tomatoes – Cheap Wine & Good Food

This is a very rustic, simple breakfast, yet it remains a family favorite. It seems ridiculous to write out this recipe or suggest this as a breakfast idea, but after seeing it on several tapas menus, I thought it might be worthwhile. This is ideal when you have some good, crusty bread laying around and a ripe Campari or Roma tomato.

You will need:

Slice of a baguette or ciabatta bread
Splash of olive oil (1 tbs)
1-2 ripe Campari or Roma tomatoes
1 tsp minced garlic
Scrunch of fresh ground salt

Steps:

Heat a sauté pan or skillet to medium and add olive oil when hot
Heat bread in olive oil, making sure to allow the side that will have tomatoes to develop a nice crust
Add garlic and tomatoes. They should get blisteringly hot and soft. You can do this beside the bread if your pan is large enough.
Smear the crushed tomatoes across the top of the bread and add the tiniest scrunch of salt to bring out the tomato flavor.
Serve and enjoy!

This was a delicious choice for the summer. I used fresh basil and tomatoes from my garden, and the result was a really simple, refreshing meal. I like to serve it with mashed potatoes. Using a good quality balsamic vinegar is also important – there are many types that are infused with flavors that would be interesting to try.

Ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breasts
Olive oil, 2-3 tbs
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, good quality.
Fresh basil
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half.
Mozzarella, fresh and thinly sliced. (you may substitute shredded)
Salt and pepper to taste

Step one:

Heat olive oil on medium heat. Salt and pepper the chicken liberally. Cook chicken for six minutes on each side, and then remove from heat.

Step two:

Saute garlic in the balsamic vinegar for several minutes, until softened. Add the basil and tomatoes and cook it down for 5 minutes, until they begin to soften.

img_1468-1 img_1469-1 img_1470-1