Risotto with corn, treating tomatoes right, Provence lunch, picking the right Pinots - includes recipes

Sunset, Sept, 1994 by Jerry Anne Di Vecchio

Every summer in Kansas, before my family trekked West, we had an amazing kitche garden. The corn, tomatoes, melons, and other foods we harvested daily made a firm imprint on my tender taste buds. My commitment to fresh foods must have been passionate, because wedged among my first memories of hot summer days is braving the prickly okra vine that towered over my 3- or 4-year-old head. I would race among the scratchy leaves to find the tiniest, tenderest okra pods, then dash through the garden sprinkler or jump into a tub of cool water to soothe the itch.

When we had a bumper crop of one thing or another, we feasted. One night it might be all the corn you could eat, another, all the tomatoes, and on it went until the garden bowed to frost.

The delicate corn risotto that Lance Dean Velasquez served last summer at Moose's Restaurant, on San Francisco's Washington Square, reminded me of those indulgent, sunny evening meals. I ordered the risotto as a starter, and the portion was generous. With the first taste, I decided this dish would be my whole meal, and as I relished the sensation of tender sweet corn kernels poppin gently with each bite, I sipped a companionable glass of Zinfandel. Corn risott is an ideal vegetarian dish if you use Lance's vegetable broth, or you can squeak by with canned vegetable broth. I often switch to chicken broth for flavor variation and convenience.

Vegetable broth. Peel and coarsely chop 1 medium-size (1/2 lb.) russet potato, large (about 1/2 lb.) onion, 1 large (about 1/4 lb.) carrot, and 1 stalk celery Put vegetables in a 3- to 4-quart pan and add 5 cups water. Cover and bring to boil over high heat; simmer gently 45 minutes. Line a strainer with 2 layers of damp cheesecloth; pour liquid through cloth into a bowl. If making ahead, cover and chill up to 3 days; freeze to store longer. Makes about 4 cups.

Per cup: 38 cal. (2.3 percent from fat); 1 g protein; 0.1 g fat (0 g sat.); 8.5 g carbo.; 12 mg sodium; 0 mg chol.

BACK TO BASICS

Tips on tomatoes

If you've ever held a ripe tomato, and many haven't, you know that it has the firm softness of a baby's cheek. A ripe tomato is juicy to bite, the flavor is as good as it gets, and the skin is ready to slip away. But if you don't treat tomatoes properly, the memorable taste and texture of ripeness will never be yours.

Keep in mind when you pick your own tomatoes, or buy them from a farm stand or at a farmers' market, that a tomato is programmed to ripen. But its potential i often thwarted permanently by misdirected good intentions. If a tomato is refrigerated (55 [degrees] or colder) before fully ripe in order to keep it "fresh," an enzyme in the tomato sends an irreversible message to the fruit to quit developing flavor. Back at room temperature, the fruit does change, and looks and feels as if it is ripening--but its texture is apt to be cottony and the taste flat. The tomato industry has campaigned long and hard to keep tomatoes out of supermarket refrigerators--and your own. But once tomatoes are ripe, you can prolong their prime state by refrigerating for a few days.

In this month of tomato abundance, some of the finer points about preparing the deserve airing:

To peel or not to peel. It's up to you, but peeling is easy and I find the skin on sliced tomatoes surprisingly tough. Immerse tomatoes in boiling water for as little as 5 or up to 15 seconds; the riper they are the less time they take. Lift out, let cool briefly, then slip off the skins.

To seed or not to seed. Seeded tomatoes don't leak as much, and if you heat the only briefly, they get less soupy. Also, some people don't like the seeds (or can't eat them). Some situations where seeded tomatoes make sense are on toast for bruschetta, in salads when you don't want the dressing diluted, in salsas that you don't want to run all over the plate, and in sauces where the tomatoes are cooked just enough to get hot. To remove seeds, cut tomatoes in half crosswise, then gently squeeze, pressing the juice and seeds from their pockets in the tomato. The pulpy mixture tastes as good as the tomato, and I often add it to commercial plain or seasoned tomato juice (such as Bloody Mary mix) to give it a fresher flavor.

One of my favorite ways to use seeded, chopped tomatoes is on a special open-faced BLT, without the bacon.

BLT bruschetta--sort of. Toast 1 slice whole-wheat bread, drizzle it with extra-virgin olive oil, and sprinkle it with cumin seed. Then lay a slice of iceberg lettuce, about as thick as the bread, on the toast. Mound chopped seede tomatoes on the lettuce, sprinkle on a few more cumin seeds, salt and pepper, and a wee bit more of the extra-virgin olive oil. It's a knife-and-fork sandwic that's curiously refreshing for lunch, snack, or breakfast.

SEASONAL NOTE

Two meals from one in Provence

For me, September doesn't come soon enough or last as long as it should. This i because it is spent in Provence in a big, two-centuries-old farmhouse we've rented with another family for a number of years. The rest of the time we leap at any opportunity to rave about our stay, and extend invitations to all who appear properly attentive. Through the years, the invitations have been accepte by many and dinner is always an adventure.