Cherry Tomato

A fresh take on the deli favorite, smoked whitefish salad, this version is full of herbs and dressed up by sweet cherry tomatoes. Smoked fish is salty, so you may not need to salt the purée. The fillets contain tiny bones, but as a general rule, the smallest ones are soft and edible. Rainbow or golden trout farmed in the United States is a recommended seafood choice because unlike many carnivorous farmed fish—which eat more protein than they provide to humans—trout efficiently convert their feed into protein. What’s more, rainbow and golden trout are mostly farm-raised in tanks, so there is little risk of them contaminating wild populations.

The daikon and cucumber in this recipe are perfect for summertime: cooling, crunchy, and fresh tasting. The mitsuba, an herb that has a wonderful, delicate flavor that’s a bit like chervil, adds another refreshing note and doesn’t overpower. Add tangy yuzu and rich salmon and you have a balanced, nutritious, and delicious dish you can knock out in 15 minutes, from start to finish. If you’d like, you can substitute canned salmon for the fillets and avoid firing up the oven altogether.

The “pâté of the South,” pimento cheese is the epitome of a summer picnic delight. Everyone has a slightly different recipe, but the primary ingredients remain the same. Don’t be tempted to buy grated cheese, because the end result won’t be creamy enough. Try this stuffed in tomatoes, slathered on a celery stick, or (one of my favorites) straight from the bowl on a spoon.

This recipe is an updated version of the classic cooked Mexican tomato sauce, which is made with vegetable purees and simmered on the stove. My version roasts the vegetables in the oven, allowing them to caramelize, before they are pureed. The result is a sauce with deep rich flavor and a hint of sweetness. If you don’t like heat, make sure to remove the seeds from the jalapeño!

This is a great main-course salad that brings together many of the fresh flavors of the Mexican kitchen. Similar in nature to a Cobb salad, it has a few fresh components that can be doubled or substituted, making it a great vehicle for using up extra produce.

This is a wonderfully refreshing salad that walks the line between a shrimp cocktail and a ceviche. It’s also incredibly forgiving—so feel free to use as much (or little) of the ingredients as you like. Tangy and fresh, it is a great start to any meal.

I love steak salads. It must be something about the contrast in texture and temperature that I find appealing. The best steak salads give you meat that is juicy and flavorful with a charred exterior crust on the steak that goes great against the fresh, crisp lettuce. The glaze is the key to this salad because the sugars in it caramelize and create that crunchy exterior.

These aren’t hard to make, but it does take a while to clean out the insides of all of the tomatoes. The good news is that they can be made up to a day ahead and the taste is most definitely worth the effort.

The Dutch discovered tempeh in Indonesia in the 1600s, but it has been used in Java for a thousand years. Tempeh is a fermented food made from partly cooked soybeans inoculated with spores of a friendly mold so that it transforms into a cheeselike product. It is firm with a slightly yeasty flavor until it soaks up whatever flavors you add, just as tofu does. Tempeh may be made with soybeans only or with soy and a grain such as rice, barley, or quinoa. Find it in the refrigerated section of the health food store, near the fresh tofu. I’m not a fan of cilantro, but it is a traditional ingredient in some Asian cooking styles. Use it in this recipe or leave it out, whichever you prefer.

Kalamata olives and/or capers would be lovely additions to this meal. Add them with the cherry tomatoes. You can also use a whole red snapper if you find one that fits in your Dutch oven. I like to use canned or frozen artichoke hearts packed in water, though marinated artichoke hearts packed in herbed olive oil would add another layer of flavor to this meal. And any white wine is fine to use here. I often use a Chenin Blanc or a Sauvignon Blanc simply because those are what I like to drink.

When Jamie craves salad (believe it or not, he does!), this is what he’s after: something you can chow down on. Hearty, crunchy romaine is perfect for that. We also love it with Mama’s Tasty Baked Beans and Sausage Soup (page 126) and Sautéed Ravioli with Cheese and Bread Crumbs (page 166).

Our Aunt Peggy doesn’t serve a meal without this delicious salad. She sometimes makes a variation with banana peppers or bell peppers added in. It’s such a simple, healthy side, and all you need to get dirty is your cutting board and one bowl. Its fresh garden flavor is a terrific complement to the spicy rice or just about any main course in the book, but we especially love it with Honey Mustard Baked Chicken (page 33) and any kind of pork chop (pages 22, 23 and 24).

Just about everything Mama makes involves sour cream or mayonnaise. Well, guacamole, with its rich, creamy taste, is like the Mexican version, and it goes great with a chicken and rice salad. This is another Bag Lady cult favorite. People still talk about it—the combination is a real keeper.

This full and satisfying meal is Jamie’s dream salad—heavy on the sausage and spuds. What’s not to love?

We’re always looking for new ways to cook shrimp. Here, the lip-smacking shrimp and veggies cook on skewers at the same time, making the meal fast and easy enough for a weeknight meal, even if shrimp seem like Saturday-night kind of food. Kids can even help out with threading the food onto the skewers. Serve this spicy recipe over Coconut-Orange Cashew Rice (page 66) and you’ve got a complete and extra special meal.

In his late twenties, Jamie spent a lot of time eating at his favorite pizza place in Savannah, called Cousin Vinny’s. He became obsessed with their pesto pizza, which uses savory basil sauce in place of the usual tomato. We don’t eat quite as much pizza these days, but we do keep pesto in our freezers for whenever we want fresh garlic and basil flavor. Try tossing pesto with cherry tomatoes and leftover grilled chicken and serve it on top of greens for a main-course salad, or make this easy, healthy recipe, which takes about fifteen minutes and looks as good as it tastes. For a little decadence, try serving it with Cheesy Garlic Bread (page 102).

Where I come from, corn is the epitome of a summer vegetable; we used to drive out to the fields to get ours fresh and just leave our money in a can on the side of the road. So in this dish I combine corn with lovely little cherry tomatoes sautéed until they burst out of excitement, letting their delightful juices flow! Add some bacon and this sauce just steps up, pokes you, and says, “Hi, I’m summer, glad to see you!”

My mom is a florist so I love flowers—especially big orange ones like zucchini blossoms! I make zucchini blossoms stuffed full of creamy ricotta cheese and then fry them until they’re golden and crispy. In my opinion, zucchini blossoms are nature’s perfect little packages. What’s better than a crispy, crunchy, cheesy flower? A crispy, crunchy, cheesy flower on a bread salad—a gorgeous mix of perfectly ripe tomatoes, basil, cucumber, red onion, and bread, which softens when it absorbs all the veggies’ wonderful juices.

I love to make these for company because the polenta can be made WAY in advance. And you can top the cakes with almost anything—I like to use a nice stinky cheese, but after that really anything goes. Tomatoes give you a nice burst of sweetness, but dried fruit is fun, some fresh herbs, whatever you want! No matter how you top them, these corn cakes are little bites of melty, cheesy deliciousness.