Simple Summer Supper

Heirloom lettuce salad with chickpeas, celery, local cherry tomatoes and white balsamic dressing, fresh New Jersey summer tomato sauce with yellow and red tomatoes, garlic, chili pepper, olive oil, and basil with Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Pasta, toasted sourdough with earth balance spread, diced garlic and basil. Raw cows milk Landoff cheese.

Keeping it simple is sometimes the best…especially when you have a three month pup on your hands! Please welcome the newest member of The Crunchy Radish, Henry Pepper!

Easy Peasy Pesto

Buckwheat pasta with spinach basil pesto, oven roasted tomatoes, broccoli and peas

Gazpacho

After consulting with the family chef about proper tomato usage for this summery soup, San Marzano puree was used over fresh tomatoes or tomato juice. Unless the tomatoes are extremely ripe, high quality canned is recommended. At first, I felt like I was cheating, since this soup was intended to encapsulate summer, but once chilled, the gazpacho was the pure essence of tomatoey, cucumbery, and garlicky peppery goodness.

Besides swapping the tomato juice for canned, I relied on my trusty

Moosewood Cookbook

for guidance for the Gazpacho. A cucumber, red bell pepper, small yellow onion, garlic, parsley, scallions, lemon and lime juice, basil, cumin, and cayenne pepper were gently pureed with the tomatoes, white vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and chilled.

For a spin on another summery favorite, I pulverized a box of organic spinach, basil, parsley, four garlic cloves, two tablespoons toasted walnuts and a little drizzling of olive oil to create a pesto. I found that spinach has a high level of water content, so you really only need a little olive oil to meld the sauce together. I mixed in parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to finish. To bolster up the buckwheat pasta, I added roasted cherry tomatoes and organic broccoli and peas (both frozen). The cherry tomatoes were oven roasted with oregano, basil, canola oil, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper. This created a nice slightly charred and sweet tomato that burst with flavor.

The buckwheat pasta not only had a lovely hue, but also added a nutty quality and provided added fiber. The pasta was also loaded with vegetables from the spinach; which is packed with folate, beta-carotene, vitamin K, fiber, magnesium and calcium, the broccoli; which also has beta-carotene, fiber and calcium, along with iron and vitamins A, C and D, and peas, which are a good source of protein. Walnuts provided omega-3 and antioxidants.

This was a lovely summery meal that left plenty of leftovers…. too bad my fridge is broken.

Fra Diavolo and Lycopene!

Succulent, spicy and simple, this shrimp dish is composed of caramelized onions, garlic, serrano pepper, toasted cayenne and oregano, caramelized tomato paste, North Fork Pinot Blanc, San Marzano tomatoes and jumbo shrimp

Toasting the spices releases the essential flavors and natural oils.

San Marzano tomatoes are extremely flavorful, juicy and delicious and the only type of canned tomato to consider when making a sauce.

The canned tomatoes in this recipe not only offer incredible flavor, but tomatoes contain a very functional component, lycopene. Lycopene is a photochemical, which means it is a substance in the plant that acts as a natural defense and helps reduce risk of diseases. Lycopene preserves bone health, reduces the risk of prostate cancer and heart disease. Lycopene is more readily available when cooked and eaten with fat, such as olive oil. Tomato based sauces that are made with vegetable oil and/or have the addition of a little cheese are an excellent way to ensure your consumption of lycopene.

These meaty shrimp were extremely simple to make, but are high is cholesterol, so should be eaten in moderation. There are benefits to eating these pink crustaceans; they are a good source of protein, are low in saturated fat and contain iron, niacin, zinc, phosphorous, selenium and vitamin B12. 

So throw some shrimp......in the tomato sauce!