Heirloom Tomato and Mascarpone Pizza

This grilled pizza is a gourmet version of the cheese and tomato classic.  Flavorful heirloom tomatoes on a mascarpone-spread crust topped with feta, fontina, and mozzarella cheeses. Simple is good when you start with fresh, amazing, local flavor.

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Sometimes it's good to keep things simple on a pizza. Just some cheese and tomatoes.  You could order in a plain cheese pizza or you could make it yourself, a variety of ways. You could pick up a box on the shelf of the grocery store, grab a fork, and have a simple cheese and tomato sauce pizza.
You could pick up a bag of dough, a jar of sauce, and a wedge of cheese and get busy. Or you could get an heirloom tomato in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share and decide to go gourmet, like I did.


One of the reasons I like to eat locally grown produce is because it tastes better than something trucked in from off. That flavor discrepancy is never more pronounced than in a tomato. There's something about a fresh tomato, picked at the height of it's ripeness, that cannot be matched by anything trucked into a grocery store.

When tomato season starts, I make it a point to enjoy a fresh tomato sandwich every week. That sounds easy, now, in the beginning of the season. Let me tell you--it can be a drag come September. But I do it anyway--changing it up with bacon, avocado, whatever looks good that day to me.



I also like to put fresh tomatoes on pizza. The trick to keep your pizza from getting soggy is to slice your tomatoes a good 30 minutes to an hour before you put them on a pizza, like I share in my Tomato Basil Pizza recipe. If I'm using my oven, I'll have my pizza dough sitting on the counter for a couple of hours before I plan to bake, just to get up to room temperature so I can work with it. I'll slice my tomatoes and leave them on a cutting board to drain, then turn on the oven to preheat my pizza stone for an hour. By the time the dough has relaxed and the stone has warmed up, the tomatoes have given up a fair amount of juice. I can tip that off the cutting board and I am good to go.

Peach Gooey Butter Cake

A delightful summertime dessert, this gooey butter cake is topped with fresh peaches. It starts with a boxed mix and is ready for the oven in no time!

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Half this year is over. I think it's time to set a few goals. One of my goals is to get better at actually using fresh fruits when they are ripe and abundant. Not to toot my own horn, but it is my blog and I do work to pay my hosting fees and all so . . . I'm pretty good at putting up fruit by freezing it.

shown here: peach jam, peach salsa, frozen peaches, shrimp gumbo, shrimp cocktail, shrimp salad . . .

I'm also pretty good at using that frozen fruit in a wide variety of ways. From Blueberry and Sweet Corn Waffles to Cheater Margarita Smoothies, I figure I've got a handle on the endless pints of blueberries I freeze each year.

What I lack in decent photos of the finished product, I make up in messy kitchen photos. My life!

For fresh fruits I make a variety of savory dishes. I've shared Black Raspberry Goat Cheese Crostini, Cherry Peach Salsa, Sweet and Spicy Chicken, Peach, and Chile BBQ Pizza, and Beet, Blueberry & Goat Cheese Appetizers on this website as a few examples.

No, what I need to work on is using fresh fruit, in season, as dessert. Last night I made (and ate,and didn't photograph) a peach and blueberry cobbler using the last of The Peach Truck peaches and some blueberries from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. [I got a fruit share this year. Score!] Tonight I'm going to make a patriotic Cherry Blueberry Cobbler to eat with the vanilla ice cream my son made this afternoon. I'll try and remember to take pictures so I can share it.

Today I want to share a tasty dessert that I have lousy photos of. See, along with using more fresh fruits while they are in season, I need to work on making more desserts for my family. Dessert seems to be something I make for other people, not for just us. After I get the entree and any sides going, I just don't have the energy to make a dessert. When I take a page from Alanna's playlist, and cook something every day, I have leftover sides a plenty and can take the time to make a dessert.

Hot and Spicy Zucchini Pickles

Use that zucchini or summer squash in a delicious new way. These spicy pickles are a terrific accompaniment to bratwurst, and bring a feeling of summer all year long.

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When I mention that I've been canning something, people respond 'oh, I'd like to learn how to can . . .'  like I say I'd like to learn how to weld. As if canning is something that requires schooling, apprenticeships, or anything more involved that just boiling water.

Really. The mystique needs to be swept away. I'll be teaching a salsa making class at my local community center in September (when all of those tomatoes and peppers are overflowing the markets) to do my part to dispel the illusions. I hope this recipe will help nudge you into canning if you're uncertain. It makes a small amount--just 2 pints--and that fits easily in a tall pasta pot if you've got one.

I decided to try this recipe because, as with all gardeners, hope springs eternal. Despite my previous squash pickle failure (which resulted in my Pickled Pork Sliders . . . salvaging a canning failure into a decent meal) I wanted to try again. Between my volunteer squash and those in my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share I was awash in squash.


I hit up my local library for cookbooks. Who says Summer Reading Programs need to be limited to novels? In the Better Homes and Gardens Can It! Cookbook  (Amazon affiliate link) I found the inspiring recipe. I modified it based on what I had on hand while keeping the key elements (acidity of final product and length of processing time) intact.

The recipe notes suggest eating these alongside bratwurst. While my cousin Jim would probably disagree (he thought mustard on my bun was heresy), I thought the spicy slices were a nice addition to a brat. I'm also glad to find a way to use the abundant garden volunteers that pop up throughout the yard.

For more recipes using zucchini, please see my Zucchini Recipes Collection. I've also got a Summer Squash Recipes Collection if you're waffling on what to call the squash in question (those bicolor ones can be tricky). These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.