Last night was originally planned to be a dinner night between the boy and me, but I had some friends in the neighborhood that I wanted to invite to dinner.
Dinner was Caesar salad and "Rigatoni with Oven Dried Cherry Tomatoes & Mascarpone" from my Vegetarian Cookbook, edited by Gina Steer. However, one of my friends is vegan, so I heated up some tuscan herb olive oil, threw in some garlic, and then put her pasta, peas, and tomatoes in there. Instead of the Caesar salad, her salad was mixed greens with blueberries, toasted almonds, and balsamic vinegar/olive oil. Sometimes I'm concerned that vegan dishes are more difficult to make, but I threw all this together alongside making the non-vegan version of dinner.
Last night was the first time I have made oven dried tomatoes, and they were super delicious! You just cut cherry or grape tomatoes in half, put the cut side up on a nonstick pan, sprinkle some sugar, salt and pepper over them, and then pop them in an oven at 275 for about 1.25 hours (I think we left ours in for closer to an hour and 25 minutes). Let them cool on the sheet, then put them in a bowl with some olive oil. Voila! Oven dried tomatoes. Toss them in with pasta or, as the cookbook mentions, put them in a sterilized jar with some crushed garlic, herbs, and olive oil, keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, and serve them as an antipasto or use in pasta again.
Additionally, I didn't make my own Caesar dressing. We decided to go with store bought Caesar dressing, but as many know, it generally has anchovies in it. Delightfully, Brianna's Home Style Asiago Caesar Dressing has no anchovies in it! Win! Saved myself a bunch of time and the dressing was pretty tasty as well.
