Rustic Peach and Nectarine Crostata - Recipe

Peach and Nectarine Crostata

Crostata: pie without the fuss. With a pie (or tart), it can be hard to make one as pretty as the picture I have in my mind, either cooling on Grandma's window sill or on the cover of Gourmet. Crostata takes my inability to make a precise pie and makes a rustic virtue of it!

I made this particular crostata with peaches and nectarines, but you can use just about any fruit that suits your mood. But wow, baked peaches are really good.

Now let's have a word with you guys who are afraid of making pastry crusts. I've been there. We can get you through this and have you making tender, flaky crusts. Learn to make flaky crusts and dogs will like you, members of the attractive sex will wink knowingly, and leprechauns will buy you a beer. It really isn't hard, you just have to focus on a few details:

• The butter and the water should be really, really cold
• Only spend 1 to 2 minutes working the butter into the flour
• I really like a pastry blender - my hands are too warm, and dirtying a whole food processor makes more work than neccessary
• Use only enough water to get the dough to form a shaggy mass
• Only work it just enough to form a ball
• Refrigerate before rolling out, then let it warm back up just slightly

Our whole goal here is to get well distributed pockets of butter that will separate layers of the dough, while minimizing gluten development.

Rustic Peach and Nectarine Crostata
Vegetarian; not vegan nor gluten-free
Serves 4-6

For the dough:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons very cold butter cut into small cubes; if frozen you can do it carefully into slivers with a bread knife
• 2-4 tablespoons ice water

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, and butter. Using a pastry blender (my preference), or your hands, work the butter into the flour until it mostly looks like coarse oatmeal. Limit this to at most 2 minutes. It is fine if there are still some larger chunks of butter.
2. Add two tablespoons of the ice water. Work this in with a fork for 60 seconds, then try to press a piece together with your hands. If you can form a ball, you are good. If not, add more ice cold water, a couple teaspoons at a time until you can make a big shaggy ball. You really want to err on the side of minimal water, and keep the total time for this step again to under two minutes. It is fine if there is a little bit of unincorporated flour left at the bottom. (The reason the water varies is it depends on the moisture content of both your flour and your butter.)
3. Dust a work surface with flour and flatten the dough into a disk, about 7" in diameter. Wrap it in plastic wrap, or better yet, put it in a gallon freezer bag. Press any little cracks in the edge together - this will make it easier to roll out. Refrigerate for at least one hour and up to two days.
4. Preheat oven to 400. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.
5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let warm up a bit until slightly pliable. This could be anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes depending on how well chilled it is. While still wrapped, give it several cathartic thwacks with your rolling pin to get a head start on rolling out. Now put it on your floured board, flour your rolling pin, and working from the center out and rotating after each push, form a circle about 13 inches or so in diameter. Roll up onto your pin and back out on the baking sheet. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

For the tart:

• 4 large ripe peaches and/or nectarines, cut into about 10-12 slices each (no need to peel)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons white sugar (sanding sugar if you have it)

1. Arrange the fruit in rings (or randomly) on the dough, leaving about a 1.5 inch rim around the outside. Roll the rim up around the fruit. You can do it totally rustically like you see in the picture above, or if you like, you can do a neater crimp.
2. Brush the rim with melted butter and drizzle the rest on the fruit. Sprinkle the brown sugar on the fruit, and the white or sanding sugar on the pastry.
3. Bake for about 40-50 minutes, until the crust is nicely golden brown.
4. Slice and serve. Probably with vanilla ice cream.

Grilled Eggplant with Arrabiata Fresca - Recipe

Grilled Eggplant with Fresh Arrabiata

In the course of planning an Italian-oriented meal, it occurred to me that an arrabiata sauce has mostly the same ingredients that you would associate with a fresh Mexican-style salsa. Traditional arrabiata contains onion, garlic, tomatoes and fresh chili peppers. "Arrabiata" means "angry", referring to the heat from the chilis.

So it might be a bit of a stretch, but I prepared this raw version with cherry tomatoes and chile de arbol that went smashingly with simple grilled eggplant. You could serve this as an appetizer or salad course. If you are grilling, throw the eggplant on first and your guests can nosh on this while you prepare the rest of the meal.

As you can see from the picture, it would have been wise to drain some of the liquid from the tomatoes first - so the recipe is written with that instruction.

Grilled Eggplant with Arrabiata Fresca
Serves 6 as an appetizer
Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved (or an equivalent amount of larger heirloom tomatoes, large dice)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 small white onion, thinly sliced
• 1 fresh chile de arbol, seeds and ribs removed, minced (more or less to your heat preference)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large or 4 smaller eggplants - look for ones that feel heavy for their size - cut into 3/8" thick slabs or rounds
• olive oil for grilling

1. Put the cut tomatoes in a sieve, toss with the salt, and let drain for one hour. Drain that over a bowl and drink it, cook's treat!
2. Transfer the tomatoes to a small bowl and toss with the garlic, white onion, hot pepper, and olive oil. Taste and adjust seasoning. Allow to rest awhile for the flavors to develop. As long as you are serving within an hour, don't refrigerate - it tastes much better at room temperature.
3. Brush eggplant slices with olive oil and grill (or roast in 400 degree oven) until thoroughly tender. Undercooked eggplant is horrible, please don't do that.
4. Serve the eggplant and pass the salsa.

Grilled Flatbread With Padron Peppers and Zucchini Blossoms - Recipe

We've got some beautiful peak-of-summer produce right now, including items that we'll only see for a few short weeks. Zucchini blossoms seem to be at their peak. Hint: if you can buy them still attached to baby squash, they are often a better deal. They stay fresh longer, plus you gets some nice tiny squash in the bargain. For this dish I sliced the blossoms in half lengthwise so you can see the beauty of their interior, an idea I cribbed in different ways from both Ubuntu and Coco500.

Padrón peppers are a Spanish variety, frequently served for tapas. The traditional technique is to simply pan-fry them in olive oil and serve them whole with plenty of flaky sea salt. I'm not big on green bell peppers, but the Padrón's have a more complex flavor. They are a bit of a gamble on the Scoville scale - some are completely tame and others have a substantial level of heat, like a hot serrano.

With two beautiful items in hand, I wanted to serve them in a way that would really show them off. A simple grilled flatbread with olive oil and chevre was just the ticket. There isn't really a definitive difference between flatbread and pizza, but I tend to call it flatbread if there if there isn't a sauce or thick layer of cheese. You can do this in the oven just as well, preferably on a pizza stone, but even a baking sheet at 450 F. is a fine option.

I like to make the dough a day in advance and leave it to rest in the refrigerator overnight. This process is called retarding the dough; by slowing the rise you allow more complex flavors to develop. You can also do it the same day as long as you give it a couple hours to rise. For added flavor, I use a bit of rye flour as recommended in Alice Water's superb cookbook, The Art of Simple Food.

Grilled Flatbread With Padron Peppers and Zucchini Blossoms
Yields rectangular breads about 12" x 4"
Vegetarian; vegan if you omit the chevre

For the dough:

• 1 package dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 3 1/2 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup rye flour (or use more white flour if you don't have rye)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Combine yeast, warm water and 1/2 cup of the white flour in a stand mixer, or by hand in a large bowl. Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, until quite bubbly.
2. Stir in the remaining white and rye flour, the salt, 3/4 cup of water, and 1/4 cup of olive oil. Knead thoroughly, by hand or with the dough hook on a mixer, until you can pull a piece thin enough to allow light through. If using within a few hours, allow to rise in a warm place and punch down once or twice, the last time about 45 minutes before you want to roll it out. Otherwise, divide in half and store in two gallon plastic bags in the refrigerator and take it out about 2 hours before you want to roll.

For the vegetables and assembly:

• 24 Padrón peppers
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
• flaky sea salt
• 12 zucchini blossoms, cut in half lengthwise
• 12 ounces fresh chevre (goat cheese)

1. Saute the Padrón peppers in 1/4 cup olive oil until blistered and blackening; remove to paper towels and season liberallly with good flaky sea salt.
2. Light a grill and allow the fire to burn down to hot coals.
3. Working on a floured board, roll and stretch the dough to form two loaves about 12" long by 4" wide.
4. Brush one side of each bread with olive oil, and place that side down on the grill. Cook until golden brown. Brush the other side with olive oil and flip. While the second side is grilling, Top with the zucchini blossoms and Padron peppers, alternating. Randomly place small bits of the goat cheese.  Cook until the bottom side is done, then hit with a last bit of sea salt and serve. If you like, you can pre-slice so that each person gets one zucchini blossom and one Padron pepper.