You say tomato, I say tomato 🍅
Here a tomato, there a tomato, everywhere a tomato. At The Deliciouser this week, these wonderful signs of August — culinary vegetables, botanical fruits — were piled on the tables and sliced on our plates, strained into broth alongside grilled cheese and blended into red mole sauce on a Swiss chard-wrapped Oaxacan-style enchilada. As I type this, I’m snacking on Sweet 100s from my garden, each no bigger than a marble.
“We rarely get to cook for farmers,” chef Patrick O’Halloran said at the dinner, made possible for the third year by Vitruvian Farms. This is the time of year I appreciate growers most, when Carmen peppers and fat eggplants are destined for ratatouille tarts and pasta, green beans are going gangbusters (try them with almonds and feta) and the weather is just cool enough to justify zucchini “bread” (honestly, it’s cake) and carrot cake.
I spent last week in Door County, cooking over live fire at our campsite and going out for the occasional quiche, cheesy nibble and coffee. If your fall includes camping, I recommend steaks with this pantry-stable reverse marinade. Serve it with grilled summer squash and a quick cucumber salad.
As for dining out, we loved the cocktails at Osteria Tre Tassi in Ellison Bay, though the menu was heavy for summer and paying $23 for a caprese with underripe tomatoes made me feel like my mother when she’d visit us in California. (I was raised by frugal people.)
But I absolutely swooned over Cultured, a tiny bakery just inland in Sister Bay that draws lines on weekends for the best sourdough bagels I have ever had outside of New York City. Peach goat cheese focaccia had a drizzle of sugar syrup and a sprinkle of sage, and the chocolate cherry pepita granola was to die for, too.
Catch me on City Cast Madison with a Taste of Madison preview. I suggest you bring some friends, eat a corn dog and an Indian butter chicken naan-taco. Try new things (maybe even freeze-dried candy?) and hydrate. It’s supposed to be a beautiful Madison weekend for eating out of little cardboard boats…