Blue Cheese Stuffed Roasted Tomatoes

This one's a good one.  Super easy, but beyond delicious.  Blue cheese and tomatoes, how could you go wrong, right?  Do it right and it's amazing, really.  As a vegetarian, I serve these as either a main course or a side dish. 

Roasting tomatoes is a magic act.  Even bland and out-of-season tomatoes become sweet and delicious with roasting.  So, you don't have to be too picky about the tomatoes you buy for this recipe.  Get exactly the right size and shape, or the cheap ones, it doesn't matter, they will all taste good. 

For the filling, rip up crusty bread into large bread crumbs.  Day-old bread is fine.  For two small tomatoes (that's four halves), I use just one slice of bread.  It doesn't take much.  In a bowl with the bread, I mix in an equal amount of crumbled blue cheese, and then about a tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary.  I like to use an artisanal blue cheese, something that's creamy and a little sweet, but regular old storebought crumbles are ok too.  After stirring the blue cheese mix together, press it together in the bowl, and leave it sit for just a few minutes so that the bread crumbs hydrate a little and the mixture sortof comes together as a whole.

The tomatoes get sliced in half.  For roma tomatoes, which I like for this, I slice them lengthwise.  Take out the stem base, seeds, and any white or green flesh.  No need to scoop out the whole inside of the tomato; just the seeds is fine.  Drizzle the tomato halves with olive oil, salt and pepper, and then just top them with pressed spoonfuls of the blue cheese mixture.  This can be done well ahead of time and put in the oven later.  See?  Easy.

The roasting time depends on the size of the tomatoes and how done you like them, but for small romas I would say about 20 to 30 minutes.  I like them so that the tomatoes still have some structure to them.  You can sprinkle them with some more fresh rosemary or parsley at the end.  If you really want to get crazy you can drizzle them with a little balsamic.  But they are great just as is.  I'm telling you, it's nummy.  Give it a try sometime, you will not be disappointed, I guarantee it.

Happy eating!

Oh, and Happy Halloween!  Enjoy your candy, and be safe out there everybody!

French Onion Soup

Now that cool weather is here, it's soup season, and that means French Onion Soup.  It is so common these days to find French Onion Soup made with beef broth as the base that some may think that it's not easy to make vegetarian.  But actually, since the main flavor should be the onions, it makes sense that French Onion Soup can easily be meatless, and I actually make it regularly.  And, it's actually quite easy to make.

French Onion Soup starts with caremelizing the onions which brings out their rich sweetness and develops the lovely rust color.  This is actually the most important part, as it is the base flavor for the whole soup.  Some places throw onions into beef broth and call it a day, but good French Onion shouldn't fall back on the broth; the flavor has to come from the caramelized onions.  You have to just take your time and do it.  I like to use a combination of butter and vegetable oil to slowly caramelize the onions, which helps prevent the butter from burning.  Once the onions are caramelized, I throw in a couple of cloves of finely minced or pressed garlic, to sautee with the onions very briefly.  The garlic goes in at the very end, as garlic always does, so that it doesn't burn.

Into the pot with all the onions goes a little veggie stock, to deglaze the pot.  Then fill the pot up with veggie stock and water, about equal parts of each.  The taste of the veggie stock is important; homemade stock is best.  If you don't have that, boullion and water is ok.  'Better Than Boullion' pastes are a favorite boullion alternative.  However, there are very few canned veggie broths that I think are good.  Salt and pepper to taste, and I use some herbs, like thyme or herbs de provence, depending on what I'm feeling like.  If I want a bit of heat, I add crushed red pepper.  No matter what, I always add wine.  White wine works great; cooking sherry is fine, too. 

After simmering the soup for a few minutes, all that is left is to build the bowls.  I do the traditional cheese-on-bread-on-soup structure.  I like to use a bread that is crisp but not too crusty, or it will be too hard to "cut" with the spoon.  The bread is cut to fit into the bowls, and then laid on top of the soup, which fills up about 2/3 of the bowl (or mini crock or whatever), and then slathered with cheese.  For the cheese, I like to use a combination of mozzarella and gruyere (or swiss).  To get it melty, the bowls get placed under the broiler for about 3 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and golden brown on top.

Soup, bread, cheese - there is nothing wrong with that, ever.  I think I want some right now... I have made myself hungry just talking about it!

Happy eating!

The Best Things To Put In Tomato Sauce (Besides Tomatoes)

I eat Italian food (read: Americanized Italian) all the time.  Not only is it often simple and cheap to make, but also it's so easy to prepare Italian food that is vegetarian. 

A pasta and tomato sauce is a standby around here.  Whether for baked rigatoni, pasta shells stuffed with manicotti, or just a big bowl of spaghetti, I end up making tomato sauce often.  I don't start with fresh tomatoes; I use canned.  But, canned tomatoes are one of the few vegetables that are actually really good when canned.  They are tasty and consistent and also super easy to use.  Now, what to flavor them with?

I love to use red wine in my tomato sauces, especially if I'm making something very hearty.  Let it simmer in the tomato sauce for just a few minutes and the bite of the alcohol cooks away, and you are left with a rich undertone.  This is a great way to use up that little bit of wine you have left over from your very frequent and very fancy dinner parties.  (You do have very frequent and very fancy dinner parties, right?)  Sweet or dry wines can work well in tomato sauce, depending on how it will be used.  I know this isn't a bombshell for anyone - red wine in tomato sauce, that's old news - but it is something I do a whole heck of a lot, and it's always good.

Another favorite thing to put in tomato sauce is cream cheese.  Perhaps that's a bit more revolutionary for some people than red wine.  Cream cheeese?  Yes, cream cheese.  We all know that a tomato cream sauce is awesome.  Tomato sauce, cream, what could be wrong about that?  But I don't always have cream in the house.  I almost always have cream cheese, and it works really well, too.  Just a little goes a long way.  It adds a creaminess but also a bit of a tang.  I have discovered that the soft, spreadable tub cream cheese melts into a sauce a bit easier than traditional block cream cheese, but both work.  Try it sometime, you won't be disappointed.

Happy eating!

Red Dragon Cheese Review

Last week, Dan and I bought a cheese called Red Dragon.  I had seen it at the cheese counter before, and was always drawn to it because of its name and because of the bright red wax that coats it, which makes it stand out against the forest of white and yellow cheeses.  I had been hesitant to get it in the past because it is made with lots of mustard seed, and I am not always a fan of mustard. 

We finally decided to give it a try and I am so glad we did!  It is absolutely delicious.  As it turns out, the mustard taste is not overwhelming at all.  The cheese is a light yellow, soft paste speckled throughout with the mustard seed.  It is also made with ale.  The combination of the ale and mustard flavors adds a nice bite to the background of Red Dragon, but the base cheese stands up to these added flavors nicely.  At room temperature the cheese is just spreadable but also sliceable, and the robust nature of the cheese lends itself well to a hearty bread or cracker.  No need for delicate wafers with this cheese.

The look of Red Dragon makes a striking conversation piece on a cheese tray.  I imagine it would be accented nicely with a dry white wine, but a hard cider or (obviously) a beer is even better.  Even a porter would not overwhelm this hearty cheese.  I am so happy that we decided to finally give Red Dragon a chance!

Happy eating!