My go to baked bean dish for many years has been my Brilliant Baked Beans made with a variety of canned beans. And I love those beans. But eventually, I started fiddling around with dried beans to recreate memories of New England style baked beans I’d enjoyed when I lived in the area. I like those too. Then I started to find fresh shelly beans and October beans at … [Read more...] about Southern Baked Shelly Beans
Sides
Blistered Tomato Sauce
Quick, simple and delicious. What more could you want in a summer meal? The trick here is that blistering the tomatoes gives them a rich, almost slow-roasted taste. I love this with the Italianate taste of oregano, but basil or thyme work wonderfully well too. I generally serve this over pasta, but it makes a great topping for bruschetta or a pizza. Blistered Tomato … [Read more...] about Blistered Tomato Sauce
Panzanella Bake
Panzanella a genius example of creative leftover usage. It’s a classic Tuscan salad of stale bread and over-ripe tomatoes, tossed with basil and moistened with olive oil and vinegar. But the beautiful colors and bright fresh flavors make it elegantly simple, the kind of food you imagine yourself throwing together if you lived in a stone house in the Italian hills. This is … [Read more...] about Panzanella Bake
Vidalia Onion Shortcake
Here is a classic old recipe I have had to reconstruct from memory. I can’t remember where I first had it, but it definitely stuck with me. It’s the kind of dish that you ask the recipe for as soon as you eat it and the cook rattles it off from memory, but you never manage to actually jot down what she says. I searched online, but most of the recipes I found for onion … [Read more...] about Vidalia Onion Shortcake
Creamy Fennel Gratin
Fennel is a new addition to my local farmers market. That’s the great thing about the rise of these local markets. Customers ask, farmers grow. Last year, it was a few experimental bulbs, this year it’s big bins of them. When I saw them last year, I was quick to pick up as many as I could and start experimenting. I love adding fennel to the vegetables that start a soup or … [Read more...] about Creamy Fennel Gratin
