When it comes to appetizers, some like buffalo wings. Others like chips and salsa. My personal favourite is some warm, straight-out-of-the-oven salty focaccia, with a dipping sauce of extra-virgin olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar. Should you present me with that, I apologize, but I doubt I’d be paying attention to whatever you say next… I’d be distracted. And were you in my shoes in such a situation, you’d be, too. Mmmh.

Last week H and I decided to have a grape-themed night. I found us some matching cookbooks at Half-Price Books that are all about grapes! Green Black Red features all California grape recipes, and it had some delicious-looking things in there, indeed. We picked the two best-looking ones and went for it.

The focaccia looked fantastic in the book, and ours came out virtually identical (except quite a bit more thick, but hey, who’s going to complain about that?). It’s golden and crisp on the outside, encrusted with juicy red grapes, dusted with fresh rosemary sprigs and large-grain sea salt. And it’s Heavenly.

Grape & Rosemary Focaccia

Adapted from Focaccia with Grapes & Rosemary from Green Black Red

Ingredients:

• 1 package dry yeast
• 5 cups organic AP flour (King Arthur, unbleached)
• 1.5 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 cups warm water
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1.5 cups fresh red grapes, whole
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2-3 tablespoons fresh rosemary sprigs
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Process:

1. Place yeast in a large mixing bowl. Add warm water, then stir in sugar. Let sit 5 minutes/ set aside.
2. Stir together the yeast mixture with 3 cups of the flour and the kosher salt using a large wooden spoon.
3. Once fully mixed, slowly incorporate the remaining 2 cups of flour 1/2 cup at a time, using your hands to knead the flour into the dough. Keep kneading until it is smooth and elastic (for approx 10-15 minutes).
4. Temporarily place the dough on a work surface, clean the bowl, and dry. Lightly brush extra virgin olive oil around the bottom and halfway up the sides of the bowl, then place the dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for an hour.
5. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F and check the dough. If it has doubled in size, then pour the 1/2 cup of olive oil in the bottom of a large, round tart dish/pizza pan or baking sheet. Place the dough into the pan and gently stretch it out to fit.
6. Dimple the bread with your finger, and make dimples ever 1/2 inch. Place a grape in each dimple, then sprinkle the top of the bread with the rosemary and sea salt. Drizzle olive oil over the top.
7. Bake in oven for 20-30 minutes (depends on the heat of your oven; I baked for 20 minutes and could have even gone down to 18 or so- my oven is hot), until the top is crisp and golden brown but not hard. Cut with a serrated knife or pizza cutter and serve warm with the dipping sauce I mentioned above, or with wine and cheese.

Mine was too thick to make panini, but the book suggests using it as a sandwich bread as well. Personally, though, I like it better as thick squares you can pull apart while warm and munch on as a pre-dinner sort of thing, or as a snack. How do you eat yours?

We were having a friend over for dinner and this friend (K) and I disagree on a great many things. Despite our being on opposite ends of the spectrum on what many would consider to be life’s most important topics, she’s one of my very closest friends, and has been for years. She’s a wonderful person, and so for her- and probably only her- would I honour a request that goes as follows:

Me: “Hey, so what should I make for dinner?”

K: “Does it sound bad if I say nothing particularly Frenchy?”

I’d say it’s a testament to our friendship that she asked so nicely :) and so I went searching about for something non-French! I also wanted to do something simple and that had a very tiny possibility of not being liked. Therefore… who doesn’t like cheese pizza? Right? I know her not to be lactose-intolerant, so I figured this one was the safest possible choice. Thankfully, she quite enjoyed it. That “mmh!” she said was wonderful to hear.

Rosemary Margherita ‘Pizza’ Tart

Adapted from David Lebovitz’s French Tomato Tart, which is in turn adapted from A Culinary Journey in Gascony

Ingredients (variation of original):

• 1.5 cups organic AP flour (King Arthur)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 tablespoons soy butter
• 1 large egg (cage-free, brown, organic)
• 2 tablespoons cool water
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (Grey Poupon)
• 4 large hothouse tomatoes, ripe (quantity will vary based on tomato size and your tomato preferences)
• 1/2 jar Muir Glen original tomato sauce
• 1 large ball fresh mozarella cheese
• 2-3 tablespoons freshly-frated parmesan cheese
• 3 tablespoons fresh rosemary
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon large grain sea salt

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Place the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the soy butter and mix until the butter is fully dispersed into the flour and comes to a crumbly texture
3. Mix the egg with the water in a small bowl, beating thoroughly until the mixture has a light yellow colour.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the center of the flour mixture and mix in to where everything holds together into a dough ball.
5. Flour a work surface, flour your rolling pin, and place the dough ball onto the middle of your work surface. Roll it out and keep dusting it with flour, until there is no stickiness to the dough.
6. Roll the dough onto your rolling pin and place it onto a large 9-inch fluted tart pan. Press the dough onto the sides firmly, then roll your pin across the top to remove the excess dough (which you can use to make a freeform tart, twists, or whatever you choose!)
7. Brush on the mustard and arrange the sliced tomatoes over the mustard. Fill in the holes (where you can see the mustard / there are less tomatoes) with the tomato sauce, then spread whatever you haven’t used of it over the tops of the tomatoes.
8. Place large slices of the mozarella over the tomatoes & sauce. Then sprinkle on the parmesan cheese, sea salt, drizzle on the olive oil…. then take some of the rosemary off of the sprigs and place over the pizza. Lastly, for decoration, place on two large sprigs of rosemary to infuse the pizza.
9. Place in oven for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese has browned to a golden colour and the crust is just turning golden-brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then enjoy!

Yum yum yum. The sister has taken to this recipe, and it’s a very yummy one. I’m never against fresh mozarella, personally, and neither should be the general populace, because mmmmh, it’s so good! :)

Recently, H and I made a delicious Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart, using David Lebovitz’s recipe. It was so good- and so simple to make- that I was determined to make it again and- of course- experiment with it a bit (general rule: make it once more-or-less as described, then start having fun with it).

I wanted to try a whole wheat crust, putting some herbs into it (Kerbey Lane Cafe here in Austin has a tomato tart with an herbed crust that I really enjoy, and thus wanted to try getting something to be similar) and trying a different cheese. My mother had kindly given me a large piece of Reggianito (the Argentine version of Parmigiano Reggiano)… clearly, it was a sign.

This turned out very well, and was just as easy as the first one to make! I took a hint from some comments I read on David’s recipe page and made two major adjustments: 1) using rice at the bottom (I know, it sounds absolutely insane, but hear me out), and 2) drying the tomato slices.

Rice: An issue I had with the tart our first time around was that after removing it from the oven, there was quite a bit of moisture hanging about at the bottom of the crust and it made the bottom crust a bit moist. To remedy this, I sprinkled a bit of jasmine rice along the bottom (see pictures below) to soak in the moisture. The commentors on David’s blog say you can use it for both savoury and sweet tarts. Neat!

Tomato drying: I placed the tomato slices within paper towels and pressed down, to remove some of the moisture (but did not carve out the seeds and seed-holding gel, as H tells me this is where the nutrients live!). The result: dyer tomatoes, without the loss of nutrients.

And thus- here’s adaption number two of this yummy and tasty treat!

Tomato and Reggianito Tart with Whole Wheat Herb Crust

Adapted from David Lebovitz’s French Tomato Tart, which is in turn adapted from A Culinary Journey in Gascony

Ingredients (variation of original):

• 1 cup organic AP flour
• 1/2 heaping cup organic whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• slightly under 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon each of dried basil, thyme, and rosemary
• 8 tablespoons soy butter
• 1 large egg, cage-free
• 3 tablespoons cool water
• 3 tablesppons Dijon mustard (Grey Poupon)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 3 tablespoons jasmine rice
• 1/2 cup chopped basil
• 8 large shavings of reggianito
• 8 large roma tomatoes, ripe (quantity will vary based on tomato size and your tomato preferences)
• Sea salt (large grain) for sprinkling on top

Process:

Visit David! (Recipe at the very bottom). Only changes I made were:

• using a food processor for mixing the dough
• adding the dried herbs to the dough mixture (and using both types of flour)
• no honey this time!
• reggianito cheese in stead of goat cheese

And that’s that! It’s quick, it’s simple, it’s delicious… and with the whole wheat crust and added herbs, better than before in terms of health! Try it out and make your own changes. I’ll probably keep changing this ever time I make it. Hah.