
But before I get to the tomatoes - and making our first ever pesto - here's a quick herb update, because our herbs are getting frighteningly huge! It entertains me to go out on the deck and see how much they have grown. Sometimes I pluck a few leaves or sprig off and hold it under my nose, just inhaling the herb smell. It's like aromatherapy! Here's the mint, which is like a giant monster and I have no idea how we're going to use it all:




Back to the tomatoes. Tomatoes & herbs taste great together and I recently saw a Tomato Gratin post at You Little Tart. It looked so good. Tomatoes! And cheese! And herbs! It reminded me of the broiled parmesan topped tomato slices my mom used to make. So I decided to make this Tomato Gratin.


Alongside our tomatoes, we made angel hair pasta with pesto:

I think I've shied away from pesto all these years because of the garlic. I can admit that even though I avoid garlic (can't even stand the smell anymore), some dishes, like pesto, seem to need the garlic because it really complements the other ingredients. However, we've been omitting garlic from all our recipes and they have never tasted as if they are missing flavor, so we figured, why not give it a try with pesto.
Also, I admitted to SP last night another reason for not ever making pesto. It's how pesto looks. Even though I know what all the ingredients are, and I see them morph into the pesto in the food processor, the resulting wet green sludge resembling mold growth kind of grosses me out. It doesn't appeal to my sense of sight. But I decided I needed to overcome my resistance to pesto. After all, basil, cheese, sun-dried tomato - these are a few of my favorite things!

I decided that our first pesto should be basil-based pesto and settled on Pesto di Noci (Walnut Pesto). I liked the idea of walnuts instead of pine nuts. Plus, we had walnuts in the pantry. This pesto also uses sun-dried tomatoes, which I love. Our changes to the recipe are that we replaced the garlic with some shallot from the CSA and instead of parmesan and pecorino, we used only parmesan.

Tomato Gratin with Asiago and Fresh Herbs
(Fine Cooking Magazine, August/September, 2011)
seen by me on You Little Tart
extra-virgin olive oil
3 medium beefsteak tomatoes, (about 6 oz. each), sliced 1/4-inch thick
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup coarse fresh breadcrumbs
1/4 cup finely grated Asiago cheese
1 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tsp. coarsely chopped fresh thyme
Position a rack 6 inches from the broiler element and heat the broiler on high. Lightly oil a 10x12-inch (or similar size) broiler-safe baking dish. Arrange the tomato slices in the baking dish in a single, slightly overlapping layer. Sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt.
In a small bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, Asiago, parsley, thyme, 2 tsp. olive oil, a pinch of salt, and 1/8 tsp. pepper. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture evenly over the tomatoes.
Broil until the breadcrumbs are a deep golden-brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Drizzle with more olive oil and serve immediately.
Walnut Pesto
from Saveur Issue #140
makes about 1.5 cups
1 1/2 cups packed basil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup toasted walnuts
1/4 cup finely grated pecorino
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan
2 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
2 cloves garlic
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Process basil, oil, walnuts, pecorino, parmesan, tomatoes, and garlic in a food processor until finely chopped; season with salt and pepper.
the tomato tart and now the pesto? i want to come eat at your house!
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