Somtimes it is good to defy the weather. Today is one of those days. Grey and overcast, yet food for a hot summers day. As you might have gathered by now, I really enjoy simple preperations of really fine ingredients, and this is one of those dishes. Certainly not the most attractive thing I have ever cooked, but the taste was really fresh and amazing.
Lets start with the beans. Really simple to be honest. A can of cannelli beans is heated with a little olive oil and lemon juice, until warm. Then just puree this in a mini food processor. To serve, pop it on a plate, a drissle with really good extra virgin olive oil, and some fresh ground pepper. Now, I am not normally one for pureed beans. Personally, I think the texture is far better when they are left whole, but this was really enjoyable. The lemon gave it is a much needed lift, and didn’t make it too heavy.
The tomatoes and eggplant was really great. But then, you really cannot go wrong with roasted tomatoes and basil. Some decent ripe tomatoes are cut into quarters, and the seeds should be removed. Toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast at 425 for about 20 minutes. You don’t want them completely dry and shriveled up, they should still be moist. Remove these from your roasting pan, and keep warm. Slice an eggplant about 1/3 inch thick. If you have an eggplant that has a lot of seeds in it, it is best to throw it out, it can taste pretty bitter. I generally always buy two eggplants just in case. You can always make a really great roasted vegetable sandwich with the other one (just BBQ some red peppers, red onion and eggplant until cooked. Toast some bread. Layer the veg on a slice of bread, add some parma ham, and some mozzerella, a wee bit of fresh basil and olive oil, and top with the other slice of bread). Toss this eggplant with some olive oil, and bung it into the same pan that you cooked the tomatoes in. Set your oven to broil (grill), and grill these puppies until lightly brown. Grilling these in the same pan as the tomatoes results in some really tasty eggplant. Eggplant to me doesn’t have much of a taste to it, and here some of the tomato flavor soaks into the eggplant, and tastes fantastic.
Simply toss the tomatoes and eggplant with some olive oil and lemon juice. Throw in some sliced (chiffonade) basil and you are ready to go.
And the salmon. Simply slowly pan seared on both sides, in olive oil.
This really couldn’t be a simpler dinner to make, and was surprisingly tasty.
On another note.. we are getting ready for our first long haul flight with Drake. We are off to Holland soon for my twin brothers wedding, at which I have to deliver a suitably embarrassing best man speech. If anyone has any ideas how to keep a 8 month old occupied for 9 hours on a plane, I would love to hear them!
