Grown in brick-red fertile soil, they slowly soaked up the hot summer sun, resulting in large ripe, sweet fruit. The local gardeners (who actually were local farmers) would come in every morning to remove old yellow foliage and return late afternoon ( after their siesta) to flood the rows of tomatoes with water from our fish pond.
It was on such a hot and hazy afternoon that we had guests for tea on the covered terrace...overlooking hills of ancient olive and almond groves towards the old citadel ( the thick and wide old walls of the fields were originally the "highways" for local farmers to walk as the countryside is hilly & rocky)
It wasn't unusual for people to "pop in for tea", but this one day I had been told to expect some "special guests" who were/are long standing friends of the family, so the best china was brought out.
Everyone had a great time, laughing and joking, as my boss proudly showed our guests his home ( locally called The White Palace) and the improvements he had made to what was once just a 2 room shepherd's house.
It was only when the guests had left that I was told they were leading members of the House of Savoy, the Royal family of Italy, (deposed after WWII).
I mention this as my menu for Thursday is going to be an Italian inspired extravaganza, and will show the diversity of Italian cuisine.
I am creating a vegetarian version of Bagna Cauda, traditionally made with anchovy fillets, I am using dulse (a moist, briney and tender sea vegetable) in a soy free margarine( trad. butter) and olive oil with garlic and sea salt "warm bath" that raw vegetables are dipped in;
salad of marinated cannelli ( kidney) beans and chickpeas;
Tuscan bean soup with spinach and made with cranberry beans;
vegetable soup finished with a pesto blend of organic basil, garlic and olive oil;
pasta Primavara with seasonal young vegetables and a base of coconut cream & cream cheese;
blue corn polenta triangles with green beans & walnut & basil pesto;
roasted beets with a balsamic dressing;
sauteed broccoli with pine nuts and coconut cream;
as well as eggplant and tomato sauce ( a la Norma) for pasta; a bread and tomato soup;
sauteed mixed greens with tomatoes;
& a RAW tomato soup..I will post photographs in the upcoming days: here are a selection of tomatoes I have already bearing fruit so early in the season in my garden in West Los Angeles
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| first 3..Italian disease resistant salad tomatoes |
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| Plum Tomatoes Italian Hierloom |
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| Mini orange and plum tomatoes |
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| air drying, washed market fresh produce |
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| drying bread out for the tomato bread soup |
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| Tuscan Bean soup with brown rice and spinach |
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| Tomato-bread soup |
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| Add caption |
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| Mixed vegetable soup finished with basil pesto |
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| The mixed vegetable soup finished with pesto |
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| Polenta sheets "drying out' over night, will be cut and dredged in cornmeal for frying at client's home |
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| Sauce a la Norma..baked the eggplant instead of frying to cut down on oil, added leaves of fresh basil to finish |
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| Bagna Cauda..(Warm Bath) Vegan with sea veggies, garlic, olive oil and black olives |
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| Black Olives for Bagna Cauda |
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| RAW Gazpacheo |
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| Greens with tomatoes |
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| broccoli with coconut milk and pine nuts |
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New fruit on Patio salad tomatoes..container grown.    |
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