Things have gone back to the new normal here in the Spy Test Kitchens. Last Friday, after a week of enforced cool meals, the gas oven was successfully repaired. I sat at the kitchen counter and yakked away with the repair man as he worked. (It was odd, sitting in my own kitchen wearing a mask, but he was thoughtful enough to wear his, too.) I must admit that before calling the repair service number I had Googled “gas oven not working”, only to be confronted with myriad choices for what could possibly be wrong; the ignitor being the most popular YouTube answer. But who knows exactly where that little piece of equipment lurks? Luckily, the repair guy thought the ignitor was the likely cause (Go, Google!) and he actually knew where in the depths of the oven it resided. Many screws off and on, a couple of layers of metal shelving removed and replaced, and soon we were back in business. Friday night pizza went off without a hitch.

The repair was a complicated process to the uninitiated. Not at all like when we had to replace the ignitor on the outdoor gas grill: it was the doohickey located right behind the instrument panel. Google came in handy that time for that DIY home repair. I will be ready for the next ignitor failure, now. It is sometimes like that with new recipes. Many steps and starts and measurements are made the first time you prepare a dish for the first time. Then, happily, forever after, you can knock it out with much less faltering.

Mr. Friday found the recipe that he thought we should try, now that we were able to bake again. It is filled with our favorite ingredients, which we have in rotation for several meals a week: tomatoes, garlic, basil and cheese. Luckily for us, the window sill was newly brimming with sun-warm farmers’ market tomatoes, garnered in our latest hunting and gathering trip. In fact, this would be a tasty appetizer or hors d’oeuvre – if we ever get to socialize again. What a concept!

Please keep in mind that you can eyeball these ingredients – I think this must have been a party-sized recipe, when we were only baking for two. I used one pie crust, which gave me enough dough for three 6-inch mini tarts – which was more than plenty.

2 packages refrigerated store-bought pie crust – or make your own if you have time to kill and want to show off
4 tablespoons of EV olive oil
4 green onions, sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 teaspoon Maldon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan, plus a generous heap of shaved Parm (I used the vegetable peeler)
4 ounces goat cheese
3 medium tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
6 to 8 large fresh basil leaves, cut into ribbons
Dash of balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

I used the 6-inch tart pans I had bought for Thanksgiving, back when I thought I would be baking oodles of pies and tarts. It turns out all anyone wanted that year was pumpkin pie – no one craved Sweet Potato–Miso Pie with Chocolate-Sesame Crust or yearned for Pear Pie with Red Wine and Rosemary . Philistines.

I rolled out one pie crust just to get a little more acreage out of the thinner dough. I used a 6-inch saucer as a template, and cut out 3 rounds, which I inelegantly plopped into the shallow tart pans. I put the pans on a cookie sheet.

Heat some of the olive oil in a skillet, and lightly sauté the onions and garlic, until the onions are translucent, but remove before the garlic browns. Add salt and pepper.

Sprinkle about a tablespoon of the grated Parmesan in the center of each tart pan. Divvy up the onion and garlic mixture, and spoon into each tart pan. Place one or two slices of tomato in each, drizzling them with olive oil, and then sprinkle the basil shred,and some more salt and pepper. Shave Parmesan lovingly over each pan. Crimp the sides of the dough, to make a retaining wall so none of the cheesy goodness can ooze away. Bake about 20 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown. We ate ours cooled, as a side dish.

Imagine doing this in mini muffin pans, using puff pastry. Served warm. Yumsters.

This week we have made: pizza (tomatoes, garlic, basil and cheese), panzanella salad (tomatoes, onions, cukes, garlic, basil and cubes of fresh mozzarella cheese), a BLT salad (lettuce, tomatoes, garlic, bacon, croutons), tomato sandwiches (tomatoes and mayonnaise) and cheeseburgers (cheese, tomatoes, onion slices). It is a glorious summer rut.

Here’s a recipe that will make sure you never waste another tomato: https://www.davidlebovitz.com/tomato-tart-recipe-fresh-herbs/

“Again and again, the cicada’s untiring cry pierced the sultry summer air like a needle at work on thick cotton cloth.”
― Yukio Mishima

We are having a crisis in the much vaunted Spy Test Kitchen: the gas oven suddenly stopped working, and the repair people won’t be here until Friday morning (the day you are reading this, we hope). The range is still working fine, so Mr. Friday has been able to brew his coffee every morning, but the oven has been cool as a cucumber all week. This will prove problematic if it isn’t repaired in time for Friday night pizza, but I am not going to borrow trouble just yet. I’ll still make the pizza dough, and we can grill it outside, and indulge in tasty Big Love Pizza once again.

In the meantime, we have had to get a little more creative with our weeknight meals this week. Luckily, as summer swelters on, our palates are pitched toward lighter fare – caprese salad, pasta salad, tuna salad, and gazpacho. We have been learning to adapt to social distancing, so we are being more diligent about cleaning out the fridge and using up the leftovers instead of venturing out for daily recreational and socializing visits to the grocery store.

This is what we ate for dinner this week:

Monday night we had leftover chicken piccata with a side of pesto pasta. That was the night we discovered that the oven didn’t work. Originally I was going to heat up the leftover chicken, but we discovered that it tasted just dandy cold with the accompaniment of pesto pasta.

I followed Marcella Hazan’s recipe for pesto found in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and raided the container garden for our first basil harvest of the summer:

2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 or 3 garlic cloves
Sea salt (we always use Maldon salt)

Toss everything into a food processor and then while it chops, drizzle the olive oil in a thin stream until a coarse paste is formed.

After whizzing the basil, oil, garlic and pine nuts, transfer the mixture to another bowl, and by hand add:

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons freshly grated Romano cheese
3 tablespoons of room-temp butter

After boiling your favorite pasta until al dente, reserve a cup of the pasta water, just in case, to add a little to the pesto, to thin it out. You can always add more olive oil, too. Combine the pesto with the pasta, and be sure to have extra grated cheese in a bowl on the table.

http://www.suzanneelizabeths.com/2011/07/homemade-pesto-from-marcella-hazans.html

Samsin Nosrat’s version is more labor intensive and probably more deelish. She visited Italy for her Netflix series, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and believes in the craft of using a mortar and pestle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkKWtGQxjwM I was delighted to use my little food processor, and did not once feel as if I was cheating. And we use our own homegrown basil, which probably isn’t as wonderful as anything harvested in Italy, but we think it is pretty damn tasty.

Tuesday night we had a crazy and quick caprese salad, with an entire container of sweet cherry tomatoes, prosciutto, olives, fresh mozzarella, capers and a fistful of basil. (You can toss anything you like into the salad bowl, really – roasted peppers, croutons, anchovies…) I drizzled it with olive oil and a smidge of balsamic vinegar, added a pinch of Maldon salt, and we enjoyed it with a loaf of crusty French bread, good Irish butter and the usual cheap white wine.

Wednesday we made gazpacho. Because it is summer. And if we can’t be in Spain, then we can pretend that we are enjoying ourselves at a sophisticated Barcelona café, waiting for the night’s adventures to begin. And because we are such experienced cooks and eaters, we like recipes that we read once, and follow instinctively forever after. In the summer, after a fulsome trip to the farmers’ market, we have our pick of fine tomatoes – which are key to the success of so many summer dishes. Samsin Nosrat has the answer to our prayers, again:
http://fullbellyfarm.com/recipes/gazpacho/

I have been listening to the ever delightful Samsin Nosrat and her co-host, Hrishikesh Hirway’s, podcast Home Cooking. You should try it. They are smart and funny – and wildly entertaining. https://homecooking.show

Last night we had basic boring tuna salad, using my mother’s secret ancestral recipe, which is probably just like yours: mayonnaise (we couldn’t find Hellmann’s, so used Duke’s for the first time and it was perfect) and chopped celery. I also made a humble macaroni salad: adding mayo, chopped green onions, carrots, and red pepper to a bowl of elbow macaroni. We also had a handful of cherry tomatoes. And wine. Also, candles.

It’s hot and muggy this July. I hope you are staying cool and calm and safe. Now we are waiting for the repair folks to show up to fix the oven. Cross your fingers. Wear your mask, and go hunt up some tomatoes that taste like summer. Winter will be here before we know it.

“In Spain, we mainly use red plum tomatoes, but it is always fun to experiment. Try using a mix of colors or substitute green tomatoes for plum next time you make a tomato dish.”  Jose Andres

We broke out of our self-imposed quarantine shutdown last Saturday. Furtively, with masks, wet wipes and re-useable bags we headed out west, to find a new farmers’ market where we hoped we could score fresh fruits and veggies. We indulged ourselves further by listening to NPR. We are going to hell in a hand basket, and delighting in every minute. At the market we found our peeps; similarly clad and outfitted, flitting through a vast warehouse complex, eagerly snatching up elephant garlic, peaches, tomatoes, kale, blackberries, blueberries, ears of corn and armfuls of fresh cut zinnias and sunflowers. It was a pleasureable day.

By the time we returned home, though, we realized that our Margaret Keene-sized eyes had been bigger than our bellies.* Now we’ll have to find clever ways to use up all the produce we happily hauled into the kitchen. We covered a whole windowsill with large, crimson slicing tomatoes. The burgeoning bag of kale could hardly be contained in the narrow refrigerator drawer. A dozen peaches tumbled out of their basket. Blackberries and strawberries vied for space in another fridge drawer. Tiny red-skinned potatoes filled a wire basket on the kitchen counter. There are just the two of us. And Luke the wonder dog, of course. But, happily, he is not interested in a glut of peaches.

It’s time to get creative! Summer is the time for juicy watermelon, thick tomato sandwiches and dripping peaches. How can you appreciate a peach unless you feel the velvet skin with your own sticky fingers? If you haven’t had peach juice run down the front of your T-shirt, you have not had a satisfactory summer experience.

Mr. Friday sliced half a peach onto his bowl of cold twiggy cereal this morning, leaving the other half for me on the cutting board. I ate it over the sink, because the juices dripped furiously and there wasn’t anyone around who would point out that I should have been ladylike and used a napkin. Don’t neglect any opportunity to just seize the day, and a peach, early, and eat it in your crude summer fashion.
When sunset rolls along you can consider a cocktail. How about this drink?

Peach Daiquiri – for one

1 ripe peach, peeled, pitted and cut into slices
1 cup crushed ice
2 ounces rum – if you use white rum, add a tablespoon of fresh lime juice for some extra zest

Place all ingredients in a blender. Purée until smooth. Pour into a tall glass and serve immediately. If you are concerned with aesthetics, garnish with a peach slice and a mint sprig. This is the evening substitute for the front porch peach.

Here is a non-alcoholic peach smoothie for the pure at heart:
1/2 cup peach or apricot nectar
1/2 cup sliced fresh or frozen peaches
1/4 cup fat-free vanilla yogurt
2 ice cubes

Or Sangria for the balmy summer weather:

Basic Sangria (from Spain)

3 1/4 cups (26 ounces) dry red wine
1 tablespoon sugar
Juice of 1 large orange
Juice of 1 large lemon
1 large orange, sliced thin crosswise
1 large lemon, sliced thin crosswise
2 medium peaches, peeled, pitted and cut into chunks
1 cup (8 ounces) club soda

Combine all the ingredients except for the club soda in a large punch bowl or serving pitcher, mixing well. Refrigerate overnight. Immediately before serving, mix in the club soda for added fizz. Ladle into cups with ice cubes.

http://www.spain-recipes.com/basic-sangria-recipe.html

I hate to cook fruit. I think most fruits taste perfect in their raw form. Though everything is enhanced to pure perfection by the addition of vanilla ice cream. But there was a serious stash of peaches in that fridge, and adding alcohol or vanilla ice cream or making peach salsa every day was going to be detrimental to my Quarantine Fitness Regime. We tried an adult approach, and grilled some peaches along with some marinated chicken one night. We added a tiny portion of creamy potato salad to each plate. Perfecto!
https://food52.com/recipes/7037-grilled-peaches

Since we are all staying home this summer, it is a good time to reexamine the local bounty. Our tomato crop is proving problematic this year – we have only harvested three tiny cherry tomatoes. And to do that we had to upset the young mockingbird family. A pair has been training their three fledglings in the side yard by the raised garden bed. We’d rather watch their flight lessons from the kitchen window than go down and weed the tomatoes. The parents have been feeding their young ‘uns mouthfuls of fat white fluttery moths, as they practice walking along the balance beam of a dead tree branch, propped on the compost pile in the corner. These are the simple homey pleasures we have been learning to enjoy this summer.

There are no exotic vacations or fancy restaurants in our future. Just a summer of lingering over the grill, exploring the familiar, and slowing down to watch baby birds learning to navigate the world. Our microcosm is a very pleasant place right now.

“There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven’t even started wondering about yet.”
― Roald Dahl

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Keane