Bon Le Weekend

It's been a day of labor, grading and housework, but now I'm listening to Ella and Miles Davis and relaxing as the mingled scents of basil, mint and roasted tomato swell in my apartment, mixing with the cooling evening breeze.

It's a beautiful night.

I had quite a lot of leftover sundried tomato pesto from the other night, and all day recipe possibilities have been percolating in the back of my mind. I finally decided upon a roasted tomato tart with wilted radiccio and kalamata olives, resting on a liberal layer of pesto and nestled into a whole wheat olive oil crust. I'm serving the tart alongside a roasted patty pan squash and herbed chickpea salad (basil, chives and mint) in a lemony dressing. I'm finishing the tart with a balsamic reduction to add just a trace of sweet verve.

I am so excited for T to come home to this pretty, pretty meal, and I don't care how Donna Reed that is.

My culinary life has changed since discovering Chocolate and Zucchini, which I know is already very popular, but oh my goodness I was late to the table. Clotilde is responsible for the tart crust and is the inspiration for the squash salad. I was persuing her recipe index and can't wait to try a variation on her lentil apple salad (I might make mine more Indian than French inspired, because I have red lentils and Nigella seeds) and the zucchini and mushroom crumble (to do away with the green club our friend Yael thrust upon us the other weekend--her squash plants are palaeozaic--and the sad creminis languishing in the fridge). I must admit that I also love the blog because "Clothilde" is my pseudonymous title of choice when I have to write staff recs for really embarrassing books, and I take a lot of delight in its mixture of Flaubertian bourgeois exoticism and mothball old-ladyness. Chocolate's Clotilde is no doddering old lady, but she's a devastatingly good cook.

But oh, T is home and it is time to eat.

Bonsoir.