Plus, the only tomato recipe that doesn't need a recipe
When life feels hard, get offline and into the kitchen. Not to make a 10-course tasting menu for 15 of your closest friends, but for some reprieve and recalibration. Here are five easy ways to start.
5 ways to get you offline and into the kitchen.
Eat Outside. Consider this your reminder. Mid-week, deep in the grind, it doesn’t occur to you that lunch could happen on the steps of your office or dinner could be eaten in your backyard picnic style. One meal a day, one meal a week, whatever you can manage. Porch, patio, balcony, European plaza, rooftop, a mountaintop if you are so inclined. Out is out.
Make a Lil Snack Plate. For you, a friend, or just for the excuse to try that fun new cheese you saw at Trader Joe's or finally give pâté a chance. It doesn't have to be fancy, although I am the Maven of such platters, so I'll never tell you to tone it down (at least when it comes to cheese). Bonus points if you eat your lil snack plate outside.
Cook from a Cookbook. We all have them- maybe a whole stack you've been meaning to use since you bought them, now serving as a nice addition to the coffee table. Time to dust one off and get cooking. I want to see the splatters of tomato sauce on the pages, people!
My cookbook hack: When you first get one, while it's fresh and exciting, flag any recipe that catches your eye with a little Post-it. Then when you pick it up again, you don't have to go through every recipe again; you already have a place to start.
Try the Farmers Market Pizza Challenge: Have a pizza night where every topping has to come from the farmers market. (Minus the dough; you can make or buy that.) The hunt for the perfect topping is thrilling (at least to me). My latest farmers’ market topping haul: burrata, corn, zucchini, fresh tomatoes, and a cilantro pesto sauce.
Make a Pan Con Tomate: I ate these all over Spain. One was a mid-morning brunch at a corner café in Madrid, at a table barely big enough for the three of us. I devoured mine with Iberico ham, a soft-boiled egg, and coffee, of course.
Pan con tomate translates to tomato on bread. The only real parameters are good bread, fresh tomatoes (skip the pale grocery-store ones; think garden, farmers market, or your neighbor’s overflow), extra virgin olive oil, and a little garlic. Get those things right, and you’re free to run WILD with the extra toppings!
Pan Con Tomate
Ingredients
Fresh tomatoes (not cherry)
Sourdough bread, sliced thick
Garlic clove, peeled
Sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil
Method
Grate the tomatoes: Cut each tomato in half. Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the cut side into a medium bowl until all that’s left in your hand is the skin. MIND YOUR FINGERS! (Thus the no cherry tomatoes rule). Stir in a pinch of salt.
Toast the bread: Drizzle one side of each slice with olive oil and place it oil-side down in a hot pan or on a flat top. Press down gently so the whole surface makes contact. Drizzle the top side with oil. Flip when the bottom is nice and toasty brown, and give the second side the same treatment.
Rub the garlic: Rub a peeled garlic clove over one side of each toast. The crusty surface acts like a mini grater, leaving little bits of garlic all over. It’s a subtle way to infuse garlic flavor.
Plate: Tomatoes hold a lot of liquid, so spoon them onto the toast just before serving to keep the bread from getting soggy. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt.
Enjoy: As is, or with an egg, Iberico ham, soft cheese, a drizzle of balsamic, fresh herbs, maybe an avocado.
Cheers,
Nicole | Butter Cult🧈
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Thanks for your support💛 I am here to help whip your confidence into shape, inside and outside the kitchen! We are going to tackle all things culinary together, you will be filleting a fish and hosting that dinner party of 10 in no time😏, or maybe you just learn how to cut an onion the right way. For more adventures in and out of the kitchen, follow @buttercultcooking on Instagram and Threads.
