Tastes Like Summer

One of the many reasons I love California is TOMATO SEASON. For dinner tonight I made a whole wheat angel hair pasta dish with fresh tomato sauce and bruschetta.

The pasta sauce may be one of the simplest things I make but it is without a doubt also one of the most pleasurable, especially when tomatoes are at their peak in the summer. I have to admit that I cheated this week. I picked up my tomatoes from Whole Foods, because I missed the farmers market this weekend. No biggie, though, tomatoes are becoming so abundant that even the ones I get from my grocer still taste oh so sweet.

The bruschetta is made from heirloom tomatoes that I also poached from the store. It's still too early for heirlooms to be at the farmers market, but once summer arrives I can hardly bear to wait. (Last year, heirlooms came super late into the summer. It was a miserable wait, but they ended up sticking around until nearly Thanksgiving!)

Pasta Sauce

4 ripe on the vine tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped (I like to stick them over an open flame until the skins pop right off the flesh, becoming super easy to slide off the 'mater; also I seed the tomatoes over a bowl through a sieve to remove the seeds but retain the juices)
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt + pepper (if you haven't treated yourself to freshly ground pepper, then do yourself and your loved ones a favor and go get a pepper mill immediately... best kitchen related purchase I've ever made.)
Several basil leave, torn or chiffonade
Parmiggiano-Reggiano

Throw together the tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, and basil; let it sit while you cook your whole wheat noodles.

Heirloom Bruschetta

2-3 heirlooms of different varieties, seeded and chopped with skins on
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt + pepper
Basil leaves, chiffonade yet again
Baguette, sliced on a diagonal
Olive oil

Drizzle olive oil on the baguette slices and toast them in the oven or over a grill. Meanwhile, throw the tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper together to marry.

Once the noodles are al dente and the baguette slices are toasty, toss the noodles and pasta sauce in a bowl; sprinkle with more basil and a nice parmesan cheese. Finally, spoon your bruschetta topping on your baguette slices; add more basil and olive oil if you like.

Ah, I just love the simplicity of a meal like this... where it's all about the flavors of the fresh ingredients. I wouldn't be surprise if this becomes a regular week night meal at the Kelly house.