I came across a dilemma today. I picked up a large green tomato at the CSA farm today, and I had no idea what to do with it. Yes, there are the traditional fried green tomatoes, but after the breakfast we had today, that just didn’t seem like the best idea. So, to google I went!

And what I found was amazing…

Over at Seeds Of Knowledge there was a post on green tomatoes, and they had the following recipe – and no, my picture doesn’t do it justice!

Green Tomatoes with Goat Cheese

Here’s an elegant side dish that puts all those extra green tomatoes you have to use. Greek style feta or French style chevres (both goat cheeses) work equally well here.
4 medium green tomatoes
a tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano leaves
1 cup crumbled goat cheese (feta or chevre)
4 teaspoons olive oil
salt and coarsely ground fresh ground black pepper

Serves 4

Cut tomatoes into 1/2 inch thick slices. Coat a shallow baking dish with oil. Place tomato slices, in a single, overlapping layer, in the bottom of the baking dish.

Sprinkle tomatoes with vinegar and scatter minced oregano over tomatoes. Top with crumbled goat cheese and drizzle with olive oil.

Broil 5-8 inches below a preheated broiler and broil until tomatoes are hot and cheese is just starting to brown, about 7-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

My Tweaks:
we served them up with some Turkish olive paste, and added some fresh basil in with the oregano (my oregano is spicy too… not greek!)

And as someone who doesn’t like tomatoes much, I have to admit that I ate almost HALF OF THE PAN!!!

And since we were having a Mediterranean appetizer/side dish, I needed to have something else to go with it. And I had lots of kale laying around. Lots. So, I made zuppa toscano. Oh yeah. Sausage, potatoes & leafy greens… yum!

Here is the recipe I found over at allrecipes.com and it is a good one!

INGREDIENTS
12 links spicy pork sausage, sliced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3/4 cup diced onion
1 1/4 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons chicken broth
4 cups water
2 potatoes, halved and sliced
2 cups sliced kale
1/3 cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
Place sausage links on a baking sheet and bake 25 minutes, or until cooked through. Slice into 1/2 inch slices.
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions until translucent; add garlic and cook 1 minute.
Stir in broth, water and potatoes; simmer 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to low and add sausage, kale and cream; simmer until heated through and serve.

My Tweaks
I added another cup of water, another potato, a bit more cream, 1 Tbsp. red pepper flakes, and I used 1 small red onion & 1 small onion. And I used ground sausage instead of links… we just fried it in the pan. Yum!

We had a salad on the side, but I’m the only one who ate any… everyone else had lots of tomatoes & 2nds (or 4ths) on the soup.

Thank you google… you have saved another dinner!

Tags: green tomatoes, kale, Mediterenean, soup, toscana, zuppa

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