Recipe: Flexible recipe uses cheese, pre-made crust
They're late in the season but still delicious: Juliet tomatoes, ready for roasting. Kathy Morrison
The tomato plants are disappearing from the community garden I belong to. One here, one there, then whole plots of them -- their luscious fruits now canned or frozen or just memory. It's nearly fall, and many gardeners are done with summer.
Of course the heat wave killed off many summer vegetable plants, and in others it halted the will to reproduce. Still, some of us stubbornly keep our plants in place. How could I tear out something that looks so healthy? For now, the Juliet tomato plant survives, along with a few others, and I get to enjoy her meaty tomatoes that are even more precious now that they are dwindling.
The recipe here is an excellent way to use any late-summer veggies. And thank goodness the weather has cooled down, because roasting the veggies first is a must, to concentrate the flavors and let the excess liquid cook off.
Use what you have: zucchini, peppers, eggplant, scallions, garlic -- and of course tomatoes. The cheese and herbs are also flexible: Goat cheese or Gruyere instead of mozzarella, for example, and thyme or oregano instead of basil. I included a cup of cubed rotisserie chicken, because I had it, but that is optional.
Roasted summer vegetable galette
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
4 to 6 cups summer vegetables, such as tomatoes, zucchini or peppers, halved or cut into 1-inch pieces
Olive oil
1 premade refrigerated pastry crust, allowed to sit out at room temperature for a few minutes
1 cup cubed cooked chicken or ham (optional)
3 or 4 scallions, trimmed and sliced
4 ounces fresh mozzarella or other soft or semi-soft cheese, such as goat cheese or grated Gruyere
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs, such as basil or parsley, or 1 teaspoon dried herbs
Salt
Freshly grated black pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese
Water or cream for brushing crust, optional
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spread the tomatoes and/or other veggies on a quarter-sheet baking pan. Drizzle olive oil over it, and stir, making sure all the veggies get a little. Roast for 20-30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Some brown is fine.
Remove from oven and allow to cool. Some of the veggies may give off a lot of liquid. Pour that off and discard or use it to make vegetable broth.
When the veggies are mostly cool, scrape them into a large measuring cup. You should have at least 3 cups of roasted vegetables. (You may need to pour out more liquid here.)
Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Unroll the premade pastry onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. If the pastry is getting too soft to work with, pop the pan into the freezer for a few minutes. In a large bowl, combine the veggies, the scallions, the chicken or ham (if using), and salt and pepper to taste.
Distribute the basil and dabs of fresh mozzarella (or whatever you're using) over the pastry round, leaving about 1-1/2 inches open around the edge. Mound the galette filling over the herbs and cheese.
Fold the pastry edge up, pleating it as you go. This is a rustic tart, so don't worry about perfection.
Sprinkle some Parmesan over the filling. If desired, brush the crust edges with water or cream.
Bake 25 minutes or until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling.
Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.
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Garden Checklist for week of May 12
Get your gardening chores and irrigation done early in the day before temperatures rise.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions. This heat will cause leafy greens and onions to flower; pick them before they bolt.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Got fruit trees? If you haven't already done so, thin orchard fruit such as apples, peaches, pears, pluots and plums before they grow too heavy, breaking branches or even splitting the tree. Leave the largest fruit on the branch, culling the smaller ones, and allow for 5 to 6 inches (or a hand's worth) between each fruit.
* Thin grape bunches, again leaving about 6 inches between them. For the remaining bunches, prune off the "tail" end, about the bottom third of the bunch, so that the plant's energy is concentrated in the fruit closest to the branch.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
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