Tomato Cheese Toast

I love this time of year--tomatoes are finally coming into season! My sweet 100 plant is heavy with fruit and already I'm starting to enjoy the harvest. Because they're like eating candy, the fruit often doesn't make it into the house; while hand watering I heedlessly nibble.

But with a little self control I can collect enough to make one of my favorite breakfasts: sourdough toasted topped with olive oil, grated parmesan romano, and tomatoes. On a weekend morning, I'll also include a fried egg.

A couple of weeks ago Justin Park of Baja Olive stopped by with a half dozen samples of oil for me to try. So, what better way to start than with my toast?

I slathered a slice of cracked wheat sourdough from Trader Joe's (one of my favorites) with Baja Olive's garlic-flavored oil, which is made by crushing the garlic cloves with the olives during processing. Then I sprinkled the bread with the grated cheese and toasted it in my toaster oven for close to five minutes (on a dark toast setting).

In the meantime I halved about a dozen cherry tomatoes. This week I needed to buy a basket since most of my tomatoes are still ripenening. These are organic heirlooms. But I also included several from my garden.

When the first toasting was done, I placed the tomatoes on the bread, sliced side up. Then I sprinkled the tomatoes with sea salt and red chile flakes before covering them up with more grated cheese. Back into the toaster oven it went for another five minutes.

In the meantime I fried up an egg with a splash of the unflavored Baja Olive oil until the white was set but the yolk nice and runny.

I topped the toast with the egg and blissed out on breakfast with a frothy cup of cappuccino. The toast was crisp and lightly flavored with garlic and olive, which complemented the sweet and salty combination of roasted tomatoes and cheese. And there's little a fresh runny egg can't improve with both that unctuous texture and silky flavor. My weekend was off to a great start!

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Eggplant Onion Gratin

I love eggplant. I love the creamy texture you get when it's cooked that can go anywhere from baba ganoush to eggplant parmesan. I am passionate about an Italian marinated pickled eggplant appetizer I've been making for years.

Recently I've been contemplating making an eggplant gratin. This is kind of a risky dish because eggplants are so mild in flavor that they can simply be overpowered by the other ingredients you pair with them. At first I thought I'd slice the eggplant very thin and stack the layers, alternating with cheese. But ultimately I decided to cube it and toss together the ingredients. Oregano is a great flavor partner with eggplant and I grow it in my garden, so that would be a part of this experiment. So would onions. And garlic. And panko combined with my favorite Trader Joe's grated parmesan romano combo. And goat cheese. That would add the necessary creaminess plus create a little tartness without being too overwhelming. Instead of using butter, I'd use olive oil. I received a sample of olive oils from Baja Olive and decided to use both the natural and garlic flavors for this dish.

All this would go into an 8 1/2-inch oval au gratin dish I have. At just under 2 1/2 cup volume, I figured I'd get about three servings.

The dish is a little time consuming to make but not too labor intensive. I figured the eggplant should be pre-cooked to make sure it had a soft and lush texture by the end. The onions and garlic need to be sauteed to create sweetness. After that you just combine everything and put it in the oven until it's bubbly and brown.

The result was just what I'd imagined--creamy and crunchy, with a bright flavor from the punch of oregano, sweetness from the onion and garlic, tartness from the goat cheese. That distinctive mild eggplantiness came through. I enjoyed the dish with a piece of roasted chicken. And I have leftovers--which will be easy to reheat. In fact, you can make this dish for a dinner party ahead of time and simply reheat it before serving.

Eggplant Onion Gratin
(printable recipe)

Serves 2 to 3 depending on your generosity

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups eggplant, cubed
2 tablespoons olive oil
pinch of salt
1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced

1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup goat cheese

For topping:
Goat cheese
1/8 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/8 cup panko crumbs
Drizzle of olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Toss eggplant with 2 teaspoons olive oil and a pinch of salt. Spread on a baking sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until soft and just becoming brown.

While the eggplant is baking, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil (about a tablespoon or more). Don't brown them. You just want them soft. Add the oregano and cook for another minute. Set aside.

Remove the eggplant from the oven and mix with the onions in a bowl. Add milk and cheeses. Mix well.

Coat the inside of a gratin dish with olive oil. Add the eggplant mixture. Dot with goat cheese. Combine the 1/8 cup parmesan cheese with the panko and evenly spread over the eggplant and goat cheese. Drizzle with olive oil.

Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 25 minutes until brown and bubbly.

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