Party Plates: Homemade "Confetti" Salsa

This is the first year that my husband and I have had the opportunity to grow vegetables on our own, and we started with a small (well, it WAS small) yellow pear tomato plant given to us as a gift from my mother-in-law. Little did I know that the baby she gave us would soon turn into a rather large plant - with a rather bountiful yield of tomatoes! I wish I'd taken a picture of the bowl-full that I had sitting on my counter before I used them in today's recipe, but let's just say that when the girls at work decided to have a "girl's day" at the lake, I was more than happy to volunteer to make this dish. There's no way I could have eaten them all by myself before they went bad!

I call this "confetti" salsa because that's exactly what I thought about when I saw all of the beautiful colors of the ingredients mixed together in my food processor. It was literally a smorgasbord of yellows, reds and greens. Awesome! So, here you have it - the aptly named "confetti" salsa. If you don't have pear tomatoes, you can use all grape tomatoes. The result won't be quite as colorful, but it will still taste fantastic!

Homemade "Confetti" Salsa

1 1/2 cups grape or pear tomatoes (or a mix of the two), seeded and chopped, divided

1/2 small red onion, diced

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup cilantro

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 lime

Add 1 cup tomatoes, red onion, jalapeno, garlic, cilantro, and salt to food processor. Add the juice of the lime. Process briefly, pulsing four or five times to finely chop/dice all ingredients. Transfer to small serving bowl. Add 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes and stir well. Cover and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour or overnight.

This salsa is mild, though you can spice it up by swapping out the jalapeno for a habanero, if you'd like. I should say that it is quite garliky (yep, you'll smell it as soon as you uncover it!), so if it's too much you can always reduce the amount you add. 

Until next time...

Cheers!



Garden Fresh: Squash & Ricotta Galette

The more I cook, the more I come to appreciate high quality, fresh ingredients. Now that I'm in a house with a yard (yay!), I've made it a goal of mine to grow fresh herbs and vegetables in my own backyard garden. This year, my husband and I started small, with a pear tomato plant, basil, oregano and a variety of hot peppers. If all goes well, we'll expand our inventory next summer. In the meantime, I gladly take any and all donations of fresh vegetables from my friends and family.

My mother-in-law recently brought over a bounty of wonderful vegetables from her garden - jalapenos, banana peppers, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers and eggplant. I was really excited to have such great ingredients to work with, and wanted to make sure that I put them to great use. Today's recipe calls for the use of both squash and zucchini, with the added bonus of the use of fresh basil that I grabbed from my own garden.

Squash & Ricotta Galette

 1 medium zucchini, sliced thin

1 medium yellow squash, sliced thin

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 cup ricotta cheese

1 tbs EVOO 

I egg, beaten

1 tsp fresh thyme

1/2 tsp grated lemon rind

1 tsp fresh lemon juice (about half a lemon)

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp kosher salt

1 frozen pie crust

1/8 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Thaw pie crust as instructed. Unroll and lay out in 9-inch pie pan. 

Combine squash and zucchini in a large bowl. Add olive oil and garlic and mix well. In a medium bowl, add ricotta, parmesan cheese, thyme, lemon rind, lemon juice, pepper and egg. Mix well.

Spread ricotta mixture over the dough in the pie pan. Lay zucchini and squash on top of the ricotta mix, alternating and slightly overlapping the edges. Sprinkle with salt. Fold edges of the crust over slightly.

Cover the edges of the pie crust with strips of aluminum foil (this will prevent the crust from browning too much). Put pie pan in the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, cook 10 minutes and add basil leaves. Cook another 5 minutes and cut into wedges.

This dish is light and fresh, with floral undertones that suggest a slight sweetness for your palette. It's a great addition to a summer get together, and will appeal to kids and parents alike.

Cheers!