Goat Cheese Tomato Pita

Basically this post is just an excuse to play around with improving my food photography skills. I realize that the photos of my food up until this point have looked only minimally appetizing, so here's my attempt to step it up a notch with the new 'high quality' lights and tripod I just ordered.

After all the hours of playing around with my new toys, flashing pictures of bowls of fruit and pretty much anything I could get my hands on from the kitchen, I naturally developed a mid-afternoon snack attack. I then did what I do nearly every day when this happens - I opened the fridge and prepared one of my trusty staples, the goat cheese and tomato pita, dripping with olive oil. So why not use this hungry opportunity to test my equipment for real and post it on my blog? It's simple and tasty enough!

Here's all you need:

Half a pita bread
Plain goat cheese (feta also works well)
Sliced Tomato
Salt
Olive Oil

Toast the pita bread, then open and spread the inside with a good tablespoon of the goat cheese. Place a couple thinly sliced pieces of tomato inside, sprinkle with salt, then pour as much olive oil inside as you desire. I like mine to be pretty drippy - It's just no fun if the oil isn't running down your hands, but that's just me.

Grating Tomatoes

"What? Grate a tomato?" Yes folks, throw out your gooey canned tomato paste and grab a big juicy tomato, we're about to make some fresh tomato sauce!

For years I wondered how those fine-dining restaurants could produce such a light, 'real tomato-tasting' sauce in some of their dishes. I tried everything from finely dicing them to tossing them in the blender. Then I moved to Greece and discovered their age-old tomato grating technique. I wondered how on earth this never caught on in the rest of the world and feel I must deliver this message to the masses! I now firmly believe that all red sauces should be made fresh, no excuses, because it's just too dang easy - no boiling or broiling necessary.

To start, select the ripest tomato from the bunch as you want to extract as much juice as possible from the fruit. Next, slice the tomato in half and press the open side of one half against the wide-toothed side of a cheese grater, beginning to grate the tomato with a plate or dish underneath to catch the juice. As you can see from the pictures, all you are left with is the juice from the tomato in your dish, and the entire skin in your hand to toss out. Simple as that.



Add a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and this can be used as a base in anything from pasta to chicken to toasted bread!