Scrumptious Scalloped Tomatoes (quite unlike mushy peas)

For years my husband and I have traveled to Cape Cod.   Many of those years were in a van full of our boys and one or two of their friends.  Bags and boxes of food (we couldn’t afford to take all of those stomachs on legs out for dinner) filled every inch of that van along with all the personal belongings we needed for a week away from home.  As many bicycles as there were people were racked either on top of the van or on the back of it.  We really did look like a pack of gypsies !!!

Occasionally in those years Bill and I would get the opportunity to travel there together.  No kids, no bags of food.  Just the two of us.  When that happened, and as it still happens now,  I don’t cook.  We eat out.  Fresh seafood is heaven on earth and we typically eat as much as our bellies can hold in one sitting.  There are some fabulous restaurants on the Cape.  We have some favorites for sure.

One of those, which is no longer there, was in Hyannis.  Bill and I would typically stop there on our way out to the Cape but occasionally we would time our trip home to include dinner there.  The place was hidden off the beaten path and from the outside it really didn’t appear to be a restaurant.  The sign was barely visible and the first time we went we blew right on by.  A dirt parking lot that was full of cars was our final clue.  In we went…and back we went quite a few times through the years.

Always on the menu along with fresh, fabulous seafood, was a simple dish of scalloped tomatoes.  I remember looking at that offering on the menu thinking…ewwwwwwwwww…not something I would order.  I’d never had them and wasn’t interested really, in ordering a side dish of something that didn’t seem appealing.  Not when I could gorge on fresh seafood.  Why take up space on something that sounded so like mushy peas?!?  Well, as it happens, good things happen when you least expect them.  The fresh haddock I ordered that night came with a side of those scalloped tomatoes.

Now, as a kid in the house I grew up in there was a dinner time rule that I could easily have lived without.  My sisters and I, without fail, whether home or out to dinner, HAD to try a teaspoon full of that mass of goo on the plate in front of us which we were sure was a gob of poison that was going to kill us.  Old miseries die hard.  I couldn’t bring myself to NOT TRY A TEASPOON FULL of those scalloped tomatoes.  Thank goodness for those ingrained tortures of childhood.  You know…the ones that “are good for you because I say so”.

I ordered a side of those scalloped tomatoes EVERY time thereafter at that restaurant.  Occasionally (and when this happened I really wanted to go sit in the car and have a good cry) the waitress would announce they were out of them for the evening.  Sooooooooooo not fair…

As was the sad day Bill and I stopped there for dinner on our way to the outer Cape, mouths watering in anticipation, only to find a sign in front of the restaurant stating they had closed.  As in CLOSED.   For GOOD.  This time I DID sit in the car and cry.    I think this one one of the few times I cooked at the Cape.  (Bill and I are blessed beyond belief to have family places to stay out there so I do have  kitchens handy in which to fry up the occasional egg…they are mostly used for making coffee in the morning and pouring wine later in the day.)   We stopped in at the local Stop and Shop in Orleans and I bought what I thought would be the right ingredients for this dish and tried making it myself the very next day.

I had gotten canned stewed tomatoes since I knew the tomatoes available in the store wouldn’t be ripe enough to peel.  These days, I use only fresh tomatoes.  I wait for them to be perfectly ripe after sitting on the counter for a few days (do NOT put tomatoes in the refrigerator…they won’t ripen and they will taste fake.  I mean, FAKE…something about refrigerating them makes them just…well…awful).  If you are desperate to try this dish and don’t want to wait for counter ripened tomatoes by all means get some canned stewed tomatoes.  The dish will be delicious but fresh tomatoes make it SCRUMPTIOUS.

I have a favorite place to shop for fresh, incredibly delicious and sometimes difficult to find ingredients and for anyone who lives here in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Guido’s Fresh Marketplace is  the  place to go for fresh ingredients.  They have a store in Pittsfield…literally on the Lenox line and another smaller store in Great Barrington, not far from the CT line.  Both are on Rt. 7 as you travel through the Berkshires.  If you are just visiting I highly recommend stopping in.  If you live here…and haven’t been…all I can ask is WHY on earth NOT?

Anyone looking for organic, natural food and ingredients, personal items, wine, you name it, Guido’s can provide.  If they don’t have it always ask.  I’ve done that for years and EVERYONE there is happy to help.  They have ordered things for me and always come through.  I would rather pay a few dollars more for healthy alternatives than be visiting my medical professionals for health issues related to what goes into or on my body.  (And NO…Guido’s did not ask me to mention them…tho I did ask their permission.  I simply and truly believe that we get back what we put into everything in life and having them in my back yard -so to speak- is something worthwhile to my well being).  Yes.  I willingly admit I’m a  “GOOD FOOD”  snob.

So, here is my recipe for scalloped tomatoes.  My mom told me today that her mom used to make them.  It was one of her (my mom’s) favorite dishes.  Wow…apples don’t fall far from the tree as it turns out.

SCALLOPED TOMATOES with Parmesan Crouton’s

3 or 4 large very ripe tomatoes cored, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch slices.

2 or 3 large cloves of roasted garlic and all the little cloves in the middle ! (I do this ahead of time.)

2 TB extra virgin olive oil

1 ball of FRESH mozzarella – enough to give you 8 or 10 slices

1 TB BUTTER

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

freshly ground salt and pepper

1/2 cup fresh basil julienne ‘d and  two sprigs of fresh thyme leaves rubbed off the stem.

For the Parmesan Crouton’s :

Two or three slices of bread sliced into 1/2 inch chunks.  (approximately 1 1/2 cups) I save the ends of my homemade bread (there is that snob in me again).  These work beautifully.

1 TB extra virgin olive oil

1 TB grated Parmesan cheese

a few grinds of freshly ground  salt and pepper

Core, peel and slice the tomatoes.  Rub 2 or 3 of the larger roasted garlic cloves on the inside of a casserole dish.  Place a few of the tomato slices in the dish evenly spread and evenly add a bit of the basil and thyme.  Now add half of the slices of mozzarella and half of the grated Parmesan. Thinly slice the butter and place evenly over this layer.  Add the rest of the tomatoes, basil and thyme.  Top off  with the remaining mozzarella slices and the remaining Parmesan.  Squeeze the remaining small roasted garlic cloves on top evenly.   Drizzle the olive oil on top of that.  Then add  freshly ground salt and pepper to taste.  I should mention that I use freshly ground green pepper and Himalayan Pink Salt.

Place the dish, lightly covered,  in a 375 degree oven. Bake for about 30 minutes or until  bubbly.

Now for the crouton’s:

Slice the bread into into half inch square chunks.  Place the chunks on a baking pan and drizzle with the olive oil.  Add salt and pepper to taste and using a spatula or your fingers mix them around on the pan to evenly coat.  Bake them in the same oven as the scalloped tomatoes until they are beginning to brown.  About 12 to 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven, mix them around again (this time with a spatula…they will be HOT) sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and place them back in the oven until they turn a deep golden brown.  Perhaps another 8 minutes or so.  Remove from the oven and let cool.

When the scalloped tomatoes are bubbling take them out of the oven, cover them with the golden brown Parmesan crouton’s, and carefully press the crouton’s down a bit into the bubbling, cheesy, tomato mixture so they will absorb some of that luscious tomato juice.   Put the dish back in the oven, uncovered, and bake for another 10 minutes or so until the crouton’s are looking delectably crisp and the tomato mixture is bubbling.  Remove from the oven and let the dish sit for about 15 minutes before serving.

Gather around the table, light the candles, pour some wine into those waiting glasses and enjoy every last bite.  The fresh tomatoes from summer are not going to last much longer.  The basil in the garden is looking  cold and sad.  But with good places to buy fresh ingredients this dish can be enjoyed year round.  How delicious is that?