Arugula and green tomatoes

Last night I made my first batch ever of fried green tomatoes. I think they weren't bad, if you like fried green tomatoes. I used Celebrity tomatoes from the vine that perished in the recent cold snap. They'd been out on the counter since I salvaged them from the melted mess of frozen tomato vine. I dredged them in peppered cornmeal (no egg batter) and fried in olive oil. Generous salt application wasn't enough to make them pop, but then I got inspired and sprinkled them with some French Thyme that I recently acquired from Penzeys. That was the ticket!

I've also been playing with another new-to-me food since my trip with Juli to Antica Pizzeria: arugula. Straight out of the gate I managed a heavenly argula with bacon dish, made with farmers market argula, but then I purchased some much stronger tasting argula (from the hippy organic herb growers) that nearly ruined a repeat effort with pancetta. Submerging that one in red sauce was the way to make it OK. The pendulum swung back the other way and the third try had arugula that wasn't strong enough (the hydroponic grower at the farmers market). Not so good. I've had it as a side dish and stirred into pasta - both plain and covered in sauce. If not too strong it adds a smokey and bitter flavor that I like, but at some point the arugula gets to be overpowering. I've now discovered that I can buy it by the pre-washed bag at Trader Joes, so that will be the next experiment.