I cannot believe it has been almost 2 weeks since I posted. I have never gone that long. To say that the last two weeks have been stressful is an understatement. But I have survived, and I have returned. This week’s recipe is worth the wait.

Recently I was invited to a Saturday night cocktail party. I had been to the farmer’s market that day, and had come home with heirloom tomatoes, green onions, and fresh ricotta. I had frozen puff pastry that I had made previously (and will post this week). I did a quick Google search and came up with this recipe from the Washington Post for Fresh tomato and ricotta tart. I thawed out the puff pastry and set to work mixing ricotta and slicing tomatoes. I had a large yellow and a large red tomato. They were both a little on the wet side. I laid them out on paper towels to dry a little while I rolled out the puff pastry and mixed the cheese.

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This is an amazing weeknight dinner. It pulls together in no time, and it tastes fabulous. You can fiddle with it and make it differently every time you make it. Change the meat, change the herbs, add a little lemon juice, even change the vegetables. My ideal weeknight recipe.

I like the pork version because I love pork tenderloin almost any way you cook it. But if you would rather have chicken, veal, flank steak, halibut, it works. With the flour for dredging, I’ve used brown rice flour, whole wheat pastry flour, and oat flour.

I don’t particularly like eggplant. I don’t hate it, but it has be right for me to want to eat it. This recipe is the first recipe I’ve ever made for eggplant that I want to make over and over. My friend Jackie and I came up with this recipe over a year ago, and we make it at least once a month. The eggplant is peeled, so it isn’t bitter. I like the baby eggplant better than the big one. I also like the skinny Japanese eggplants or the zebra striped ones. The Japanese eggplants are what is in the picture.

Again, with the eggplant, you can vary it any of a number of ways. Add a little white wine or chicken broth, use shallots instead of garlic, change the herbs. I’ve used basil, savory, garlic chives, sage, even mint. The panko helps to hold it together and gives it a little crunch. If you can’t find panko, try regular bread crumbs.

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