You Only Live Twice

... and twice is the only way to eat... caprese.

We just love tomatoes, and often forget that not everyone does. That used to include me. In fact, besides melon (see July 6), there are a few things that I've hated in the past but gave a second chance at some point in my life. "They" say you should try foods after 7 years of hatred because your taste buds change every 7 years. Eggs, for example, have always been anathema to me. Some people hate them certain ways; I just hate them always. I gave them a chance around year 17, and could choke down scrambled eggs with about one solid inch of ground pepper on them, but even that ended about 1 month later. I'll be saving eggs for others from now on.

Again, "they" say it could be a texture thing, and "they" might be right. Sean hates... well, dill. And dill has no texture. So there blows their theory. But even Sean tried to expand his horizons and pretended to get it down when I made a simple side dish of baby carrots with dill...


Sauteed Baby Carrots with Dill

2 pounds baby carrots (I found super cute baby red carrots and baby parsnips as well as the orange ones, but truly, all carrots work)
1 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper
2 T. unsalted butter
1 1/2 T chopped dill or parsley (dry or fresh)

Peel the carrots and cut them diagonally (on the bias, for added pretentious), in 1/4 inch slices. This is all so ridiculously simple but quite a taste-o-rama if you like veggies. You should have about 6 cups of carrots. Place the carrots, 1/3 c water, the salt and pepper in a large (10-12 in) saute pan and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and cook on medium-low heat for 7-8 minutes, until the carrots are just cooked through. Add the butter and saute for another minute, until the water evaporates and the carrots are coated with butter. Off heat, toss with dill/parsley and sprinkle with salt and pepper.


So, see? Carrots can be simply fantastic. Or fantastically simple. But, I digress. Ah, yes, tomatoes. I used to hate fresh tomatoes, but then I discovered there were other kinds of tomatoes. Ones that were not mealy or dried up, or black. When you eat a really good tomato, it brings you closer to God. He makes such wonderful food that it causes us to be grateful for all of it; really, truly grateful. And in such variety!

If you eat a really good tomato, like the ones from Ben Wheeler, Texas, you just might change your mind. Our tomato buddies at the Farmers Market downtown call us the Newlyweds. They think we are so crazy in love. And they're not wrong. We just "look so happy together," they say. I'm not saying go out there and fake publicly-displayed-attention, but there have been a few times we were short of cash and a bag of tomatoes was still brought home... I'm just saying, is all.

Insalata Caprese was in my first blog, and it is one of the better 4 ingredient combinations in the world. Almost as good as the Beatles. But when you can have almost the same thing, but with pasta... now, that's just beautiful. And, beware; this is 20 minutes, from cold stovetop to eating.


Caprese Pasta

Pasta for everyone (1 lb for 4 servings, 1/2 lb for 2 servings), stubby-shaped
3 ripe tomatoes, not Roma tomatoes
fresh mozzarella, as much as you want, but it must be fresh
basil, as much as you want
olive oil, as good as you can find

Boil a copious amount of water for the pasta. We like shorter, stubbier pasta for this. There are so many shapes to choose from, and pasta can never be wrong, but some work better in some dishes than others. The large conch shell pasta is great here, as is penne rigate, something to hold the juices. And, no matter what Sean says, salt the water!

If you wish, before boiling the pasta, peel the tomatoes. Cut an X in the bottom of each tomato and immerse in the boiling water for about 10-20 seconds, until you see the skin split. Take them out and run them under cold water, peeling as you go. Cut each tomato equatorially in half. Squeeze each half to remove the seeds. You can skip all the peeling if the tomato is absolutely gorgeous. We usually skip this peeling unless we are making Puttanesca (see tomorrow's blog), which uses a partly cooked sauce.

Dump in the pasta and set the timer. Dice up the mozzarella and put it in the freezer on a plate while the pasta is cooking. Chop the 'toes in medium dice and wait for the pasta timer. Once the pasta is done, drain it, and chiffonade the basil (stack the leaves, roll them up and start slicing). Divide the pasta among bowls, add tomatoes and cheese on top, swirl a fair amount of olive oil and lightly toss each bowl. (You could do this in the pasta pot, but I'm lazy). Top with basil and salt and pepper. If you like tomatoes, I guarantee you will devour it. It can be refrigerated, but hold off on the basil till right before you eat it. I'm ashamed to say, we would eat this everyday if we had all the ingredients on hand all week.

We had a little red blend with this pasta. A GSM (Grenache, Shiraz, Merlot) from Oxford Landing (2005) for about $8. We found it in a restaurant in Huntsville and had it with steak, and liked it muchly. But we split it over 2 nights, so we had it with steak the first night, and the Caprese pasta on the second night. It wasn't bad, but we'd do differently next time for the pasta; maybe a lighter red, like Beaujolais, or a Rose. This wine was very raspberry when we opened it, and was fairly delightful, but started to turn a little tannic after about 90 minutes. However, we still enjoyed it on the second night, and for $8, we'd do it again, just different food.