Soup and Salad

Watermelon Arugula Salad and Roasted Tomato Soup with Parmesan Cheese Wafer.

James has been picking tomatoes out of our front yard every day -- we pick them a little orange still and let them ripen to fully red (or yellow or green as the case may be) by the West facing window by our kitchen table.

We've had trays and trays of tomatoes. I've already canned stacks of whole tomatoes for this winter's spaghetti sauces, bottled up quarts and quarts of tomato purée, and sun dried 3 oven racks full. And still, the tomatoes keep coming. I'm always happy to have a few for lunch with a little fresh mozzarella, but the big man doesn't like fresh tomatoes. He'll eat them in spaghetti sauce or puréed on a pizza or cooked down into a stews so when I can't keep up with the growing pile it's time for a tomato heavy dinner recipe.

For this simple soup (a recipe I saw in August's Gourmet magazine) I roasted plum tomatoes in the oven with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Sautéed some onion with oregano, added in chicken broth and the roasted tomatoes, simmered, puréed, strained, and finished with a little cream. The crispy parmesan wafer really made it -- shredded parmesan mixed with a spoonful of flour, spread thinly on a silicon baking sheet and baked for 10 minutes -- hmmm crunchy, salty, cheese. Delicious. The salad is just a quick toss up of arugula, watermelon, red onion and feta cheese in a balsamic vinaigrette. Next time I'll add a bit of chili and maybe some walnuts or pine nuts for a little crunch. I think it' s going to be a summer of watermelon salads.