National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month
Yummy!! Nothing is better than fresh fruits and veggies! June is the month to celebrate them!! Besides, just making sure your eating fresh fruit and veggies, it is always good to buy local produce. Farmers Markets, CSA boxes and Local Co-ops and farms are the best ways to ensure that your produce is from a local source. One of my favorite books on this subject is Animal Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a wonderful true story about a family moving to a farm and living off local resources. So grab the book from your local independent bookstore and cook up one of the recipes below and celebrate this wonderful month!
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1 cup tomato puree (such as Pomi)or homemade from local tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small eggplant
1 smallish zucchini
1 smallish yellow squash
1 longish red bell pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Few tablespoons soft goat cheese, for serving
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.
Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.
On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.
Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.
Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.
Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. (Tricky, I know, but the hardest thing about this.)
Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.
Serve with a dab of soft goat cheese on top, alone, or with some crusty French bread, atop polenta, couscous, or your choice of grain.
Sparkling Fruit Salad From PBS
Ingredients
- 2 cups honeydew melon balls or chunks
- 2 cups cantaloupe melon balls or chunks
- 2 cups watermelon balls or chunks
- 4 tablespoons warm honey - use local honey if possible!
- Asti Spumante
Directions
- Toss all the fruits together in a large bowl with the honey. Divide and fill 8 goblets or wine glasses with the fruit mixture. Just before serving, pour Asti Spumante, a sparkling dessert wine,into each glass or goblet. Serve immediately.
