These are some of the favorite harvest recipes from our members. Be careful when using these recipes as they may be habit forming!
Rossini’s Tomato Powder - Tomato powder is used at many restaurants to add some color to oil and balsamic vinegar dipping sauce.
Insure that you use only tomatoes with unblemished skin. Red, Pink or Bi-Colored are preferred to give the powder a darker appearance when added to the oil and vinegar.
- Core the tomatoes at both ends and set them in a pot on the counter.
- Pour boiling water over the tomatoes until the water completely covers them and leave them in the pot for about 15 seconds.
- Remove the tomatoes with a lifter and place them in a clean sink filled with ice water.
- Let the tomatoes sit in the sink for about 20 seconds.
- Lift them out individually and, with a serrated knife, remove all the skin from each tomato.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
- Place the tomato skins on a no stick surface and bake them for about two hours.
- Remove the skins when they are completely dried out and pulverize them in either your coffee grinder, herb grinder or food processor.
- Transfer the powder to a clean jar.
Rossini’s Red Sweet Pepper Parmesan Bread This is a delicious and colorful bread that has a somewhat nutty taste.
Ingredients:
2 cups of pepper juice
About 6 cups of flour - bread or all purpose unsifted.
1 package of fast rising active dry yeast
1/4 cup of warm water
2 tablespoons of butter
2 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
Parmesan Cheese
1. Using a juice extractor grind up your peppers until you have at least 2 cups of pepper juice.
2. In a small bowl add the yeast, 1/4 cup of lukewarm water and 1/4 teaspoon of sugar. Let this set until foamy - 10-15 minutes
3. Heat pepper juice and 2 tablespoons of butter in a small pot just until warm.
4. Combine salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 cups of flour in a large mixing bowl blending well.
5. Add pepper juice mixture and yeast mixture to the contents in the mixing bowl and beat 40-50 strokes with a rotary beater or wisk.
6. Add flour ½ cup at a time and continue to beat another 40-50 strokes.
7. Gradually add the remaining flour ½ cup at a time now using a plastic or wooden spoon. Dough is ready when it begins to pull away from the bowl. Do not add more flour than necessary.
8. Turn dough mixture out on floured surface and kneed for about 10 minutes, adding more dough if necessary, until the dough is somewhat satiny..
9. Put dough in a butter or margarine greased bowl turning once to grease top. Cover bowl with a towel and set in a warm place to rise until doubled. This could take 11/2 to 2 hours.
10. Punch down and turn out to a floured board kneading slightly to remove air bubbles.
11. Divide into two portions and shape into two ovals turning the ends over and sealing them.
12. Transfer to a lightly greased bread pans, cover, place in a warm place and let it rise again until almost doubled. This may take 45 minutes to an hour.
13. Brush a light amount of margarine on the tops of the loaves and sprinkle a generous portion of Parmesan cheese on top.
14. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Transfer bread pans to the oven and bake for about 45 minutes.
Hints: Tomato juice may be substituted for pepper juice in this recipe. Quick rising bread flour works better with bread recipes. Orange or yellow peppers can also be used for a different color effect. Black olives can be worked into the dough for a Pepper/Tomato/Black Olive/Parmesan Bread.
