[Jen]

Man, we have a lot of vegetables this week. Having a tremendous amount red leaf lettuce left, I wanted to start off by using that up.



One of my favorite salads to make in the summer is tomato, mozzarella and basil with a touch of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I usually mix up a big batch in a bowl and then use it over the course of a few days. What I do is add a lot of olive oil and balsamic and then I spoon the tomato salad mixture over greens. I usually use pine nuts as well. Tonight I made croutons out of some stale bread we had. I baked them with grated Parmesan and basil.



Personally, I don't really like croutons. I think they're the ruin of a good salad. I think I hate them for the same reason I hate biscotti: they're just both too hard and crunchy and they make me feel like eating them is going to make my gums bleed. With that said, I still decided to make them. Jen doesn't share my dislike for the nasty little rock-hard bread cubes, so at least she would like them.



Next (actually earlier that day, before I went to work) I cut the zucchini up into ribbons and gave them a quick browning with a little olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.



I layered the zucchini with pasta, ricotta, mozarella and basil in a casserole dish and baked it in the oven (for about 40 minutes at 375 degrees).



I served the slices of lasagna on a coating of tomato reduction and garnished with a chiffonade of basil. I went very light on the cheese and seasonings, really wanting the flavor of the zucchini to be the most prominent taste. It was fairly successful except for the inexplicable taste of the clam cakes I used to have at Rocky Point as a child. I think it must've been from the oil I used smoking a little while I cooked it. That may sound kinda nasty but it actually made it taste even better!

And for dessert we are having yogurt with the fresh blueberries (again). I haven't had time to do anything very interesting for dessert this week.

This is Jen -- I think this is one of the most successful farm share meals yet. And yet again, I had zipppity-do to do with it. The lasagna was a triumph -- the taste of the zucchini was really paramount, and the tomato sauce was a nice accent. We only used three farm share ingredients (zucchini, blueberries, red leaf lettuce), the addition of some non-CSA fresh produce (tomatoes, basil) made it extra seasonal-tasting. This gets two thumbs up.

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