Herb Nest Salad

8 Butter Lettuce leaf cups

1 cup chopped mixed fresh herbs (such as Basil, Terragon, and Italian Parsley

1/2 cup artichoke pesto or tapenade

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

2 Tablespoons chopped almonds

Arrange lettuce leaves on plate, creat 'nests' using chopped herbs, spoon a tablespoon of pesto into each 'nest', sprinkle with feta and chopped almonds and serve. 

Artichoke pesto and tapanades can be found where the pasta and sauces are in the grocery store.

HOME

Roasting The HarvestSummer Tomatoes, onions, and garlicRoasting fresh tomatoes, onions and garlic until the tomatoes soft on the inside and beautifully browned on the outside concentrates their flavor. The onions become soft and sweet and the garlic is fabulously mellow. All in all, it creates a wonderful sauce you can have on hand to serve over polenta or rice, or for quick chicken or pork sautes. TO ROAST: Core 3 to 4 pounds (about 12 medium-sized) of tomatoes and halve them if they’re relatively small or cut into 1-inch chunks if they’re large. Place the tomatoes in a roasting pan (or any large baking sheet with sides). Now cut 2 yellow onions into eighths and separate the layers. Toss them in with the tomatoes. Peel and coarsely chop about 15 cloves of garlic ; add them to the pan. You can crowd the tomatoes and other vegetables, but don’t go much higher than a single layer. Add about ½ cup of coarsely chopped fresh basil. Drizzle on a bit of olive oil (at least 2 to 3 tablespoons) and toss the vegetables to coat. Now sprinkle on about ½ teaspoon of salt and about ½ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. Roast in a preheated 375 degree F oven until the tomatoes are browning around the edges and the onions are also turning golden in places, which may take 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size and character of your tomatoes. When done, they will have collapsed and look quite wrinkled. Alternatively, consider roasting the vegetables over indirect heat on your grill, with the lid on. I have a wood pellet-fed grill (it’s called a Traeger and is built in Mount Angel, Oregon), which provides a wonderful smoke flavor to the vegetables. Remove the roasting pan from the oven or grill and let the mixture cool. With a metal spatula or wide, flat-sided wooden spatula, stir and scrape the cooled tomatoes to dissolve all of the cooked-on bits of tomato. At this point, you can freeze the roasted mixture as is (meaning, very chunky). Or, for a smoother sauce, scrape the mixture into the work bowl of food processor and process lightly, using short bursts so that some chuniks remain. You will probably have to do this in 2 or more batches. 4 pounds of tomatoes (about 12 medium-sized) with 15 cloves of garlic and 2 large onions yields about 5 to 6 cups of sauce. To freeze, ladle the mixture into freezer containers or recloseable freezer bags, leaving about 1-inch head space, and freeze..

Roasting The Harvest Summer Tomatoes, onions, and garlic ..