This main course Grilled Steak Salad with Pineapple-Ginger Dressing has it all: tender greens, crisp peppery radishes, sweet succulent pineapple, beefy steak, and a bright, fresh dressing that packs a bit of heat, too. What a perfect choice for a warm summer evening dining al fresco. And to satisfy any vegetarians, just swap out the steak for grilled portobello mushrooms.

For a great time-saver, look for peeled and cut fresh pineapple in the produce section of your supermarket. I bought a whole pineapple so that I could slice it down and have a lot extra for morning fruit smoothies. Those small 6-ounce cans of pineapple juice are almost perfect—just suck down that last ounce.

Another step-saver? To avoid having to scoop out the cucumber seeds, buy a seedless variety. For just the two of us, one head of Bibb lettuce and all of the rest of the ingredients made two good-sized salads with some dressing and steak leftover. So keep that in mind if intending to feed more diners…

Adapted from a recipe by Maryellen Driscoll from Fine Cooking

Over two years ago I blogged on Clean-Out-the-Fridge Frittata to urge you to utilize leftovers in a creative way without throwing them in the trash (of course, composting is another option.) Sunday mornings are a perfect time for this process. But just as inventive, and maybe even healthier, is a clean-out-the fridge dinner salad, with in this case, a poached chicken breast (see how below.) 

In poaching, you get to use some of your fresh herbs—a snip here, a snip there, for instant aromatic flavor. Or in the spirit of cleaning out the fridge, maybe you are harboring some leftover herbs? Depending on the size of your garden, you may also be able to harvest some of the veggies such as tomatoes and cucumbers. You get the idea, whatever is on hand is the point.

For the salad base, use any extra produce you accumulate throughout the week; for us this time it was a variety of lettuces, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, cauliflower, carrots, and half an avocado. Other times it’s been bell peppers, celery, radishes, cabbage—the list goes on and on… Not to mention leftover cheese, olives, nuts…

We’re also pretty adamant about formulating our own salad dressings. This avoids the excessive calories and processed ingredients of store-bought varieties. You might want to invest in something like shown below (available from Amazon for less than $12), a very compact mixer with just the right capacity so you will not have to deal with a huge blender. All you have to do is add your oil, vinegar and seasonings, turn the handle and make your dressing within seconds!

Follow the simple set of steps below to make your poached chicken breast, prep your other ingredients, and voila, a healthy dinner salad with a minimum of cooking. Not into a vegetable salad per se? How about combining with mayo, onion and celery and make chicken salad spread for a sandwich… or use in chicken tacos… soup anyone?

Your welcome.

*TIP: Strain and reserve the broth. Pour into silicone ice cube trays, freeze and then package into ziplocs. Take out as needed for use in sauces, soups, or other recipes.

Another easy, peasy but tasty dinner for those harboring a love affair with red meat should try Sirloin Tip Steak Sauté with Leeks and Asparagus. For some reason, sirloin tips are not abundant in our locale, so if you encounter a similar difficulty in finding them, just use a regular whole sirloin or flap meat strips (although flap may be as difficult to find), it gets sliced down toward the end anyway.

FYI, steak tips can come from two areas of the cow. One kind comes from tender, expensive cuts in the middle of the cow, such as the tenderloin. These tips are a superior cut but not considered to be a true steak tip, which should be a more pedestrian cut that is magically transformed into a desirable dish through marinating and/or cooking, such as here.

If the steak tips at your market cost upwards of $15 or more per pound, the meat likely comes from the tenderloin. Hey, if money is no object for you, this may be the way to go! However, true steak tips come from various muscles in the sirloin and round and cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $6-7 per pound.

For seasonings, a splash of cream adds rich flavor to this simple sauté, while lemon zest enhances the leeks and asparagus. One reviewer noted that he added a heaping teaspoon of coarse ground mustard to the sauce which added some texture and a pleasant piquancy. I might try that next time, although we thought the finished dish was fine as it was.

The two organic leeks that I bought were quite large and when sliced down amounted to around 5-6 cups as opposed to two, which suited us just fine, and actually made a substitute for a side of egg noodles (which we didn’t make.) Our opinion was that it was filling enough without the addition of a starch, but it would certainly stretch the meal if you included egg noodles.

By Tony Rosenfeld from Fine Cooking

With no dinner plans, and the lack of desire to do a full-on grocery store shopping, we removed a beautiful tuna steak from the freezer and then made a quick trip to the local farm nursery. There we selected freshly picked corn on the cob, a few heirloom tomatoes and an ripe avocado. Easy enough, right?

Make a side salad of sliced heirloom tomatoes on a bed of baby arugula and a few slices of a ripe avocado dressed with Avocado Ranch Dressing, yum!

Yet something else was needed to dress up that tuna steak and I knew we had just the right ingredients on hand to do so. You’re also likely to have most of what’s needed to throw this Caper, Anchovy, Mustard Sauce together in a pinch. It has a bright zingy flavor that pairs perfectly with grilled tuna (swordfish steaks would be a no-brainer substitute.) Any leftover sauce would be great to mix with canned tuna and used as a spread, or mix into a pasta salad.

If you’re squeamish about anchovies, no need to worry because they are well blended into the other ingredients. Plus, hiding in the fish’s tiny briny glory are vitamins A, B-6, B-12, C, E, and K, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and niacin, to name a few. They’re one of the most sustainable fish out there, resilient to fishing pressures with a quick reproductive cycle.

Now the big question: salt-packed or oil-packed? Oil-packed anchovies are just the filets; salt-packed anchovies are everything but the heads and tails—scales, fins, and bones are left intact and softened during the process. Salt-packed anchovies are prized by anchovy lovers for their blast of pristine fishy flavor, while oil-packed versions are slightly more subtle, though easier to eat. The salt- and oil-packed anchovies perform similarly in most uses, though the salt-packed version has a nice extra punch when eaten raw. As for anchovy paste, skip it altogether.

On a side note, I have to give a shout-out to this Chipotle Parmesan corn-on-the-cob seasoning blend. All you have to do is shake it onto a hot ear of corn smothered in butter, or mix right into some melted butter first, then baste onto the corn. I bet it would be darn right tasty on popcorn and baked potatoes too!

The best laid plans… My birthday agenda was going to include a fancy dinner followed by a “Monet in the Garden” Fountain & Fireworks (F&F) show at Longwood Gardens—over an hours drive from home. Wouldn’t you know, that Saturday was the first day of a predicted weeks-long rainy pattern, and the hourly forecast showed 100% heavy rain from mid-afternoon until past midnight.

Despite the dismal weather, the F&F wasn’t cancelled, so we altered our dinner plans for another evening, dressed in foul-weather gear, and made the trip to Longwood Gardens. And boy are we glad we did. What a show!! The shows are far and few between and sold out months in advance, but if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend…

I couldn’t help myself by adding this video and a few pics from the event. But I digress…

Back to the food blog at hand (and where I finally had my birthday dinner)… According to their website, Eno Terra is founded on the principle of regionalism and seasonality drawing from local farmers, fishermen, grass fed beef and poultry producers and three season harvests from their Eno Terra Canal Farm. They’ve created an enhanced Enoteca style menu, to complement their farm-to-table multi course format.

Located in Kingston, NJ, just outside of Princeton, Eno Terra, opened in 2008, is steeped in history and sits on the oldest highway in America—King’s Highway—which was a center point of local commerce. The restaurant itself is the site of the old Fisk General Store and dates back to the 1860s, with original beams and store foundation still in use in their wine cellar (ask to see them when you visit).

For some reason, their small patio area was not available for seating, even though it was a gorgeous summer evening. Not to complain because the two-story space in a historic, wood-framed general store remains inviting, with its artful wall hangings of lichen and other living greenery. Their menu is Italian in sensibility, while the wine list focuses on Italy and the United States with an abundant representation from France and Spain. So many to choose from!

Russ spends some time reviewing all of the wine offerings, orders and Italian NOE Montepulciano D’Abruzzo, then I enjoy a sip…

Along with a separate detailed wine menu and a smattering of a few nightly specials, the menu is arranged into four segments (plus dessert) starting with their highly touted Salumi & Formaggi offerings. While waiting to be seated, Russ eyeballed the high-end Italian meat slicer (shown below) near the hostess station and just knew he was going to have to start with something in this category…

…  Russ chose the Piccolo which allowed for four choices from the meat and cheese offerings, letting our very Italian waiter make the selections for him. Along with marinated Castelvetrano olives, also on the wooden plank platter was an array of spiced cashews, a fruit spread, walnut raisin bread slices, and melt-in-your-mouth Prosciutto di Parma and Coppa meats, and creamy cheeses Taleggio and 24-month Parmigianno. A meal in itself!

Mid-summer screams fresh corn to me, so I began with a small portion of the Sweet Corn Soup. It was ever so delicately spiced with a nod toward the sweet and garnished with fresh heirloom tomato chunks and a sprinkle of chopped parsley. Divine! Of course, we both shared a bit with each other so we could experience the entire meal together.

Our next hurdle was choosing from the Antipasti & Insalate or the Primi categories, so we went with one from each. Russ chose the San Marzano Lamb Meatballs, with four golf ball-sized mounds of meat smothered in the house’s bright, tangy roasted tomato sauce atop Anson Mills polenta, with shaved Pecorino and parsley.

My pick was a Primi, the homemade Tagliatelle with braised veal, succulent Maitake mushrooms, mixed with Swiss chard and topped with rosemary and grated Pecorino. Our waiter raised an eyebrow when I mentioned I was also going to order a Secondi, so he suggested just a half order of the pasta, thank goodness, because that was plenty—and plenty tasty!

For his main dish, Russ zeroed in on the Niman Ranch Flat Iron Steak grilled to a perfect medium-rare and accompanied by grilled asparagus, nantes carrots, rock potato and dressed with a clinging red wine jus. He absolutely marveled at how fantastic the vegetables were, especially the potatoes with their crisp exterior and creamy soft interiors. I had a taste and couldn’t have agreed more.

An all-time favorite of mine are Scallops, and their line of five plump, perfectly seared dry sea scallops came christened with roasted pepper marmalade. They were paired with a baby kale, shaved fennel and citrus salad, and an artistic swash of Shishito pepper purée decorated the plate. Before finishing this course, we were quite full (surprised?), so about half of each dinner was packaged for home. And BTW, we had them the next day for lunch at the pool—even without reheating, they were amazingly good.

Definitely no room for dessert but it looked like they had some great options from scrutinizing offerings ordered by other diners. The meal was not rushed and the waitstaff was very attentive, making sure to keep our wine and water glasses refreshed as needed. Eno Terra, a new favorite? Quite possibly…

Need a quick and healthy-ish appetizer? Endive Spears with Spicy Goat Cheese clocks in right around 100 calories and is a delicious, light appetizer I found on myrecipes.com. It yields six servings of six Belgian endive leaves per guest, so if the party is larger, double the cheese mixture ingredients and serve crostini crackers in addition to the lettuce. I also added a good smattering of chopped fresh chives for color and taste.

Let the party begin…

Who says clam sauce is only good for pasta? Not this buttery, corn-studded, one-pan wonder. I, personally, am not a fan of whole clams because of what I perceive as the “ya-ya” consistency, but I don’t mind them cut up in soups or appetizers. So when we came across this recipe in our latest bon appétit magazine, Russ was hoping I’d agree to placing this on a weeknight menu—he adores clams!

Realizing he could eat all of the clams and I’d still have cod and corn, it wasn’t hard to win me over. The original recipe said it serves four, but we were hard pressed to see how. It almost vanished between the two of us, and I didn’t even eat any of the clams—with Mr. Hubby being the sole recipient of the entire dozen! In fact, Russ thinks you should add even more…

Coating the cod with flour before cooking prevents the flaky fillets from tearing; any bits left in the pan gives body to the clam mixture. Oh, and make sure to leave the shallots in the pan after removing the clams, you want them to get happy with the buttery corn. Verdict? Two thumbs up!

NOTE: When buying a big portion of cod or other skinless fish, you’ll often end up with the skinny tail end. Keep it from overcooking by folding the tail end underneath itself to create a piece that’s closer in thickness to the rest of the fillets. Then proceed to cook it as you would any other piece.

Recipe courtesy Claire Saffitz of bon appétit

Tired of the same ol’, same ol’ salad dressings? Why not skip the processed bottled stuff and turn to a delicious homemade version that can be whipped up in minutes? Not only do these become the star of the show on any number of salads, but they’re also fabulous on chicken, fish, shrimp, as sandwich spreads and used as dips. Now that’s versatility!

For me, and I’m sure most of you too, summertime cooking is about ease and simplicity. And what fits that criteria better than a big healthy(ish) salad? Summer here in the Northeast U.S. is in full swing, with temps soaring into the 90’s, so a dinner salad without much fuss makes a lot of sense to me.

Back in mid-May, we grilled up a couple of gigundo porterhouse steaks for (one of) Russ’ birthday dinner, with ample portions leftover, so we figured it would make for a perfect weeknight salad. Then our recent Fine Cooing Magazine arrived in the mail, with an article of the same name as this blog, covering eight different homemade dressings. Serendipity I say! The Buttermilk Ranch Dressing seemed like the perfect companion, so that’s the one we went with.

Because salad dressings often contain small amounts of fresh herbs, it’s tempting to substitute dried. If you’re looking for vibrant flavor though, fresh herbs are the way to go. This ranch uses both, but if you have some fresh thyme on hand, go ahead and throw that in instead. The dressing improves with time, and the flavor is best if you can let it sit for at least an hour before serving. Store any leftovers in a glass container with a tight lid for up to a week.

If you’re lucky enough to have your own homegrown chives in bloom, snip off a flower and use as a garnish—they are edible BTW. This Buttermilk Ranch Dressing is great with vegetable crudités, perfect for upcoming parties and picnics.

And for yet another twist on ranch dressings to elevate your meal, try this tasty Avocado Ranch Dressing. Avocado provides the creamy richness of mayonnaise, with the arugula adding a bitter balance. It was a splendid topping on a Chicken Cobb Salad—and using a store-bought rotisserie chicken simplifies the process. You can also try it with crudités and chicken wings or use it in wraps. Recipe follows the Buttermilk below.

Avocado Ranch Dressing

Both salad dressings recipes courtesy of Erin Coopley from Fine Cooking

Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Apricot-Dijon Sauce packs a LOT of flavor with little effort. Actual cooking time will depend on how thick your chops are, so keep a close eye on the meat temp because you don’t want them to dry out. Ours were about 3/4″ thick and took a total of 8 minutes, although Russ started checking after 6 minutes.

Our simple tabbouleh-inspired green peas and farro side was a perfect companion to the seared pork chops. The original recipe by Christine Burns Rudalevige from Fine Cooking indicates to use bulgur, but since we didn’t have any—and our pantry was full of just about every other type of grain—we substituted Italian Farro. I can’t tell you enough how much we really liked this side dish!

Just to be safe, I cooked the farro according to package instructions and used homemade chicken stock which boosted the flavor to yet another level. And instead of draining the liquid over the peas, I added the peas to the hot farro keeping them both warm until the meat sauce was in it’s final reduction.

Here’s the lowdown on bulgur versus farro. One cup of cooked bulgur contains 151 calories while a cup of farro contains significantly more with 340 calories. A cup of cooked farro also contains about 2 grams of fat, compared to the less than 0.5 gram of fat in a cup of cooked bulgur. But farro is a star in terms of protein with about 14 grams per cup, while a cup of cooked bulgur contains 5.6 grams of protein. If you’re looking for a way to increase your intake of essential nutrients, farro is a better choice than bulgur.

Green Peas with Bulgur, Garlic, Fresh Herbs, and Feta

Danube so blue, I’m longing for you.
You murmur of home, far over the foam…

Well, not hardly. In fact, not at all.

On a short road trip into the back streets of Trenton with gal-pal Jeremy, we patronized Blue Danube, an old-world rowhouse restaurant featuring Hungarian and German food. The only body of water in proximity is the Delaware River several blocks over, and the color is nowhere near blue. Jeremy had eaten here a few times and said the food was memorable—the neighborhood, not so much. She was spot on, on both accounts.

The Blue Danube sits at the corner of Elm and Adeline streets off of Broad.

Since it was Friday the 13th, I secretly crossed my fingers that when we emerged from eating, her car would still be there. It was, and the weekend night life was just starting to get underway. But that’s someone else’s blog, so I’ll concentrate on our dining experience.

The restaurant’s main door (on the side) opens to a small, but well-stocked bar, where when we arrived, three elderly folks were enjoying cocktails, while another couple stood in the miniscule waiting area to get seated. We on the other hand, had a reservation and were shown to our table right away. The two small dining rooms consist of only about eight to ten tables total, and for a Friday night, oddly several of them were still available.

As described by Karla Cook of the NY Times “…it’s an old-timey restaurant where the knickknacks are layered, the flowers are silk and the glasses don’t match. But the soft-focus food hugs you from the inside.” This Eastern European-Continental formula is a recipe for success—at least where the food is concerned. Blue Danube is all about paprikas, wiener schnitzel and goulash, spätzle and mititei, plus cabbage and pierogies. Yes, there are some Italian and Americanized options too in the case of a picky eater.

Let me just preface the menu by saying if you’re in the mood for mesclun and artisanal goat cheese with balsamic vinaigrette, don’t go to Blue Danube. Trendy it’s not. And don’t be in a hurry, because everything is made to order and the service is slow. The upside of that is, at least one doesn’t feel rushed.

Starters consist of about a dozen cold (i.e. Stuffed Cherry Peppers, Pickle Platter) and hot (Danube Sampler for Two, Turoscuza) choices, and a few homemade soups. The reasonably-priced main dishes are listed under Old World Classics (which include soup or salad), Steaks & Chops, Chicken and Veal Entrées, plus Pastas and Seafood Specialities. So “When in Rome” as the saying goes, we concentrated on the Old World Classics.

Dining companion Jeremy (above left) took some time deciding but finally landed on the Taste of Europe: a large platter loaded with stuffed cabbage, pork schnitzel, pierogies, and homemade sausage on a bed of cabbage and sauerkraut, garnished with a generous dollop of sour cream. As if you need more, the entrées come with a choice of sides and Jeremy chose the red cabbage. Let me tell you, she LOVED her dinner.

Our side salads were nothing out of the ordinary in looks, but they tasted amazing! And no, those are not french fries on top…

While Stuffed Cabbage is not a typical choice for me, it seemed to be calling my name that evening. The three melt-in-your-mouth cabbage rolls made with pork, beef and rice, are slow cooked and smothered with tomatoes, sauerkraut and shredded cabbage and come with either pierogies or kielbasa—I chose the latter. While my entrée was very good, the side of spinach cooked to the consistency of baby food, was way overdone to my liking, although it was tasty.

Their desserts run the gamut from Tiramisu, to Apple Strudel, to Savarina and Parfaits and Sundaes. Too darn full—and with take-home doggie bags—we didn’t even consider ordering more food. But on our way out Jeremy noticed a young couple sharing a very large sweet treat, which when asked, they told her was the Tiramisu, indeed enough for two!

As we emerged onto the streets, the evening was growing dark, our stomachs were full, and the car was intact. All-in-all, not a bad dining experience…

Another grilling recipe to keep you in the great outdoors. Grilled Chili-Garlic Flank Steak with Avocado Butter hails from chef/author Ronne Day of Fine Cooking in their “Make It Tonight” series. Our flank steak was unusually thick so the grilling time took almost twice as long, and even after resting it was still on the rare side—but oh, so tasty!

The amount of butter seemed excessive to me, so I cut it in half, down to 2 ounces (half of a stick) but kept the amounts of the other ingredients the same, and the butter compound was great! You don’t have to use all of the butter mixture on this steak, but it’s so good, you just might. Any leftover would be great on fish, breaded chicken cutlets, baked potatoes, or rice. A few days later, I indeed used ours on some baked potatoes.

Grilled Skirt Steak Pinwheels, with a side of Grilled Tomatoes—really can’t get any easier than this and still pull off an impressive dinner in about a half hour. Though the meat filling is made with just a few ingredients, it packs a huge flavor punch that’s savory, zingy, and fresh. To add even more flavor I added a couple cloves of finely chopped garlic which was not part of the original recipe.

And their is almost nothing better in the summertime than Grilled Tomatoes! For the best results, use in-season, round tomatoes that are ripe yet a bit firm so they will hold their shape on the grill. (Plum tomatoes may be used, but they will be drier in texture. If using plum tomatoes, halve them lengthwise.) Supermarket vine-ripened tomatoes will work but won’t be as flavorful.

Salting the tomatoes allows some of their juices to be drawn out so that they are less wet on the grill for better browning. Grilling the tomatoes cut sides down first allows them to caramelize before flipping onto their skin sides; the cradle-like skins helps to hold the tomatoes together as they continued to soften.

To round off the meal and add even more fiber and goodness, grill some asparagus spears lightly rubbed with a good EVOO and sprinkled with salt and pepper. They’ll take approximately the same amount of time as the tomatoes—depending on thickness of course.

Adapted from a recipe by Pat LaFrieda from Fine Cooking

Grilled Tomatoes

Before my divorce two decades ago, I HATED blue cheese, and my ex loved it. To me, it smelled and tasted like dirty socks. Somewhere along the path of shedding hubby number one, I came to LOVE blue cheese. Something tells me there’s a message in there somewhere…

One July 4th holiday many years ago while visiting (current hubby) Russ’s mom Mary out in Butler County, PA, she made a Blue Cheese Cole Slaw that won the hearts of everyone at the table. She passed away a few years ago and though we couldn’t locate her exact recipe, I found this one from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, which seems to have a very similar profile to Mary’s. (Recipe follows.)

And since it was party time recently at Casa H, a side of this slaw was the perfect foil to our BBQ’d baby back ribs and a corn salad, both of which I’ve blogged about in the past. However, the food frenzy began with starters from guests Paula and Mike who made a very different appetizer of roasted Brussels sprouts with a bacon dip of some sort—loved it! And not to be outdone, Giuliana and Miguel contributed some bubbly hot artichoke dip, which was also a big hit.

About that Blue Cheese Cole Slaw, be aware, you’ll need a food processor to shred down both the cabbages and the carrots because they have to be in very thin slices. BTW, I don’t like my slaw swimming in mayo so I only used half the amount (1 cup) indicated in the recipe below. Plus it’s an olive oil based mayonnaise which contains only 1/3 the fat of regular mayo.

Guests finish the meal in candlelit fashion.

Is your vegetable garden becoming overrun with zucchini, or are neighbors leaving unexpected boxes of summer squash at your doorstep? Even if this is not the case, supermarkets and farmer’s markets are overflowing this time of year with fresh produce—among them myriads of squashes. What better way to highlight summer’s bounty than to serve a healthy vegetable sauté—in this case with summer squash.

With a short list of ingredients and a few easy steps, you can throw this together lickety-split. The longer you cook the squash, the creamier and softer the sauté becomes.

Some of my most favorite things to eat in the summer are heirloom tomatoes—in any color, shape or form. And it’s pretty much a given that I’ll make at least one tomato pie or tart of some sort. What prompted this particular adaptation was the recipe “Heirloom Tomato Tart” by Alison Ashton in the Sunday newspaper supplement, Parade Magazine.

Firm, even slightly underripe heirloom tomatoes in a variety of colors and sizes are your best bet for this tart. With Farmer’s Markets in full swing, you should have no problem finding a large selection of the fruits. And if you’ve never eaten one, heirloom tomatoes provide far superior flavor than their store-bought counterparts.

What is an heirloom tomato? Many gardeners have heard the term but don’t really know what it means. By way of an easy definition: they are a variety that has been passed down from gardener to gardener. Unlike modern hybrid variations, heirloom tomatoes come true from seed, making them easy to share. If only we had the sun-filled space to grow some 😦

The main reason to choose heirloom tomato pedigrees is the flavor, where you’ll find a wide range in this esteemed tomato world, with many of these varieties prized for having an old-time taste. As mentioned, they’re a far cry from tomatoes at the grocery store, or even from many modern hybrids like ‘Better Boy’ or ‘Early Girl’—which I like in a pinch if I can’t find the heirlooms.

Perhaps the most famous heirloom tomato, ‘Brandywine’ is a classic strain that many experts rank as the best-tasting tomato around. Can’t say as I disagree. To mention a few others, ‘Gold Rush Currant’ is a delightful little one that offers lots of small but very sweet yellow-orange fruits in clusters. A big, yellow heirloom beefsteak-type tomato with fruits that can reach a pound, ‘Goldie’ features a sweet flavor. ‘Costoluto Genovese’ is an Italian heirloom that offers deep red fruits that are heavily ribbed. And so on, and so on—just make sure to get at least three different types for this tart.

The original recipe called for an even split of mascarpone and goat cheese, but because my log of goat cheese was slightly under the 5 ounces, I compensated for it with a little extra mascarpone. When it comes to the crust, make sure to purchase the rolled up refrigerated variety and not the frozen preformed type. Due to my undying love of heirlooms, I was a bit heavy-handed and used closer to 2 1/4 pounds worth.

So go ahead and make yourself an heirloom tart and sink your teeth into the savory treat!

Pictorial Step-By-Step:

Unroll dough and fit dough into a 9-inch removable-bottom tart pan. Prick bottom with a fork.

Place a 13-inch-square piece of parchment over dough; fill with pie weights or dried beans.

After removing parchment and pie weights, bake 5-7 minutes or until bottom is golden and set. Cool on wire rack.

Arrange tomato slices in a single layer over several sheets of paper towel, and sprinkle lightly with salt. I find it best to tilt the rimmed baking sheet so any extra liquid drains away from the tomatoes. You may also need to use a few paper towels on top to remove as much moisture as possible.

In a medium bowl, combine goat cheese, mascarpone, Parmesan, thyme, salt and pepper. Spread in bottom of cooled tart crust.

Arrange tomatoes over filling, overlapping. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake 20 minutes, shielding edges of tart with foil.

Cool 10 minutes, then remove from tart pan. It’s easiest if you place the bottom on a small round bowl and then push the rim down.

Cool completely on a wire rack, then move to desired plate and drizzle lightly with olive oil; garnish with basil.