genre that has exploded into the countless cooking shows that eat up our time but feed our souls. She taught us that you don’t have to look like Giada De Laurentis to attract an adoring following. And then there was that part about spying against the Axis powers during WWII. (Lest you think I’m feeding you some fake news, here a credible source–The CIA (No. Not the Culinary Institute of America. The spies!) : https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2007-featured-story-archive/julia-child.html .

Julia also taught us to lighten up in the kitchen. Her obituary in the NY Times quotes this wonderful story: “Mr. Drummond, her producer, also debunks another myth. Mrs. Child never dropped a chicken or a turkey on ‘The French Chef.’ It was a potato pancake that flew onto the work table when she tried to flip it. She put it back in the pan, pressed it back into shape and said, ‘Remember, you are alone in the kitchen, and no one can see you.’ ”

So, I’m wishing you good luck making this marinara from Child’s collection of recipes. I suggest that you pretend that you are Julia Child, all six foot two of her, as you make the sauce. Have a good laugh while you are cooking. Keep your eyes open for the bad guys and remember, if you mess it up, you are alone in the kitchen and no one can see you.

Yields One quart

Julia’s Marinara Provencale

1 hr, 30 Total Time

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Ingredients

• 1/4 C. olive oil
• 2/3 C. finely minced yellow onions
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• 4 t. all-purpose flour
• 5-6 pounds ripe tomatoes (quartered)
• 1/8 t. sugar (more to taste)
• 4 cloves garlic (minced)
• A large herb bouquet of 8 sprigs parsley, 1 bay leaf and 4 sprigs thyme (tied in cheesecloth)
• 1/4 t. fennel seeds
• 1/2 t. dried basil, oregano, marjoram or savory
• Large pinch saffron threads
• 1 dozen coriander seeds (lightly crushed)
• 1 two-inch piece dried orange peel (I used fresh)
• 2-3 T. tomato paste (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil on medium-low heat in a large heavy pot. Sprinkle onions with salt and saute for about 10 minutes. You want the onions to be soft but not brown. Sprinkle flour into the pot over the onions, stir to mix and cook for about 3 minutes more (do not brown the flour mixture).
2. Use a grating blade in your food processor. Push the tomatoes through the processor tube and through the grating blade to make a rough puree. (I left my tomatoes a bit chunky.)
3. Stir tomatoes, sugar, garlic, herb bouquet, fennel, basil, saffron, coriander, orange peel and 1 teaspoon salt into the onion mixture. Cover and cook slowly for about ten minutes until the tomatoes give up their juices. Uncover and simmer for one hour. You want your sauce to be thick. Remove the herb bouquet and taste. Add salt, pepper, sugar and optional tomato paste. Stir.

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https://bluecayenne.com/julias-provencale-tomato-sauce

This recipe was adapted from one that appeared on the NT Times food site. Here is the link: NYTimes: Julia Child’s Provencale Tomato Sauce.

You can buy the book here: Mastering The Art of French Cooking at Amazon.

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