It’s Monday evening. Yesterday afternoon, my one day off this week, I plucked pole beans from the vines, cherry tomatoes from their little green highways and pulled onions from the ground.
Tonight I cut the veggies, cooked them with small, diced pancetta squares and served them along side of thin, grilled pork chops and local Pennsylvania bicolor corn on the cob.
I rest my case.

Sandy made this tart last night and it was hard to stop after two slices! This recipe comes from the “Once Upon a Tart” cookbook by Frank Mentesana and Jerome Audureau. As you can see, our tart is small and that is because Sandy cut the recipe in half. Also, the recipe calls for plum tomatoes, but we used the tomatoes we had in our garden which are not plum, but worked just as well. Printed below is the recipe the way it appears in the book:

Granny’s Tomato Tart

A traditional tomato tart in France does not contain custard. Jerome’s grandmother used to make them often in the summer. In fact, she wouldn’t think about making one at any other time. In the small town in the south of France where she lives, there is still such a thing as a season for fruits and vegetables. Nowadays you might find a tomato there in December, but not one Granny would use.
To make a tomato tart the way Granny does, roll out a full recipe for dough and fit it into an 8 x 10 inch rectangular sheet pan. Prick the bottom with the tines of a fork. Fully bake the crust: 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees with the weights in, and another 15-20 minutes after you’ve removed the weights. Remove the crust from the oven, and let it cool to room temperature. Spread Dijon mustard in a thin layer over the bottom of the crust. Grate Gruyere cheese in a thin layer over the mustard. Slice about 4 pounds plum tomatoes, and put them in a colander set in the sink to drain off any excess liquid. Arrange the tomatoes in one layer, like rows of fallen dominoes, down the length of the crust. Sprinkle with herbs de Provence, and bake the tart in a 400 degree oven until the tomatoes begin to shrivel and the cheese melts, about 10 minutes.

I adapted this very simply recipe from one that I pulled out of Traditional Home magazine. I served it with fresh boiled, buttered and herbed beets from our garden.
The filet looks thin in this photograph, but it is, in fact, tied and 2 inches thick! Enjoy!

2 (8 ounce filet mignon), tied to a 2 inch thickness
salt and pepper to taste (on the beef)
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. chopped shallots
1 Tsp. minced garlic
1/4 cup ruby port (I had to use my reserve. No ruby port in the house!)
1/2 cup reduced sodium beef broth
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes and chilled (not critical if they aren’t chilled enough)
2 ounces Stilton blue cheese (1 ounce of cheese for every steak you cook)
1/2 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking pan with foil; set aside. Season steaks on both sides with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp. butter with olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook steaks until browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer steaks to prepared baking pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes for medium-rare doneness (145 degrees F). Remove from oven. Let steaks stand 5 minutes.
PORT WINE REDUCTION: Meanwhile, heat the same large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic, and stir for 30 seconds. Remove skillet from heat. Add port to deglaze; stir, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan. Return to heat; bring to simmer. Simmer, uncovered, until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add beef broth; simmer, uncovered until reduced by half, about 8 or 9 minutes. Add butter to skillet, 1 piece at a time, whisking until incorporated after each addition. Remove skillet from heat . Sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Crumble a circle of Stilton in the center of plate to outline the size of the steak. Place steak in center of Stilton circle and spoon a little of the reduction sauce on top of the filet. The rest of the reduction sauce can be spooned around the perimeter of the plate. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Wine served: 2004 Vincent Girardin Bourgogne, Cuvee Saint-Vincent, Pinot Noir

This recipe comes from the recent La Cucina Italiana magazine; the pasta issue. So very easy, so deep in flavor, it is an instant favorite. I made fresh fettuccine, had a couple of lemons in the fridge and picked fresh basil from the garden.

serves 4

2 lemons
Fine sea salt
1 cup packed basil leaves plus more for garnish
1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
1 lb. fettuccine

Finely grate zest from both lemons, then juice 1 1/2 lemons (save the remaining 1/2 lemon for another use.). Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, in a blender, combine lemon juice, oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and generous pinch pepper; puree until smooth.
Add pasta and zest to boiling water; cook until pasta is al dente. Drain pasta; transfer to a large serving bowl. Add sauce; toss to combine. Adjust seasoning to taste. Serve immediately, garnished with basil. (I sliced some fresh tomatoes for garnish)
Enjoy!

I’ve recently made a new friend, Lucienne, and our conversations, more and more, have delved into the many fine taste sensations of Italian cuisine.
Last weekend she introduced me to something new: Spring Parmagiano. (there is Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter Parmagiano) I’d never heard of it and to my knowledge, have never tasted it. Now, you can see from the recipes on my blog, I cook a lot of Italian food. I use Parmagiano cheese often and I buy the best I can find in this area. But I’ve never tasted anything like the Spring Parmagiano she brought back for me from Di Palo’s on Grand Street in NYC. The Spring Parmagiano is sweeter and less likely to crumble than the Parmagiano I’m used to. Throughout the cheese there are crunchy little crystals. It is, as Lucienne says, divine! She suggested tasting the cheese with a sliced pear, which I did and, she’s right. Divine is the word to use when describing this cheese.
Find some of this cheese and give it a try….. but I must issue this warning: you might not ever go back to the grocery store version of Parmagiano again. Enjoy!

As all of you avid gardeners know, this time of year brings in baskets of cucumbers. You pick them all one day and a new healthy batch of full grown vegetables seem to replace them the following morning. You give them to friends and neighbors, you take them to co-workers, you put them into salads, sandwiches and soups, but there are plenty left over.
However… we would never leave them out of our garden.
Instead, we make pickles.
Beautiful, sweet, tangy pickles!
One of the photographs shows Sandy making use of an overgrown dill plant we had growing in the garden. She cut the seeds and herb off the stem and added it to the pickle jars.
As you can see, we have different size jars that we collected, but we put the same amount of seasoning in each jar.

Ingredients (we doubled the recipe)
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 Tbsp. sea salt
2 cups white sugar
6 cups sliced cucumbers
1 cup sliced onion
1 1/2 cup wax beans
1 generous Tbsp. pickling spice in each jar
A few sprigs of dill in each jar

Directions
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring vinegar, salt and sugar to a boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved, about 10 minutes.
Place the cucumbers, onions, beans, dill and pickling spice in each jar. Pack the jars tight.
Pour the hot liquid into each jar so that it covers the vegetables.
Cover, and put into the refrigerator for 3 weeks before eating.