Tomato Zucchini Galette & Almond Plum Cake

making the most of summer produce while it's still fresh ✨

Aug 31, 2021

Allô! 👋

Is it just me, or has this summer zipped by even faster than summers usually do? Now, I know that summer isn't technically over for another 21 days or so, but the arrival of September has always been bittersweet for me. There's a lot to look forward to in the fall — more bearable temperatures, leaves changing colours, the arrival of pumpkins and winter squashes on the market stalls. Yet, at the same time, I never quite feel ready to let go of summer and all the shorts-wearing, lake-swimming, tomato-munching possibilities it generously offers year after year.

That being said, this newsletter is all about making the most of these last 21 or so days (at least in the kitchen) and appreciating every day as it comes. Below you'll find a recipe for a slow-roasted tomato and caramelized zucchini and onion galette as well as one for a toasted almond plum tart, plus some quick meal ideas and updates on the kitchen garden.

Here's wishing you a fruitful end of summer (and a happy transition into the next season of 2021),

👋simone

it's late summer:
what to cook?
🌽🍅🍈

The nice thing about fresh produce being so abundant all throughout summer is that there really isn't much cooking required to churn out a fantastic meal. Most of the time, all you have to do is dress an ingredient that's barely been cooked (if at all) in a medley of herbs, oils and vinegars — perhaps with a sprinkling of seeds, a mincing of alliums and/or a zesting of citrus if you're feeling industrious — and you're good to go.

Be that as it may, here are some ideas for cooking slightly more elaborate (yet still very simple) meals to celebrate and make the most of end-of-summer produce:

tomatoes 🍅 excellent in sandwiches and salads, you'll want to salt these generously to bring out maximum flavour. have extra time on your hands? roast them slow or chop them up raw and make them the star of your next risotto. pair well with: corn, basil, peaches, fresh cheeses, whole grains.

corn 🌽 raw corn is fantastic in salads, but also in soups. boil it on the cob and rub it in butter, or grill it until charred and grace it with a squeeze of lime. for something special, why not try your hand at making corn fritters? pairs well with: chili peppers, beans, cilantro, lime, seafood.

figs, grapes, blackberries 🍇 perfect for topping your morning yogurt/muesli/nut bowl — and an obvious snack for a countryside drive or saturday picnic. these bake beautifully into crumbles or cakes, and are a natural accompaniment to charcuterie boards and cheese platters. pair well with: almonds, woody herbs, cured meats, strong cheeses.

stone fruit 🍑 similar to the fruit above, these are fantastic enjoyed as is. consider slow-roasting or adding raw to salads. from cherries to pluots, nectarines to peaches, each comes in a wide variety of colours, shapes and sizes so try to find and enjoy as many as you can. pair well with: tender herbs, olive oil, poultry, tomatoes, custards.

melons 🍈 a great snack, a great addition to salads, and an excellent way to stay refreshed and hydrated. feeling patient? melons of all kinds make for excellent granitas and sorbets. pair well with: mint, salty cheeses, cucumber, balsamic vinegar.

peppers 🌶️ although peppers are delightfully light and crunchy when enjoyed raw, their potential seems to be truly unlocked when processed in some way: pickled, dried, infused into oil, cooked down slowly or charred quickly until soft and sweet — the possibilities are as numerous as they are delicious. pair well with: corn, olives, onions, creamy cheeses, roasted meats.

summer squash 🥒 while dark green zucchini is what usually comes to mind (and is most easy to find) when it comes to summer squash, one mustn't forget others like pattypan squash, yellow squash, and round varieties. wonderfully delicate when thinly sliced and raw, these are also fantastic grilled, stuffed, confited, marinated or baked into a cake. don't forget the edible flowers! pair well with: garlic, pine nuts, corn, tomatoes, peppers, chocolate.

eggplant 🍆 a fantastically low-maintenace ingredient in the kitchen, eggplant packs a punch no matter how you prepare it: creamy and soft as a dip, hearty and flavoursome when breaded and fried schnitzel-style, and deeply savoury when stewed into a caponata, ratatouille or cheesy gratin. pairs well with: tomato sauce, peppers, soy sauce, chickpeas, pasta.

recipe for a slow-roasted tomato galette with caramelized zucchini and onion 🍅

You may remember seeing a galette recipe in one of my winter newsletters: it had caramelized onions and leeks as a base, was topped with rich and golden potato coins, and had cheese and chives in the crust.

Well, consider this a summer variation. The fillings seem endlessly adaptable to what one has on hand, and the crust recipe itself is pretty forgiving. The fact that no ingredient is raw also makes it perfect for using up any produce you may have that is starting to get a little soft and wrinkly.

•••

SLOW-ROASTED TOMATO GALETTE WITH CARAMELIZED ZUCCHINI AND ONION

makes one ~25cm (10") tart

THE CRUST

• 177g (1½ cups) flour (I used 150g all-purpose and 27g whole-wheat)
• about 2 Tbsp total fresh thyme, parsley and basil, chopped
• 1/2 tsp fine salt
• 114g (8 Tbsp) butter, cubed and cold
• 60g (½ cup, grated) of a mild hard cheese*, grated or cut into very small pieces
• 71g to 85g (5 to 6 tablespoons) water, cold

*I used Vesterhavsost, a salty North Sea cheese from Denmark that is reminiscent of Gruyère and Parmesan — a 50/50 mix of Parmesan and Gouda would likely be just as good here

1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, herbs and salt until evenly distributed.

2. Work in the butter with your fingers, rubbing it into the flour and flattening it with your fingers until the mixture looks uniform-ish and crumbly (ideally no piece of butter will be much larger than your thumbnail). Stir in the grated cheese.

3. Drizzle in 5 tablespoons of water, stirring gently with your hand until everything is evenly moistened. Add the rest of the water if necessary to make a cohesive dough.

4. Pat the dough into a disk, wrap it snugly with a clean plastic bag or a damp cloth, and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes while you work on the filling.

THE FILLING

• butter and/or olive oil*
• one large or 2 small onions
• one medium (or ½ a large) zucchini
• two large tomatoes (or 1 large tomato and 8 cherry tomatoes)
• 250mL (1 cup) vegetable broth
• 4 Tbsp fresh thyme, parsley and basil, finely chopped, or 4 tsp dried
• optional: garlic, 1 clove minced or 1 tsp dried
• salt and pepper

*there's butter in the dough and this is meant to be a relatively light dish, so go heavier on the olive oil than on the butter here; as a general rule, the butter gives a nice flavour and the oil prevents it from burning, so using a combination of the two is often a win

1. Preheat your oven to 165°C/330°F. Slice your tomatoes into medium-thick slices if large, or in half if small. Place on a lined baking sheet, drizzle lightly with olive oil and barely sprinkle with salt. Let roast for 45-50 minutes.

2. Put a large frying pan or cast iron skillet on medium-high heat. While it warms, peel and slice your onion into medium-thick rings. Add enough butter and/or olive oil to generously cover the bottom of your pan and, once the fat is hot, add in the onion. Season lightly with salt and stir.

3. While the onion starts to soften, shred your zucchini using the large holes of a box grater. Squeeze some of the liquid out of the zucchini before adding it to the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are translucent and lightly golden on the edges, 20 to 25 minutes. If the pan starts looking a bit dry, add more butter and/or olive oil.

4. Once the onion and zucchini are nice and soft, add the vegetable broth, half the herbs, and some salt and garlic (if using). Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are browned and the liquid has mostly evaporated but the mixture is still saucy (almost jammy), 15 to 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool for at least 30 minutes.

5. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and let cool.

THE ASSEMBLY

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C fan / 220°C / 425°F. On a lightly floured work surface, gently roll the dough into a 30-33 cm (12-13") circle, then carefully transfer it to a parchment- or aluminum-lined baking sheet.

2. Spread the cooled caramelised onion and zucchini onto the dough, leaving a 5 cm (2") border.

3. Arrange your tomato slices and/or halves, starting from the middle, shingling them outward such that they barely overlap while also leaving no gaps between them. Fold the bare edges of the dough toward the center and over the filling. Lightly drizzle the top of the galette with a bit of olive oil.

4. Sprinkle the remaining herbs over the galette, plus a final light seasoning of salt and pepper, and bake it in the centre of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling a bit.

5. Remove the galette from the oven and allow it to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy with or without salad, with or without pleasant music in the background, and with or without a warm breeze caressing your plate :)

a little garden update 👩‍🌾

If you've been following me a little while, you'll know that in between February and May, there was a lot of planning, sowing, and planting. You'll know that there was a lot of excitement and a lot of different fruit and vegetable seeds purchased and planted. You'll also know that we had a bit of a slug problem. And a slight temperature problem. And somewhat of a rain problem too.

Well, as the growing season is coming to an end, I can tell you that I've learnt a lot. Not much of what we've planted has thrived. The light in the garden isn't ideal, the neighbourhood cats have figured out how fun it is to dig up potatoes and use a corn stalk as a scratching post, and the slugs have been unrelenting throughout the entire spring and summer.

And still, we managed to grow (and eat) strawberries, beans, peas, lettuce and garlic, potatoes and cucumbers, redcurrants, mint and lavender, apples, onions and corn, plus rhubarb and sorrel. If we're lucky, we'll soon get blackberries and zucchini, corn and sunflowers, tomatoes and chilis. Not bad for a first time garden in a wet and cold climate, eh?

So, even though the garden didn't turn out to be the lush cornucopia I had daydreamed of back at the start of the year, it's been abundantly fruitful in terms of the life lessons it has provided. It's taught me patience, resilience, and optimism. It's shown me how to make do with the cards you've been dealt and make the most of the days you've got. And, best of all, it's sown the seeds of desire for more garden adventures in the many years to come.

toasted almond plum cake 🍒

Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking: ''if this is a plum cake, what's with the cherry emoji?'' Well, the obvious first part to my answer is that there is no plum emoji (or almond emoji ...or fruit cake emoji for that matter). The second, perhaps less apparent, half of my answer is that this cake could very well be made with cherries instead of plums. In fact, you could use grapes, figs, peaches, blackberries, apricots or nectarines. Any of these fruit would indeed lend themselves incredibly well to this unreasonably tasty almond cake.

As a disclaimer, I must tell you that I did not dream up this recipe myself. I first found it years ago on a website that sadly no longer exists, so unfortunately I don't know to whom the credit is due. All I know is I've been making it for years with slight tweaks and it's always a hit. The original recipe called for grapes but I've made it with cherries and plums too and, no matter how you make it, it inevitably turns out to be really, really good.

•••

TOASTED ALMOND PLUM CAKE

makes a ~22cm (8.5") cake, enough for 12 or so slices

• 225g unsalted butter, room temperature (+more for greasing the tin)

• 225g white sugar (+ more for greasing the tin)

• 3 large eggs

• zest of 1 lemon

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 136g flour

• 110g whole almonds

• 2 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp fine salt

• enough fruit to cover the surface of the cake — here, that's about 5 plums

1. Preheat oven to 165°C/325°F. Spread almonds out on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 10 minutes.

2. Grease a round 23cm (9") springform tin with butter and sprinkle with sugar. This'll not only keep your cake from sticking to the pan, but the sugar will also give the edges a sweet and crisp oomph compared to using flour.

3. Remove the almonds from the oven and put aside to cool. Set the oven to 175°C/350°F.

4. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating the mixture thoroughly in between each addition. Add the lemon zest and vanilla and stir through to combine.

5. Using a food processor, pulse the toasted almonds until they form a coarse meal. Cut plums in half, removing the stones, and cut each half again into four (each plum should yield about 8 wedges).

6. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt. Whisk until homogeneous.

7. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones in three separate additions, until just combined.

8. Smooth batter into prepared cake tin and distribute the fruit evenly over the top, pressing each piece into the batter slightly.

9. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle (avoiding the fruit) comes out clean.

10. Let cool before removing the tin sides and enjoy! Keeps at room temperature for 4 days.

Quite possibly delicious with vanilla ice cream, but most definitely incredible on its own. Best of all: its portability makes it an excellent gift for a nearby friend.