My career in food began 20 years ago, when I volunteered to assist with cooking classes at Sur la Table. It was just a few classes here and there based on my interests, which I already knew was baking at that point. One of the recipes I remember to this day is this heirloom tomato tart. I can still recall my reaction I had when I ate it. Absolutely delicious. Flaky crust, subtle tartness from the Dijon mustard and the juiciest tomatoes. This is my take on the savory tart.
I make the Original Plum Torte from Marion Burros, every summer. It’s so simple to whip up and incredibly satisfying to snack on, no wonder it has over 17,000 reviews. I like Italian plums but any stone fruit (see my apricot torte) or even berry, would work well. I did make a few small adjustments to the recipe, including using a smaller size pan (9″ instead of 10″) so the cake has a bit more depth and macerating the fruit first before placing in the batter so they get a head start on developing flavor.
I’ve always preferred eating cherries fresh, but this cherry clafoutis convinced me that they are delicious baked as well. When I worked at Williams Sonoma, we hosted a special dinner at Chef Dominique Crenn’s now-closed Petit Crenn in San Francisco. The menu was full of French classics like salade nicoise, ratatouille, and finished with a cherry clafoutis that I still remember to this day. The dinner was 6 years ago. I dug a giant spoon into the warm dish, revealing a glorious custard-y bake, dotted with the largest Bing cherries I had ever seen.
The Ina Garten flag cake is a classic patriotic dessert, perfect for Memorial Day or Fourth of July. It’s easy to decorate red, white and blue with fresh summer berries and cream cheese frosting. Her recipe is meant to feed a crowd (20-24!), but I wanted a small batch size, and found the recipe easy to halve and even quarter. I share the conversion with gram measurements for the half size here, made in a casserole dish, the perfect potluck size.
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