Pbenjay's Blog

Summer Sumptuous

TASTY TIDBIT TUESDAY

If ever there was a time to indulge yourself in tomatoes, this would be it!  Fresh garden grown tomatoes are everywhere.  Even the large grocery stores are featuring state-grown produce.  The Jersey tomatoes are plump, juicy, sweet and so available and so this is the time to use them in as many recipes as possible.  And if your basil plant is looking like mine, you know it’s time to use up the leaves that got left behind when you were making tomato and onion and basil salad.  You WERE making that weren’t you this summer because really if you live in the Northeast, summer is really the only time you can eat tomatoes.  The other 9 months you’re eating a dark pink, hard, ethylene-gassed tennis ball.

8 oz. / 4 cups broccoli florets

2 oz. grated cheese

1/2 cup packed basil leaves

2 TBS olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts

2 ripe tomatoes

Bring water to boil in covered pot.  Trim stems of broccoli, steam for 5 minutes until tender.  Reserve 6 TBS of the liquid, set aside.

You can use a food processor for many of these steps, however I don’t think it’s necessary to grate the cheese to equal 4 TBS.  Set aside.

Wash and dry basil leaves and pack into measuring cup.   Mince the garlic.  Add basil, olive oil and pine nuts in food processor and process till all is minced.  Add broccoli florets to food processor, if mixture get too thick, add water.  Add cheese and process to blend.

Serve over drained pasta.  Arrange sliced tomatoes along the side.