It's Still Summer + Tomato and Beet Salad

School has started and Labor Day weekend came and went... sounds like summer is over.

Except, it is not.  Don't let those shiny, new backpacks and rules about not wearing white fool you.  Summer is alive and well, and I intend to celebrate it a little more.  

It only comes around once a year, after all, and really is the best season. (Ok, maybe it is tied with spring. I sure do enjoy spring as well...)

If you look at a calendar or at the daily weather forecast, you will see that it actually is still summer, at least until September 22.  So I plan on rounding up, to October.  I will start celebrating fall in October.  Which means unlike the other blogs you are seeing out there, you won't see pumpkin and apple recipes popping up yet.  They will come, trust me, but for now I will enjoy the bountiful harvest of tomatoes, bell peppers, and summer squash.  I hope you enjoy them with me.

Long live summer!

PS -- How did I live this long without knowing how DELICIOUS roasted beets are?  They taste nothing like their might-as-well-be-eating-dirt raw/slightly cooked selves.  Expect to see more of these popping up in my recipes!

TOMATO & ROASTED BEET SALAD

From Everyday Food, July/August 2012

SERVES 4  •  PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES  •  TOTAL TIME:  85 MINUTES

ingredients

• 1 pound scrubbed small beets
• 2 pounds tomatoes, preferably heirloom
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• ¼ cup crumbled feta
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Seal beets in a foil packet.  Roast on a rimmed baking sheet until tender, 75 minutes.  When cool, rub beets with a paper towel to remove skins; slice.
2. Slice large tomatoes, and halve cherry tomatoes, then arrange with beets on a platter.  Top with feta, cilantro, and olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.

COST: $6.75      COST PER SERVING (4): $1.69

Tomato Pizza with Ricotta and Oregano

I live in a cave.  No, not literally.  Figuratively.  (Although living in a cave literally could be pretty awesome if it was outfitted correctly.  And there were no bats.  None.)

The problem is this: there are windows facing the East and windows facing the West, but not a single window facing North or South.  So if I get really early in the morning I can catch some good light in the guest room (AKA sports equipment room + ironing room + art supply room + random box holding room).  But that doesn't work on days I have to go to work.  Or if I am in the right spot at the right time in the evening, I can catch some good light on my kitchen floor.  Yes, floor.  Hey -- my options are limited.

But today I discovered lighting gold.  If I move my toaster and my olive oil and -- well, you get the picture -- I have a little area that has pretty good light.  Not perfect, but better than most places in my cave.  This may sound pathetic, but I did a little happy dance over that.  Taking pictures on the counter so beats taking pictures on the floor!

This great light captured some even greater today -- tomato pizza.

Did you know I don't like pizza?  I mean, it is OK, but I hate tomato sauce on pizza.  HATE it.  So I have to find a place that has pesto or white sauce like Round Table.  And then there is all that cheese.  Makes a body not so happy, at least in my experience.  Sure, the taste buds like it, but the digestive track?  Not so much.  At least not ooey-gooey cheese like mozzarella.  But this pizza?  Well, thank you Everyday Food for suggesting it to me!  No tomato sauce and instead of ooey-gooey cheese it is a ricotta and Parmesan blend.  Not as hard on my belly.  And of course, fresh tomatoes!

As for the oregano, I pulled a little bit out of my herb garden.  I always feel a little bit like Laura Ingalls Wilder when I eat something that I planted myself.

So, for this generally-non-pizza-eating-girl and her Brazilian-pizza-eating-husband (which, by the way, ROCKS and would beat American pizza in Rock Paper Scissors each and every time), how did this pizza score?

TEN!  From both of us.

Sorry, Round Table, but there is a new pizza love in town.

Tomato pizza with ricotta and oregano

Recipe adapted from Everyday Food, September 2012

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb. fresh pizza dough (I used garlic-herb dough from Trader Joe's -- only $1.29)
• 4 T olive oil
• 1 c. fresh whole milk ricotta 
• 4 oz. grated Parmesan
• 1 egg
• 2 pints small tomatoes (either grape, cherry, or mini-heirloom -- I used the heirloom)
• 1 large heirloom tomato, any color, cut into half moons
• salt and pepper
• fresh oregano, to top

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 500F with racks at the thirds.  Take pizza dough and drizzle 2T of olive oil on top.  Roll out into a 16-inch oval and place on baking sheet.
2. Mix ricotta, Parmesan, and some salt (1/8 teaspoon maybe) in a bowl.  Beat in egg.  Spread on top of pizza dough, leaving a 1-inch border.
3. Mix the small tomatoes with the remaining olive oil (2T) and salt and pepper to taste.  Put in an oven-safe dish or rimmed baking sheet.  No need to cut them first.  Place the pizza dough on the top rack in  the oven and the tomatoes on the bottom rack, and bake for 15 minutes, or until tomato skins have burst.  Remove tomatoes and bake pizza dough about 5 minutes more, or until deep golden brown.  
4. Mix the large heirloom tomato pieces in with the cooked ones.  Place on top of pizza when it comes out of the oven.  Top with fresh oregano.  Enjoy! :)

COST: $9.84   Cost per serving (4): $2.46

Plus a side salad, $2.91 per plate