A Simple Salad for a Simple Summer Morning

It is only 73 degrees outside right now. I think that is the coolest it has been since I moved to New York. The boyfriend is in town for the weekend and I cannot wait to get outside and take advantage of the drop in temperature.

Tomorrow morning we head to Philadelphia for the day to visit the neighborhood where my boyfriend grew up, picnic in Valley Forge and if I’m lucky, eat a cheesesteak on South Street before heading back to New York.

Before I get started with all of that, I need to share this delicious summer salad with you. It is so simple. If you can use a knife to cut a tomato, you can make this salad. Because of its simplicity, it is vital that you find the juiciest, ripest, heirloom tomato you can get your hands on. I recommend hitting your local farmers market, even better if you have a plant or two going in your own backyard. If all you can get your hands on is a flavorless, bred-for-shelf-life grocery store tomato, don’t bother with this salad. Everything hinges on the flavor of the tomato.

If you haven’t had raw corn before, trust me, it is delicious. Cut straight from the cob into the salad, it tastes even juicer and sweeter than if you were to cook it for a few minutes on the stove or grill. Finish the cut vegetables with a few torn leaves of basil and a glug (technical term) or two of olive oil and you are finished. It is that simple. You do not need the recipe, but I will include one below just in case. Now get outside and enjoy the summer weather.

Simple Summer Salad

1 juicy tomato
1 ear of corn
6 – 8 leaves of basil
1 T good quality olive oil
1 t vinegar (your choice, I used balsamic)
Kosher salt to taste

Cut the tomato into thick slices and arrange on a plate. Sprinkle generously with kosher salt. Cut the corn from the cob and arrange around the tomato slices. Tear the basil leaves in half or quarters and add to the plate (smell your hands to enjoy the basil scent left behind). Drizzle the salad with a little olive oil and vinegar and share with someone you really like. This is summer on a plate.

Squash Blossom Pizza

It has been far too long since I last posted! I left for vacation with the best of intentions of logging on and sharing a few recipes while I was off traveling, but of course, it never happened. I had some great food while out and about and even managed to snag the recipe for a delicious Thai curry that I promise to share with you soon. I’m also working on getting the recipe for a citrus marmalade we enjoyed in England. If I can get permission to share it with you, I’ll have that one up soon as well.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at what to do with all the squash blossoms that should be appearing in your kitchen garden right about now. Each time I have the pleasure of dining at Mozza Pizzeria, I order the squash blossom pizza. It’s my favorite dish on the menu and as I eagerly await any news about Nancy Silverton’s forthcoming Mozza cookbook, I am resigned to trekking to West Hollywood and paying $20 for a pizza. Or so I thought.



Saveur’s recent Los Angeles issue was a pleasure to read. I saw some of my favorite places in Los Angeles getting the credit they deserve and learned about some new restaurants, food trucks and taco stands that I must try. The most exciting discovery was the publication of not only Mozza’s famous pizza dough (adapted for the home kitchen) and not only Mozza’s tomato-based pizza sauce, but the entire recipe for Mozza’s squash blossom pizza. I think it might just be enough to hold me over until the Mozza cookbook is published.



In case you missed the Los Angeles issue of Saveur, I feel a sense of duty to share the recipe with you here. This could easily be the best pizza you’ve ever had. Make sure you take the time to track down the best burrata you can find. The creamy cheese, coupled with a healthy dusting of salt is really what makes this pizza so spectacular.

Next step? Build a wood burning pizza oven in my backyard so I can get just a little closer to pizza nirvana that Nancy achieves at Mozza.



Mozza’s Squash Blossom Pizza

9 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 T active dry yeast
1 T sugar
1 t kosher salt, plus more to taste
6 cups flour
2 cups pizza sauce (recipe below)
60 squash blossoms, stemmed
1 pound burrata

Combine 1T of the oil, the yeast, sugar, salt, and 2 cups of 115˚ water. Let sit until foamy, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add the flour and mix until the dough comes together. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead until smooth. Divide the dough into four equal parts and roll into balls. Put the balls on a floured baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place until tripled in size, about 2 hours.

Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower part of your oven and preheat the oven at 500˚ for 1 hour. Transfer 1 dough ball to a floured piece of parchment paper. Working from the center, gently flatten dough with fingertips to a 10" round. Cover the dough with a barely damp towel and let rest for 15 minutes. Brush the edges of the dough with2 T oil and season liberally with salt. Spread 1⁄2 cup of pizza sauce over the dough, leaving a 1" border. Arrange 15 squash blossoms over the sauce in concentric circles. Place the pizza (still on the parchment paper) on the pizza stone and bake until golden brown, about 10 to 14 minutes. Top with spoonfuls of burrata, a drizzle of olive oil and final sprinkling of salt.

Pizza Sauce

28-oz. can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 t dried basil
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ medium onion, grated

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and purée. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Grilled Zucchini Rolls for a Rainstorm

As we head into a weekend with nothing but rain on the docket, it’s easy for my mind to wander to soups, stews and braises. Something that will keep the oven on all afternoon and produce a dish that is warm, comforting and filling. It is easy for my mind to wander there, but I’m not letting it. I’m sticking with fresh, bright flavors in hopes of using my taste buds to pull myself out of this rainy weekend.

These little appetizers of grilled zucchini wrapped around fluffy fresh goat cheese, basil and citrus should be enough to remind me of warm evenings spent outdoors post-time change (even if the grill marks on the zucchini came from my grill pan and not the outdoor BBQ). The recipe comes from Ellie Krieger, but I’ve taken quite a few liberties with it including doubling the amount of goat cheese. After all, I wouldn’t want things too healthy - it is raining outside. If you want to read the original, and slightly more healthy version of the recipe, just click on her name below.

If all this rain continues, that duck confit I’ve been threatening to make will definitely come to fruition, but for now I’m counting on these light fresh flavors to satisfy me. Actually, even if the rain doesn’t continue, the duck is definitely coming to fruition. Perhaps after I let my mind start to wander again.



Grilled Zucchini Rolls
Adapted from Ellie Krieger

3 zucchini
3 oz goat cheese
1 T freshly minced parsley leaves
1/2 t lemon juice
1/3 cup basil leaves
Salt and pepper
Cooking spray

Thinly slice the zucchini on a mandolin and discard the outermost slices. Season with salt and pepper. Place a grill pan over medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Cook the zucchini until tender and grill marks appear (about four minutes per side).

In a small bowl, combine the goat cheese, parsley and lemon juice, and season with salt.

Put a small spoonful of the cheese mixture on each zucchini slice and top with a basil leaf. Roll up and place seam side down on a platter. Repeat with remaining zucchini slices.

Pesto Palmiers

This is a great variation on sweet, traditional palmiers. If you keep puff pastry in the freezer it's a breeze to whip these up. I made fresh pesto with basil from the garden but used walnuts this time instead of pine nuts for an additional variation.

Pesto Palmiers

Makes 1 Dozen

1 sheet puff pastry

1/2 cup pesto plus more for dipping

Preheat oven to 375*

Roll out the puff pastry to elongate slightly. Spread the pesto on the puff pastry. Starting from two opposite sides, roll the sheet onto itself until the two rolls meet in the middle. Slice roll into 1/2" slices and lay flat on a baking sheet covered with a silpat or cooking spray. Bake 22 - 24 minutes until turning golden. Let cool slightly before serving with remaining pesto as a dipping sauce. Enjoy!

Walnut Pesto

1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces

4 cups basil

1/4 cup parmesan

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 t salt

Add the walnuts, basil, parmesan and salt to a food processor and with the processor running, drizzle the olive oil through the feed tube. Once well-blended, taste and add additional oil to reach desired consistency.

How To Use Leftover Pesto

A spoon. Mascarpone. Pesto. Yum.

Basil Pesto

I am not so patiently waiting for the hoards of green tomatoes in my garden to ripen and the basil plants to grow large enough so I can start to pillage them for pesto. As much as I try to wait for the significantly better homegrown stuff this time of year, I absolutely could not stand it any longer and went to the store for a bunch of basil and some heirloom cherry tomatoes. If you haven't made homemade pesto before, give it try. You cannot beat the freshness.

Basil Pesto

3 cups loosely packed basil leaves

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Place basil and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Add the pine nuts and parmesan and pulse again until combined. With food processor running, drizzle olive oil through feed tube of processor. Run until well combined. For this heirloom tomato salad, I tossed about half the pesto with a mixture of heirloom cherry tomatoes. Finish with a sprinkling of salt and enjoy!