Vegetables and Fruit

Healthy veggies that actually taste good.

Zucchini Tomato Ricotta Pizza

Sanura

Zucchini Tomato Ricotta Pizza

Since moving to New York, Dad calls to brag about his homemade pizza with vegetables from his garden every summer. I always beg him to freeze a pie and overnight it on dry ice. He laughs. I naively wait.

While waiting, I’ve tried various restaurant-style regional pizzas. My favorite style is Chicago’s thick cornmeal crust. Each slice is the equivalent to one meal. As for New York’s thin-crust pizza, I initially didn’t like it. New Yorkers brag about it being the best, and they often take out-of-town guests to their favorite pizza place. It’s definitely a ‘place’, because it’s really a fast food version of hamburgers. The ingredients are canned tomato sauce, dry cheese and flavorless dough. It’s doesn’t taste special. A New York restaurant-style pizza specializing in fresh ingredients, especially with homemade mozzarella cheese, is a true delight. However, one slice is a snack compared to Chicago’s hearty version. In recent years, as the food movement as spread, more New York restaurants are making pizza with fresh ingredients. Read more →

Heart this Cantaloupe Aqua Fresca with Green Tea

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Cantaloupe Aqua Fresca with Green Tea

My sister and I watched Dad turn and fertilize the soil of his garden. Plant seedling plants for the tomatoes, string beans, black-eyed peas, squash, zucchini, and cantaloupe. We mostly watched the cantaloupe grow into long vines. Among the leaves, small buds gradually grew to burst into yellow blossoms. Then the beginning of the cantaloupe would appear. When it was at full size, my sister and I started a non-verbal game of who can get to the melon first. Picking a melon too early resulted in a bland taste, but if it stayed too long on the vine, it would rot on the ground. A melon is ready when the bottom has an overripe, sweet smell. My sister had the advantage of watching the melons, because her bedroom window over looked the garden. Often, I would come home to find her finishing a whole melon. When I found a just ripe melon, I would eat it in less than 20 minutes. One year, Dad complained he never ate a melon from the garden, because my sister and I found them first.

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Fried Zucchini Flowers Stuffed with Ricotta Cheese

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Fried Zucchini Flowers with Ricotta Cheese

At this time of year, farmer’s markets or specialty stores randomly place loosely packed beautiful, yellow flower blossoms in the produce section. Those are zucchini flowers. They’re not meant for decorative vases to spruce up a room. Are they for salads? Maybe, if you want to feel light and delicate. There’s a better way to enjoy them. Let’s take a break from the green leafy stuff. Why don’t we wrap those delicate petals around a stuffing made with fresh herbs and whole milk ricotta (don’t cheat by buying low-fat, it’s not fair to the taste buds), and fry them golden brown. Read more →

Make Friends with this Garden Tomato Sauce with Pappardelle Pasta

Sanura

Summer Tomato Sauce

Why become friends with the neighbor who has a large vegetable garden? You want to make this tomato sauce. It’s a simple recipe, but it requires the best ingredients. The best ingredients are garden fresh–minutes from being picked off the vine. At this time of year, gardens are overflowing with an abundance of overripe tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, tender herbs, summer squash, and bell peppers. They’re the classic ingredients for making a simple, summer tomato sauce. Read more →