 I found these beautiful beans at the Larkspur farmer’s market and my mind immediately began calculating all the ways that I could make them shine. Iacopi Farms has been growing heirloom beans in Half Moon Bay for several generations and it was very apparent that they love what they do. I only picked up two bags and this was a mistake. I am in love with the sauce that the beans are braised in and have been making variations of it for the past few weeks. I think that the key ingredient is pomegranate molasses, a Persian staple that consists of pomegranate juice that has been boiled down to a syrup. When buying, I recommend looking for one that lists pomegranate as the first ingredient, not sugar. Pomegranate molasses is sweet and tangy and enhances every dish I have added it to.
0 Comments
 This salad is a wonderful way to use up a late summer glut of tomatoes. Here I call for one of my favorite varieties, the Early Girl. Early girls have thicker skins and are often dry farmed in Northern California. This results in wedges that are less likely to fall apart in salads and a more concentrated tomato flavor that will uplift any recipe.
This dish should really only be made in the summer and early fall when the tomatoes are in season and taste as tomatoes should: tangy, sweet and just a hint of richness. It’s also a terrific way of using up bread that has been lingering in your pantry too long and has gone stale. If you don’t have stale bread simply toast the bread cubes in the oven until they crisp up.  Heat waves are not very common in the San Francisco Bay Area but when they strike we don’t tend to handle them very well. I was lucky enough to time one with a farmer’s market purchase of 25 pounds of dry farmed Early Girl tomatoes (a little over 11 kg). I’d never had this variety before coming to California but now it is my go-to tomato. The dry-farming allows the flavors to concentrate more which results in some of the most flavorsome tomatoes I’ve ever had.
Since we are relying on fresh, raw vegetables we must also heavily rely on our palates and judgement to guide us. Think of the recipe below as a template, a guide to the final outcome. This soup will really require you to discern whether or not to add more salt, or bread or vinegar… or not! Perhaps you grabbed a very bitter cucumber? Maybe you couldn’t track down Early Girls and used a different variety that is a bit sour? Was the bell pepper not as sweet as you were hoping? I recommend that you taste all the individual produce components of this soup separately before chucking them into the blender. |
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed