Oven-Dried Tomatoes and My First Pizza in Paris

I'll be perfectly honest... I've seen so many recent blog posts for oven-dried tomatoes that I was hesitating to post this... but ultimately, I figured I should. I mean, I did mention them in my last post. I'll try to make it interesting...
 

With the heat of summer comes the plentiful bounty of the ever delicious tomato. I would have to say that tomatoes are near the top of my list of favorite foods... in a salad, oven-roasted, in salsa, for sauces, or just plain off the vine... I love them any way they come. One of the things I'm really missing at the moment is my little urban vegetable garden that I had back in Atlanta. My tomato plants grew like wildfire during this part of the year, yet, I never could seem to get enough. I made a rockin' marinara sauce with them(which I'll post one day) and since then vowed never to buy canned spaghetti sauce again.

Luckily, tomatoes are just as bountiful here as they were in my garden... and so many more varieties than I'm used to. La Grande Epicerie has a fairly small, but beautiful selection of heirloom and zebra tomatoes, which I have yet to play with... and the markets and local grocery stores always have a big selection of the usual types. We've had a number of picnics recently, where in the tomato often makes an appearance. It's an easy, healthy snack, and it never hurts that I usually end up with a basket or so left over.

So I've been experimenting, as I am with all other foods these days, on new ways to use the tomato. I've roasted tomatoes multiple times before... but have recently come across numerous blog posts for oven-dried tomatoes. Not too much different from roasting... just at a lower temperature, and for much longer. Easy enough, I figured I'd give it a try.

Turns out oven-dried tomatoes are pretty damn good. I'm used to the intense, salty nature of sun-dried tomatoes, and thought that these would be similar, but they are completely different. The tomato flavor when oven-drying becomes very sweet, and the flesh of the tomato is so soft, I would almost even describe it as creamy. It was delicious. I topped my Mascarpone BLT Tartines with them and oh la la... magnifique.

 

Oven-Dried Tomatoes

1 pint of small-sized tomatoes(plum, roma, cherry, etc.)
extra virgin olive oil
salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with foil and rub extra virgin olive oil on the foil.

Slice the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds. Place tomatoes on the baking sheet and sprinkle salt over top of them. Place in the preheated oven for 2-3 hours, depending on the size of your tomatoes. The tomatoes will be done when the edges are shriveled but the center flesh is still a little soft. Store in plastic bags in the freezer or immersed in a container of extra virgin olive oil.

On another note, I had my first pizza in Paris! Mushroom, cheese, and an egg on top. Yum.

Tartine Tuesday: Mascarpone BLT Tartines

To make my life a little easier, I have decided to implement Tartine Tuesday. The tartine is the epitome of the French open-faced sandwich, usually consisting of a slice of bread topped with a spread or pâté. It is similar to the Italian bruschetta, grilled toasts topped with concoctions of tomatoes, red peppers, olives, herbs, etc... all in all, delicious.

 

So, in honor of this deliciously simple and versatile snack, each Tuesday I will post a new tartine recipe. Doing this helps me in more than one way. First, it lets me spend a little less time on writing a whole story/backdrop for a recipe(gives you more recipes, and me more time to see Paris... he he), and second, it puts an ease on my wallet, since I'll really just be improvising with whatever I already have in my kitchen!

First up to bat:

Mascarpone BLT(Basil, Lardon, Tomato) Tartines

6 slices of baguette, toasted
mascarpone cheese
6 leaves of fresh basil
150g lardons(if you don't have access to lardons, you can always just use bacon that's cut into small strips)
6 sun-dried tomatoes, in oil(I used home-made oven-dried tomatoes, which will be in the next post!)
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a saute pan on medium to medium-low heat. Add the lardons(or bacon) and slowly render out the fat until they are browned and crispy. Place lardons on a paper towel to soak up any extra grease.

Toast the slices of baguette, and spread mascarpone cheese on each slice. Top with lardons, fresh basil, and sun-dried tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serves 1-2.

August 1st, 2010

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!!!

My parents asked me today what I was getting them for their 29 year wedding anniversary. I told them my present was me not asking them to send me money... hehe. Since that's apparently not the kind of present they were thinking of, and I'm a little far away to make them something, this post is sort of my present to my mom, who keeps asking me for pictures and posts that aren't food related...

I'm pretty burnt out from the weekend, as it proved to be quite a busy one. We spent Friday with two friends who are about to embark on a world road trip, starting in the US with our beloved and dearly missed van, the Dirty Turtle.

That evening we met up with some more friends and had a picnic at Les Jardins du Trocadero, which is located on the north side of the Siene River, overlooking La Tour Eiffel. I think picnics are one of the greatest things about living in Paris; there are so many different parks, hidden gardens, and secret courtyards... you can really find one that fits your personality. But I have to be honest, Les Jardins du Trocadero wouldn't be my ideal picnic area. I was curious about this particular park because it is located on the opposite side of La Tour Eiffel, or well, opposite of the side I usually visit(Parc du Champs de Mars). I also found an image of Les Jardins du Trocadero in a travel book my dad gave me. It looked simple and quiet, with lush green grass and weeping willows overlooking a still pond... the perfect setting for a picnic, right? Wrong. Tourists and their cameras, merchants selling mini Eiffel Tower key chains, and performers trying to earn an extra buck fill the Palais de Chaillot and the surrounding gardens. We couldn't even find a grassy spot where there weren't cigarette butts embedded in the dirt. Hey, I'm not bashing the place, trust me, it could be much, much worse. We all still had a great time, and I got some pretty cool night shots of the Eiffel Tower.

Saturday we met up with Rey and Laetitia, some of our really good friends from Atlanta who were passing through Paris. They spent the past few weeks in the south of France, where Laetitia's family lives. We walked around the city to show Rey the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries... and got some(more) delicious hot chocolate from Angelina! It was so good to see friends from back home... Rey never fails to make us laugh, and I can always count on Laetitia to be my chocolate buddy!!

Today, I got pretty lucky. I've wanted to go to the Centre Pompidou for a while now... but was hesitating due to the 10-12 Euro entry fee. But today was my lucky(or luckily timed) day, as it was Sunday, August 1st, the first Sunday of the month, when the museum has no entry fee! Luckily the month of August is also when most Parisians go on vacation, so the museum wasn't as crowded as it might be during the other months. I won't ramble on too much; just wanted to mention that the view from the top of the Centre Pompidou is absolutely amazing. You can see all of Paris, from the Sacre Coeur, to the Eiffel Tower, to Notre Dame. If you ever come to Paris, you can't miss this sight. I'll leave you with some of my favorite pieces from the museum... Bonne Nuit!