Italian Sandwiches

This was a quick and simple meal. My wife made a salad.

And I put together some "Italian" sandwiches. In Italy

these would have been simpler. First some crusty bread.

I cut the middle third out, as the loaf was quite thick. We used

the middle thirds for toast the next morning with scrambled eggs.

I spread some of the pesto I'd previously made on one side, then

some sliced tomato (more on these later).

Followed by mozzarella, and in her case, proscuitto. Then into the

toaster oven.

The end result was delicious.

I'd come across these assorted heirloom tomatoes the other day.

They looked so pretty, I just had to have them.

Lemon Pasta

This is a light summery dish. I cut a fistful of parsley, as well as a collective fistful of sage, rosemary, and thyme, and finely minced it up. I got to use one of my favorite knives for this. It's shaped like a pair of cresent moons set in parallel, with a pair of handles on the ends. You rock it back and forth over a pile of fresh herbs, and then the herbs are minced. I also zested and then juiced a lemon, pressed some garlic, and halved a dozen grape-sized tomatoes.


Warm a generous amount of olive oil, and heat the garlic for a minute or two. DON'T brown the garlic. Remove from heat, then mix in the lemon juice and zest. Add the parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Top with tomato halves and serve.

Pesto

We keep an herb garden on our deck. Some things do better than others. Rosemary is nearly immortal around here, and sage, oregano, thyme, and lavender all do spectacularly well.

Unfortunately, we have a difficult time with basil. This one's less emerald than I'd like it to be. In fact, parts are downright yellow. This afternoon, I trimmed it aggressively, and with the trimmed portions, I'm going to make pesto.

I start with a few cloves of garlic in a food processor. Oops, I meant to mince those.

It is, after all, a food processor.

I toasted some pine nuts and in they went.

Then as much basil as I could fit into the processor (very observant readers may notice that not all of that is basil. Five points for correctly guessing the secret ingredient du jour).

Some hard Italian cheese. I think this is a blend of parmesan, peccorino, and romano.

A turn or two of cracked black pepper.

Some olive oil.

Blend, then scrape down sides.

Repeat until smooth.

My
wife bagged it into five or six sandwich baggies, and we put them in the freezer. I plan to use them here and there for the next two months.

By the by, this whole process took twenty minutes.

Salmon, Redux

Tonight, we went with the cedar plank salmon I've previously mentioned. This
time I've got pictures.

We start by soaking the plank (it's about a fifth of an inch thick) in water for an hour or two. Lay the salmon on the plank, and then cover with brown sugar, pepper, and other select spices.


I learned how to tell when fish is done from my father in law. I look for the layers of tissue to begin to separate, so the side of the fish looks a bit like an accordion. In the process, the plank blackens and the sugar caramelizes, then burns. It ends up looking like this.

The finished product. Note the accordion effect.



My wife also made a delicious salad, and we had asparagus.