Zucchini tomato strata

Italian zucchini tomato strata

Adapted from “Betty Crocker: The Smart Dinner” as printed in today's Variety section under the "Sunday Supper" spot. It's a good choice for this time of year, since you're likely to have these ingredients on hand.

Ingredients

6 cups 1-inch cubes of stale bread

1½ cups shredded cheese, divided (the recipe called for Italian, but I used what I had, which was a mix of Gouda, Parmesan and a savory-onion variety from the Wisconsin cheese guy at the market)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium red onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 cups chopped zucchini

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

5 eggs

2 egg yolks

2 cups whole milk

2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce

½ teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon dried basil

½ teaspoon salt, divided

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Method

If baking immediately, preheat oven to 325.

Grease an 9-by-13 pan. (I confess I forgot this step, but I somehow got by with it and it came out fine and didn't leave a mess in the pan.) Place bread cubes across the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle 1 cup cheese on top of bread.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Cook garlic until fragrant. Add onion and cook until just starting to soften. Add zucchini and tomatoes and cook about 3 minutes more. Season with ¼ teaspoon salt. Spread mixture over top of cheese layer in the pan.

Mix eggs, yolks, milk, Sriracha, oregano, basil, ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper. Pour over vegetable layer. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

At this point the strata can be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours. Or bake immediately, uncovered, for 50 to 60 minutes until set, golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out cleanish. Let rest at least 5 minutes before serving. (If you're preparing it advance, I'd let the pan come up closer to room temperature before baking, and/or allow a longer baking time.)

Rating: Really rather tasty. I had only tried this recipe because I had a ready supply of tomatoes (finally!), some zucchini that was otherwise going to wind up as compost before too long, and a whole gob of bread cubes in the freezer, since this is the time of year it doesn’t last long on the counter before going bad and freezing bread cubes is my way of buying time. My expectations for some reason weren’t high, and this far exceeded them, once again proving the marvelous versatility of a strata as a tasty way to use up odds and ends. A perfectly nice summer-flavored meal that’s as hearty as any meat dish. Worth repeating anytime you're faced with the same ingredients.

As for servings, it makes either 6 really generous pieces or 8 more reasonable servings, so it sort of depends on what you're serving on the side.

Garlic scape pesto pasta and garlic brie toasts

Garlic festival is this weekend in Hutchinson, home to everything from black garlic to garlic ice cream. Clearly, it's time to get your garlic on.

These recipes use garlic at two stages: garlic scapes and fresh bulbs. Growers cut the tops off garlic plants in early summer so the bulbs don't waste energy flowering and concentrate on bulb production; the result is garlic scapes. They look like a lighter green, solid green onion and you can find them at farmers markets or some coops in season. They have less bite than garlic bulbs, but lots of garlic flavor and are fun to experiment with.


Garlic scape pesto pasta
From  epicurious.com

Ingredients
10 large garlic scapes
1/3 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 pound cooked pasta

Method
In a food processor, puree garlic scapes, pistachios, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Slowly pour in olive oil while motor is running and mix until emulsified. Season to taste with more salt and pepper. Toss with al dente pasta. Sauce can be made ahead.

Rating: A very bright, flavorful pesto. The garlic flavor is noticeable, but much more muted and less harsh than mature garlic cloves. Would make a lovely pesto for a crostini appetizer with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella.

Speaking of appetizers, these are delightful:



Garlic brie toasts
A friend made us this appetizer to serve along with gin and tonics. She said we were the guinea pigs for it, and we were very willing. Not sure who to credit for the original idea because I believe a cookbook was involved, but if I find out, I'll pass it along.

Ingredients
22 slices of baguette
8 really large garlic cloves, the fresher the better
8-ounce round of brie

Method
Slice garlic as thinly as possible. This is where the bigger garlic cloves really help, since it's easier to slice big cloves with a mandoline (or a knife) than it is the teensy ones. Cover bread slices with the slivers of garlic.

Slice brie thinly and place over garlic. Broil until brie is bubbly and turning golden.You want to leave them in long enough so the garlic gets cooked a bit but before the brie tries to melt off the bread.

Rating: Sometimes simplicity is stupendous. These are sublime when made with the first fresh garlic of the season. Our friends used garlic they'd just harvested from their garden and we used some from the farmers market. They were good even without the gin and tonics, although perhaps not quite as relaxing. (Thanks again, Sonja and Bernie.)

Pickled shallot, candied pecan green salad with maple-porcini dressing

This salad could be a good wintertime salad, but the pickled shallot and maple dressing works well as a contrast to summer's grilled fare. Note that you'll want to start this recipe a bit in advance, so maybe pull it out on a weekend instead of a weeknight.

Greens with birch-mushroom dressing, fried pecans and pickled shallots
Adapted from "The New Midwestern Table" by Amy Thielen

Ingredients
2 small shallots, thinly sliced horizontally
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
¾ teaspoon salt, divided
½ teaspoon pepper, divided
2 cups boiling water
Small handful dried mushrooms such as porcini
1 tablespoon butter, plus a touch more
¼ cup pecans

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon dry sherry

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons maple syrup (or the original held out the possibility of the more exotic birch)

8 ounces mixed salad greens

½ cup shaved pecorino cheese

Method

Combine ¼ cup sugar with lime juice, shallots, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Let stand for at least 30 minutes.

Pour boiling water over mushrooms in a small bowl. Let cool, then squeeze dry and chop finely.

Lightly butter a small plate. In a small saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon sugar until it becomes liquid and browns. Stir in 1 tablespoon butter and the pecans and toss to coat. Remove from heat and pour caramelized pecans out onto the buttered plate to cool.

In a small sauce pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add garlic and mushrooms and cook briefly until it sizzles. Add in sherry. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar, lemon juice, maple syrup, ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Mix in remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Strain shallots. In a large serving bowl, toss mixed greens with maple-mushroom dressing, shallots, pecans and pecorino.

Rating: Tangy-sweet with the pickled shallots tart against the candied pecans. (We only had chopped pecans on hand, which worked, but I suspect whole pecans would be better.) Certainly repeatable. 

Blueberry coffeecake scones

Yes, it's still blueberry season. Lots of pressure not to waste the glorious deep blue gems. And yes, I know I could just freeze them. But if I turn them into something tasty already formed in the freezer, it's a double win.

This is one of my standby blueberry recipes and makes a lovely Sunday breakfast with a nice pot of tea. They don't really need butter or lemon curd since they have the crumb cake topping and have a coffeecake-like texture. They take a little longer to mix up and bake than regular scones, but they're worth a bit of fuss and muss.

Blueberry coffeecake scones
From "Simply Scones," by Leslie Weiner and Barbara Albright. There's a reason this delightful little book is still in print. I bought mine in the late 1980s and have been happily turning to it ever since. It covers the range from sweet to savory and once you've got the variations down, you can experiment on your own.

Ingredients

2¼ cups flour

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup cold butter, cut into small chunks

2 eggs

¼ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon lemon zest

1½ cups blueberries (if you have to use frozen, thaw and drain them well first)

Crumb topping

Method

Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or fork.

Combine eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix into flour mixture. Yes, it’s sticky. Fold in lemon zest and blueberries. Now it’s even stickier.

Transfer dough to baking sheet, patting into a 9-inch circle with lightly floured hands. Cut into 8 wedges using serrated knife or baking scraper, but leave in a circle.

Top with crumb topping, pressing mixture into the top of the scones. At this point things look pretty shaggy, but they come around in the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. 

Crumb topping

Mix ¾ cup flour, ¼ cup packed light brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Add ¼ cup cold butter, cut into small pieces. Mix in with a pastry blender until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Harvesting last year's tomatoes this year

Last fall, one of the herb pots we brought in to overwinter had a small volunteer tomato that had yet to blossom. We kind of ignored it, and while we watered the pot, we eventually forgot about the tomato and figured it had just withered and died in the cold, not-too-well-lit basement.

Then come spring when we tried taking the herb pot back out to the patio, we realized the volunteer tomato hadn't died, it had just gotten really tall and scraggly and wrapped itself around the plant light, poor thing.

We unraveled it, stuck the pot back outside and figured the shock of relocation would finally do in the plant and then we'd yank it out. Nope. It still looks pathetic and is using a sturdy basil plant as support, but we just harvested two little red tomatoes from it. I love food with a backstory.

Also fun in this year's garden: purple peas. Sure, they're the same green color inside, but they look pretty on the vines, have pretty purple blossoms and are easier to harvest because they standout against the green vines.