Thursday, July 30, 2009

Pattypan, Rocket, Radicchio, Carrots, and Cherry Tomatoes-With Fresh Basil


Don't you just adore summer? I know I do. I had no idea how easy rocket is to grow, and how wonderful it is to go out and snip just what I need to make dinner. What a delight. I have about a million cherry tomatoes at the moment-OK not quite a million, but certainly many, many more than I thought I would have from one packet of seeds. Those plants produce like crazy. We still haven't picked Gulliver, but he has a companion now, Swift. I think Swift may overtake Gulliver for size. I'm telling you, this is the most productive garden I've ever had. We're already discussing another raised bed or two for next year. Beats hell out of mowing the lawn...you can't eat the grass clippings.

This is hardly a recipe-I used a few tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and cooked what I had adding the lettuces, herbs and tomatoes at the last. I had some extra tofu from the Vietnamese salad so in it went before serving. My only advice is to cook this quickly, and lightly as the vegetables are of a somewhat delicate variety.

You Will Need:

3-4 smallish pattypans, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 carrots, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 cup radicchio cut in thin strips
1 cup rocket trimmed
A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup fresh basil, torn in pieces
Salt and pepper

Cook the carrots and garlic for about five minutes before adding everything else to the pan. Cook just until lettuces wilt.

2 comments:

Raymond said...

This looks fantastic, and I'm so envious of all the home-grown produce. Sounds great! (But I don't know "rocket." I'll Google it.

I thought this earlier, from an earlier post of yours: d'ya think the tornado last year could've had something to do with the productivity of your garden this year? Just a thought.

Goody said...

Rocket (Racqet) is also called Arugula. I call it rocket because if I say we're having arugula my stone-deaf husband will be looking for little cream cheese pastries (rugelach). I also can't say "The arugula is really taking off" and have it be funny.

Yeah, God knows what got blown into the yard from the tornado last year. This is the raised bed though, so it is all new topsoil. I really didn't think without intensive applications of compost that we'd be seeing this sort of productivity.

We planted grape vines which I'm kind of worried about-we're so close to a sprayed field that if the wind goes slightly our way it is going to curl the leaves right off of it. So far, it is still alive (though obviously not producing any fruit)but the more I think about it, the crazier it was to try and grow Concord grapes next to a corn field that gets regular applications of herbicide/pesticide/etc. As much as I keep the garden organic, I know there's little I can do about the nearby drift. Just a fact of life. So really, who knows what sort of Monsanto cocktail is wafting in there.I sort of prefer not to know if that's what's making the garden so productive!