Gazpacho

This is my favorite summertime soup! A friend's husband made it for dinner one night and reminded me of how much I love it!!! He put corn and sea food in his which was yummy too. I did steal his idea of garnishing with avocado, YUM!

I grated the cucumber into the soup. It worked out better than I thought it would. I also used my hand blender to zip it up a bit.

INGREDIENTS

28 or 32 oz can of peeled San Marzano tomatoes, chopped with juice

2 cups chicken stock

3/4 cup diced celery, english cucumber, & onion

2 cloves of garlic, I grate it in with a microplane

4 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons of worscestershire

salt, pepper, and tobasco to taste

The longer this soup chills the better. ENJOY!

San Marzano Tomatoes, a Test

I am on the San Marzano tomato bandwagon! Honestly these tomatoes are what make peoples food taste that much better. Sauces, salsa whatever it is these tomatoes make it wonderful. I did a bit of a comparison yesterday while making salsa. I had two cans of San Marzano tomatoes, one brand was Cento, the other was Liuzzi. The Cento brand was much better than the Liuzzi brand. Cento had nice whole tomatoes, firm and not falling apart. The Liuzzi tomatoes where not whole, they were not firm and basically were falling apart.

I did take a picture, of the two side by side in my strainer. It is hard to tell the difference because the tomatoes are chopped up. The tomatoes on the left are the Liuzzi, the tomatoes to the right are the Cento brand. I should have taken the picture when the tomatoes were still whole, but I didn't realize how much better the Cento tomatoes were until I opened that can.

Hawaiian Pizza

Most people don't like to let food go to waste, I try to be one of those people. We had left over ham and some left over pineapple, what came to mind? Hawaiian pizza of course! As it turns out this is the topping of choice for my cousin Elizabeth. Friday night is usually pizza night here. Dough is made fresh in the bread maker and rolled thin. Next a moisture barrier on top of the rolled dough, some olive oil, spread with a rubber brush. Then a simple sauce of crushed San Marzano canned tomatoes, these are a MUST! Top this with mozzarella cheese to your liking. Since this was going to be a Hawaiian pizza I added some chopped pineapple and ham. We also tried adding a bit of blue cheese. We didn't really care for the blue cheese, it took over the delicate flavor of the ham and pineapple. Bake your pizza at 425 degrees for about 14 minutes, be sure to check your pizza so it doesn't burn. Enjoy!

Lime Salsa

I love homemade salsa. I also happen to love it with lots of lime juice. This time when I made it I even added some lime zest right in the mix. Make this salsa to your liking, and taste as you go! If you can get them use San Marzano tomatoes!

INGREDIENTS
28 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained if you can get peeled & seeded even better
14 oz can of crushed tomatoes(If you have fresh tomatoes you can peel, seed, and chop them instead of canned)
1+ cup finely chopped onion
4 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
2 minced jalapenos
juice of 3 limes and the zest of one lime (I love lime, try the juice of 1 lime if you want)
1 tablespoon salt

INGREDIENTS
Mix everything together and enjoy. Resist the urge to put everything in your food processor. This results in an evenly textured salsa, not really what you want. As this sits overnight the flavors will meld and change. Don't over salt when you first make this. Sorry no picture, I will try to get one later.

San Marzano Tomato Soup

Having a craving for tomato soup and no can of Campbells in sight I figured I would make my own. I googled a few recipes and checked my Joy of Cooking for some ideas. I didn't have all the ingredients for the recipes, but I would have to, as Tim Gunn says, "make it work". My father once told me some things aren't worth making from scratch, he said tomato soup was one of them. I have to disagree!INGREDIENTS3/4 cup onion1 rib celery1 bay leaf28 oz can of San Marzano tomatoes15 oz can of tomato sauce2 cups chicken bouillon (stock, broth, whatever)1 cup instant rice1/2-1 cup of milk1 teaspoon of baking sodasalt & pepper to tasteMETHOD3/4 cup chopped onion1 rib chopped celerya bay leafSautee the above in vegetable oil until everything is soft, remove the bay leaf.Add one 28 oz can of San Marzano (DOP) tomatoes, I used peeled plum tomatoes.Use your spatula to chop up the tomatoes in the pot. Cook the tomatoes down until you can draw your spatula across the pot and the tomatoes leave a "path".Add the tomato sauce, bouillon and rice. You don't have to add the rice, but I thought it would be a nice touch. Once the rice is cooked then add the milk. You can leave this out too if you want. Lastly I added some baking soda to cut the acidity.I don't have a picture, but it is yummy!